Mis-Education

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. -- Mark Twain
It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter lies in the depth, where few are willing to search for it. -- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Who will know now what I know about you now that history's a flowery cancerous mess!
-- Rage Against The Machine, "Tire Me"
Mis-education; no, its not a new beauty pageant participant, it is the state of being taught wrong. This is all to pervasive in todays Elementary and High Schools. Especially in the field of U.S. History, but also other subjective studies.You normally don't find this in what I call the "concrete sciences." These are sciences where the majority of the facts are universal and known. With this page I intend to dispel some of the modern myths these subjective classes and textbooks have created and provide the truth. Also, there are some old myths in here. After all, the concrete sciences started out as a subjective study.
There are a few key ideas to understand. One is cultural relativity, one can not study a culture on their terms. You must study a culture based on its own terms. Another is the concept of a cultural vacuum, these DO NOT exist. Everyone exists within a culture, and therefore, no matter how hard they try to be subjective, true 100% subjectivity can never be reached. There will always be elements of the observers culture in their study. The final concept is knowledge production. There are people, like textbook companies, who control what is learned, especially by students. These people, who can't be in a cultural vacuum, entangle their own cultural ideals into the subject matter.
These constancies cannot be avoided, the trick is to recognize them.

This book (from her on Lies...)by James Loewen has become my bible on the subject. It is a very well researched and written book with high recommendations. I suggest to anyone with an inkling of interest in "American" History, read this first. You can order it now on amazon.com for only $12.00.

Pick a subject:

~"American" History            ~History Of The Rest Of The World            ~Other

  Presidential Exploits                   Colonialism                      Evolution

  Native Expulsion                        Foreign Wars                  Plate Tectonics

  Over 100 Wars On US Soil                   Iron

  The Real "American" Heroes         Justify Those Who Died

Links

~"American" History~
Presidential Exploits -
Not all of our presidents were as morally upright as the history texts portray them,

George Washington: The proclaimed "Father Of Our Country", fighter of (white)freedom and protecter of (white)liberty. This liberty professed in our constitution which he signed exclaiming "all men are created equal," apparently African Americans were not among those "men." President Washington was the owner of many African captives. His attitude towards Native Americans was even more atrocious. While leading in the French and Indian Wars, General Washington fought for the British Colonies with Native Americans against the French. During this period he held positive views of Natives, yet after releasing the Ohio War in 1790 he remarked that the Ohio Natives were "having nothing human except shape." (Loewen,p125)
Furthermore, Washington received aid from the country of Haiti during the revolution. In return Washington loaned the French hundreds of thousands of dollars to suppress native Haitians.
Woodrow Wilson: Wilson was not a closet racist, he was very blunt about his racial discrimination. He promptly removed all African-Americans from appointed positions and segregated them from the whites.

Native Expulsion -
By the time Europeans established a permanent settlement in the Americas, most of the millions of Native Americans were already wiped out from the diseases left by Europeans from earlier temporary explorations. When the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620, they commented on a nearly uninhabited wilderness. In fact, three years before the Pilgrims even got there, 90-96% of coastal New England Native Americans had already fallen to disease.
Over 100 Wars On US Soil -
The Real "American" Heroes -

~History Of The Rest Of The World~
Colonialism -
Foreign Wars -
Iron -
Justify Those Who Died -

~Other~
Evolution -
Plate Tectonics -

~Links~ Something Has Gone Very Wrong, the Lies... homepage, take the quiz Letter regarding the Mis-Education in the Black Communities Grover Furr's Politics and Social Issues Page, includes excerpts from Lies... Responses to and discussions of Lies...

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