History textbooks and mainstream scholarship tend to focus on the usable past rather than presenting the historic record truthfully. The past becomes usable when writers of history choose to include or omit certain events and people in order to mesh with a modern political agenda.
The question, then, is not what did you learn in school, but rather how were you taught? Were you required to memorize or encouraged to think? Did your teachers demand you to know or invite you to experience? Ultimately, the goal of education should not be to engender loyalist, patriotic nationalism. The purpose of education should be to encourage informed, patriotic or not, activism.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
