Whose are told and whose remain in the margins?
As my dad once told me and was also mentioned in the reading, “history is always written by the winners”. When I first heard this statement I don’t think I fully comprehended what my dad was trying to explain. In my head, I figured... Well duh, but it is the truth always right? As I get older and educate myself but am also educated by those around me and the courses I now take in college, I realize that I could not have been further from the truth. But how do we fix that and who is at fault? As children, I think it is rare for us to go out of our way to learn further than what we are taught and what we experience on our own. Thankfully I had a window into my culture as a Latina, my parents always made sure I knew our history and where we come from. But within the school, all I knew was the stories and experiences of historical figures who were for the most part old white men. Back in grade school, I could tell you all about the founding fathers and their achievements. But I could not tell you about their wives who played a part, or the countless immigrants that helped them achieve what they are famously recognized for. Or when learning about wars like the Vietnam War, I understand that there are certain violent topics that will have to wait until the students are older, but why keep them from learning about the very real experiences that Vietnamese civilians had to face? In school, we cannot force certain opinions on students but different cultures and their experiences remain a fact, not an opinion. And our students deserve all the facts, otherwise, we are sending them into a world to be blindsided. I hope in the future we can begin to tell everyone's story rather than just the “winners”.
Hey Bella! I completely agree with you! Of course, it’s important for children to learn about all of the famous historical figures and their achievements, but what about the not so famous people? They’re just as or in some cases even more important to the achievement. Because everyone comes from a different background, everyone is going to have a different opinion on who they feel is the “most important” to teach kids about. But I think regardless of our backgrounds, I think we can all agree that there is more to history then the famous old white men in the spotlight. Growing up in a white, Christian household going to a private school, you could say my childhood wasn’t very diverse. But I pride myself on not letting myself be blind to reality. Your perspective on this is so true and something we should all be so much more aware of.
ReplyDeleteThat is so true! We totally need to talk about everyone's history including the not-so-famous people. I love your perspective.
DeleteHey Bella, I completely agree with what you said in your post. I have also heard that phrase about history being taught from the winners but not until later on in life and I think it was actually by one of my history teachers as they were trying to advise us to take certain history textbooks with a grain of salt. I really relate to your point about not comprehending this concept until later because as children we don't think to question what we are learning about in school. School is just the facts at that age. However, as we get older we (hopefully) start to become more aware that the people American society and schools glamorize are not actually good people and that the way history played out was not what we originally thought it was. In order to counteract this I agree that we need to do some reform about what we teach in the classroom and start being more real about the oppression people faced in an age appropriate way.
ReplyDeleteHello! I think the best advice we can have is what your teacher said, to take everything with a grain of salt. I was recently told by my history professor to simply question everything and it made me realize how little I do that. Thank you for your comment!
DeleteHi Bella, I really enjoyed reading your blog this week about margins and how they are created. I completely agree with you about how you believe that children need to learn about the past and all the events and people that helped take part in our history that changed the world we live in today. However, there are problems in the classroom because some people believe that some events and people are either more important or less important than others. This makes it difficult because since everyone has their own opinion about history it can cause miscommunication and cause children to get the wrong impression of the past and learn things the wrong way. Since children are learning about history it is hard for them to know what is right and what is wrong. I agree with you on how we need to change the way we teach history in our classrooms because our students deserve to know all about history and its importance. Great job on your blog!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment! You are right it is difficult to pick and choose which events to cover. It will be interesting to see how we navigate that when we become educators.
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