One of the reasons our children do not measure up academically to children in other countries is that so much time is spent in American classrooms twisting our history for ideological purposes.
"How would you feel if you were a Native American who saw the European invaders taking away your land?" is the kind of question our children are likely to be confronted with in our schools. It is a classic example of trying to look at the past with the assumptions -- and the ignorance -- of the present.
One of the things we take for granted today is that it is wrong to take other people's land by force. Neither American Indians nor the European invaders believed that.
Both took other people's land by force -- as did Asians, Africans and others. The Indians no doubt regretted losing so many battles. But that is wholly different from saying that they thought battles were the wrong way to settle ownership of land.
Today's child cannot possibly put himself or herself in the mindset of Indians centuries ago, without infinitely more knowledge of history than our schools have ever taught.
Nor is understanding history the purpose of such questions. The purpose is to score points against Western society. In short, propaganda has replaced education as the goal of too many "educators."
Schools are not the only institutions that twist history to score ideological points. "Never Forget That They Owned Lots of Slaves" is the huge headline across the front page of the New York Times' book review section in its December 14th issue. Inside is an indictment of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
Of all the tragic facts about the history of slavery, the most astonishing to an American today is that, although slavery was a worldwide institution for thousands of years, nowhere in the world was slavery a controversial issue prior to the 18th century.
More from Dr. Sowell here
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
2 comments:
In the mid-late 1600s when this country was being settled, people would be given large tracts of land (forested, wild) to be put under cultivation within a pretty short period of time or they would lose it. You couldn't hire that work out. There was nobody to do it.
At that point in history, blacks were considered less than human. That was almost universally accepted as a fact. And once slaves were brought to America and put to work, it was ILLEGAL to set them free. There were severe penalties for doing that.
Some folks (like my gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-grandfather and his family) wanted to help the slaves, and they would buy as many as they were able to, in order to provide them with a better existence. They treated them very well.. much like family.
The mindset was much different then, compared to now, and it is wrong to judge their actions by our current standards. They were operating under the conditions and laws that affected them then.
Yes, my ancestors owned slaves. But I feel zero guilt about it. None. They did the best they could under those circumstances.
And I don't owe anybody anything from that.
Slavery has a new name. It's called honeydews.
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