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Why I'm Not A History Teacher
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Why I'm Not A History Teacher |
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Huan Yi Member Ascendant
since 2004-10-12
Posts 6688Waukegan 
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. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12/22/white-house-fires-times-housing-meltdown-story/ . |
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| © Copyright 2008 John Pawlik - All Rights Reserved | |||
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Bob K Member Elite
since 2007-11-03
Posts 4208 |
But, Huan Yi, you haven't even tried to answer your own question. You've given us a single source article about another article that isn't really quoted. The Fox article does let us know that the New York times article was properly researched with large numbers of on the record sources that have backed up their statements with their names. The Fox article gives far more space to to counter statements given by the President's spokesperson. It lets us wonder how much of this response was given to and printed by The Times, which routinely asks for comment about such things. If you were a history teacher, you would, of course, have to be familiar with and understanding of both sides of the issue. Not Simply The Fox News version, otherwise you would be unable to offer much of an historical perspective on the the conversation not only about the banking and economic crisis, but about the nature of the left-right dialogue from which this crisis emerges. You would have to come to grips with the relationship that both sides of the ideological divide have with the press, and the validity that there is or is not inherent in each position. I don't know that the best historians are apolitical, but an historian who tries to understand everything with some sympathy, seems to casts a brighter light on events. You can hate Hitler — I do, though I grew up around some folk that thought the man was a great man, and had been unjustly vilified — but unless you understand him and his milieu with some sympathy, you've done nothing to prevent such a thing from happening again. The Versailles Treaty, war reparations and so on went a long way toward creating a lot of the hostility the bloomed into WWII twenty years later. We learned enough to do things differently after WWII. Though there were other reasons as well. Nor is it a bad think to try to think like a history teacher rather than a political partisan, and try to see things from both sides (or many sides), and to get some notion about how everybody is busy in the common project of constructing of creating together a common history. It's sad that Presidents so often gain that perspective when they're leaving office, and don't have it while they're going through it. I think doing so changes the world around you by filling it with with folks who are, intentionally or not, your allies rather than your adversaries. If you can choose this sort of world to live in — and I believe you can, because the change is purely personal and internal — then you can add something by your presence. This is one of the reasons why the study of history is not a waste of time, and why we should study it in school, and why we should continue to study it as adults. And why we should each teach history after our fashion, if we can achieve that perspective at least sometimes in our own lives. I hope my contribution was worth your time. Sincerely, Bob Kaven |
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Marc-Andre Senior Member
since 2008-12-07
Posts 501 |
That's the kind of article that makes me want to be a history teacher. Someone ought to research, analyze and then set the record straight. I won't comment on the story; I've got my own idea, but I can't profess I know the issue in depth. I'm just one of those poor lads that hope Americans get the best of education and then consider the rest of us when they inflict (elect) on us a president whose policies and actions will affect us all. Mark |
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Huan Yi Member Ascendant
since 2004-10-12
Posts 6688Waukegan |
. http://www.nypost.com/seven/12232008/postopinion/opedcolumnists/mortgage_malarkey_145528.htm . |
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Bob K Member Elite
since 2007-11-03
Posts 4208 |
Dear Huan Yi, I've put myself and my own point of view out for you and others to see. No response from you. What I've gotten is two articles from right wing sources. No comment from you, no opinions from you, no risk by you in sharing your own thoughts. My usual policy is to keep with neutral political opinion and straightforward facts. Here I make an exception. The facts are still straightforward, but the opinion is left wing. If anybody finds that a reason to not read the link, please stop here, though I suggest to you that the viewpoints will be different and interesting. http://mediamatters.org/items/200810100022?f=s_search Sincerely, Bob Kaven |
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Huan Yi Member Ascendant
since 2004-10-12
Posts 6688Waukegan |
. Racing The Enemy “Revisionist Rubbish” Wholly agree . . . The idea that Truman while wanting to end the war before Stalin's Soviet Union entered yet deliberately crafted the Potsdam Proclamation in such a way it would be rejected by the Japanese so he could then use the atom bomb, (for reasons unexplained), is not history but, (beyond logical absurdity), obscenity. . [This message has been edited by Huan Yi (01-04-2009 04:09 AM).] |
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Bob K Member Elite
since 2007-11-03
Posts 4208 |
Dear Huan Yi, I just returned from time in upstate New York. I found your posting on Truman and the A-Bomb. This is a subject of some interest to me, but not one I have raised here, where we were talking about economics, and where I had gotten annoyed enough at not getting a response from you that I actually left a link to a left wing source. I usually avoid doing so; but you have never taken me up on my offer, that I can remember, to quote a neutral news source. I thought I would follow your lead. I am completely puzzled by the connection of your response to the topic you raised at to which I was attempting to respond. Perhaps you could find some way of clarifying that connection for me? Or somebody else could? Sincerely, Bob Kaven |
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oceanvu2 Senior Member
since 2007-02-24
Posts 1066Santa Monica, California, USA |
Hi John! I'm not a History teacher either, because almost all history is based on self serving lies or dumbed down to the point of hurtful elimination and absurdity. I read, because this subject area interests me, 11 basically "History of the World." not "American History" textbooks meant for Jr. High school students. I wanted to find one which to mind was generally "accurate," my standard did not involve "ALL inclusive." Puke city. Only one text devoted 4 paragraphs to the subcontinent of India, and a different one had four pages on China. All were published between 2004 and 2007, so I assume these are indicative of what is being taught NOW. Just making a perhaps incorrect extention: If our children graduate from high school as Historically unimformed idiots, it is because we TEACH them uninformed idiocy. I wouldn't want to do that to anybody either. Best, Jimbeaux  |
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