To Mike about Hindu Parents Challenge California Textbooks

[Guest guest]

Mike wrote:

 

Two groups are

demanding revisions, claiming that some history texts

shortchange the Hindu culture. The case raises

questions of how far the state should go to

accommodate these groups and others with complaints.

 

 

 

Dear Mike ~ typically, U.S. history books have shortchanged many peoples

who helped build this country or who were harmed in some way by the English

invasion. If we were lucky we heard about Benjamin Booker (I think), the black

scientist who invented all the many ways to use peanuts. The "safe" examples

were there, but mostly people of color, people of different cultures and women

were pretty much left out of history. In the 1980's this was part of what

led to the "deconstruction" movement that spread across universities throughout

the U.S. The deconstruction movement led to some significant recognitions tha

t were brought into the light, books were written, etc. Of course, this

multiculturalism movement tried to make its way into the public schools, but

was

largely thwarted.

 

How far should these people go: textbook writers, school boards, people who

make decisions about schools and what our children will learn, etc.? I believe

they should go as far as it takes to make history books a real reflection of

the history and of the truth, which includes the contributions, and

sometimes the mistreatment of other groups. When anyone asks the question, why

study

history?, the answer is usually something like, so we won't make the same

mistakes.

 

A great deal of what we know as "history" is really about who got to write

it. As an artist with a minor in Art History, I know this is true. There were

3 or 4 "safe" women artists that were referenced ... it wasn't until I took a

feminist art history course that I learned how many women artists had been

left out of the history books, how significant their contributions were

regarded in their own time, and the struggles they had to go through just to do

their art. If this is true of just one area of history, how much broader is it

when the paint brush is the one that incudes "American History?"

 

I did go and listen to the NPR clip, and I do agree with the person

interviewed who said we should not look at past practices through the lens of

modern

understanding. Specifically, the one example I listened to had to do with the

rights of women in ancient India. I don't think this should be whitewashed,

anymore than I think the truth about how women were treated in western

society should be whitewashed. Legally, in British Law and in the American

Legal

System, for a very long time, women were regarded as property of their

husbands. We all know what this led to. So women, and some men, rose up and

changed

it, and we are still trying to change it (okay, it's great for a woman to be a

stay-at-home mother, and it's great for a woman to have a career, and it's

great for a man to be a stay-at-home parent, and it's great for a man to have

a career ... sheesh). Just tell the "truth" as best as we know it and teach

children to think creatively and critically so they may make their own and

better decisions as they grow up.

 

Ho ~ Linda