Re: thanks for the new Nazi Youth -- Unofficial Chris Cornell Forum

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, [6], 7, 8, 9, 10 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 17:26:00 03/08/06 Wed
Author: amadaun
Subject: Re: thanks for the new Nazi Youth
In reply to: GarlicSoul 's message, "thanks for the new Nazi Youth" on 11:13:17 03/03/06 Fri

'They are verifiable facts, though, even though they don't flatter our government.'

The truth hurts.
I don't think many people want to confront the reality of modern America. And obviously, don't want their kids to know about it either.
Much safer to keep the status quo, and believe that America is doing good in the world.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[> Re: thanks for the new Nazi Youth -- chrys, 19:39:16 03/08/06 Wed [1]

i guess i don't understand why a 10th grader would be learning the basic names and places? maybe my school systems were all different (i went to elementary school outside buffalo, and middle and HS in new jersey), but we learned all the basic stuff before HS. history facts were drilled into our heads from early on, along with my country tis of thee and other little songs like that. in fourth grade we had to learn state history and do reports (small ones) and make longhouses in art class and learn about the iroquios (whatever way i spell it, it doesn't look right). in fifth and sixth we did more in depth US history, i can still see the cover of the history book, with buffalo grazing on the plains. i think it was called american adventures. in seventh and eighth we did world cultures, had to learn about the customs and religions and whatnot of all different regions of the world.

like i said earlier, ninth was world history, and the last three yrs of HS were more in depth US history. by that time, we already had the very basics like columbus and the major wars from elementary school on. we also had current events all throughout this. in elementary school, it was weekly reader. in middle school, junior scholastic. in HS, we had to read the papers and read newsweek. so there was always a current events side of things. by soph year when we went into world history much more in depth, we had the basics, we weren't learning just names and places anymore. there was some reinforcing sure, and more detail, but it was mostly really digging in depth, getting into those primary sources, having debates.

also, in those three years of HS history, we had to have one semester of govt, and one semester of economics. you cannot get into these subjects without talking about politics. again no one had to push a political agenda, but oftentimes we did look at different viewpoints, and sometimes teachers did say really provocative things (on any side of a coin) in order to shake us up and get us thinking. one of our assignments was to read this book of all different economic philosophers and then write a paper about two of them. there is no way to separate economic theory from politics and political opinion. also if you go back and you read speeches and you study the suffrage mvement, or you discuss whether pearl harbor was possibly planned (which we discussed in eleventh grade), or talk about possibly rigged elections (in the past), you're going to touch on politics. if you discuss current events at all, you're going to discuss politics.

and no i don't think a HS teacher would run around waving a flag and saying yay USA, (though i'm sure it happens), but i think the set of facts that they teach are specifically tailored to make the US look like a hero. you don't have to read a HS US history textbook very far to get that impression. so i think it's subtle, but i think most teachers, unless they consciously try to teach outside of hte textbook and bring in other things, make up exercises that will talk about issues from a different perspective, you get a teacher who basically teaches that the US is right, that our wars are right, that there aren't any dead innocent germans, that we've never committed genocide, that we are morally superior to every other country. it's just more insidious and expected, more status quo.

and i still think you can't just leave politics to a parent. for one thing, by the time a kid is thirteen or fourteen, they're going to be wanting to be thinking of things differently than their parents. their parents are lame no matter what they do or think, when a kid is that age, traditionally and the child is starting to really think on their own and develop their own ideologies. also i think part of the point of discussing these things in the classroom is to discuss it with their peers. parents of any kid have their own biases, as do teachers, and the purpose of discussing things in class, is to get ideas outside of just one set passed down again and again. like i pointed out earlier, these "kids" are going to vote by the time they graduate, and they should be informed.

i would have loved a teacher like that. i would have loved any teachers that made me think, especially about things that shape our world everyday. after a lecture like that, i would have been interested to know about columbia and hugo chavez, etc. and again, i don't think the kids are clueless. those mags, junior scholastic and etc, would always have us look at iraq, yugoslavia, the middle east. also if the student has watched tv and heard about pat robertson... plus what about when you get to economics? or discuss the fifties and the communist scare situation? you have to talk about capitalism as a system and what its effects are.

if politics had been left to my parents, i would've been completely in the dark. there were four things we weren't allowed to talk about in my house: religion (in any form), sex, drugs and death. that last one meant we couldnt' talk about the OJ trial or the gulf war. or anything else significant. my mom just hates it, it's too unpleasant. and that also cancels out any meaningful discussion of the conflict in the middle east, women's reproductive rights, the war in iraq. and we ca't think anything bad about the patriot act b/c of my dad's job (that was the first real political fight my mom and i ever had, and she didn't even want to discuss that, she cut it off). and again there are so many parents who are apathetic, or completely fanatical about whatever political view, or simply uninformed. you can encounter that in school too, but you're sorta paying that teacher to have some sort of background, or to at least assign you pages in the textbook and articles in junior scholastic.

[ Post a Reply to This Message ]
[ Edit | View ]