History, a controversial subject !

So here we go again.  Teachers and students in Denver Colorado are protesting over a newly proposed history program.  This history program would focus on the positive side of US history such as patriotism, free world market, following authority, obeying laws and good citizenship. 

This is directly opposite of the history approach where we no longer teach about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson or Ben Franklin. The current history program focuses on things like the civil war being about slavery( it was about states rights, slavery was just one issue within that)  The current history program wants to focus heavily on the civil rights and the women's movement and focus on how awful the founding father's were.

So which approach is better?  I say neither.  What should be happening is that students should be taught to be good citizens.  They should be taught self-government and how our government works. Outside that students should be taught history as it happened without bias.  Both the good and the bad in history should be taught so that the kids can learn from the negative as well as the positive.

There is a saying that those who do not learn their history are doomed to repeat  it.  History should be taught as a whole through time periods and not focus on region.  History should be taught that during this time period these things were happening.  By doing time periods and showing what was happening all over that world at that time then it puts history in perspective.  It shows how events effect all parts of the world at one time.  Government studies should be done by showing how each form of government worked throughout historical events by using facts and not opinions. 

How do we do this?  We teach about the revolutionary war period by showing what was happening in each type of government in the world at the time.  What was happening in Spain, France, The middle east, Africa, Great Britain and the British colonies all over.  That puts the revolutionary war in context with the rest of the world at the time.  By looking at the rise and fall of governments throughout history in the context of the rest of the world at the same time a pattern develops as to why certain forms of government fail. By learning that we can learn from those failures and not repeat those mistakes.

So go ahead and protest the proposed history curriculum, but until history is taught factually and without bias then whatever form it takes will be one sided and warped.