Beware of "What You're Not Taught in Schools"

As a history teacher in a private school, I will be the first to issue a warning to parents that what is taught in public schools is politically manipulated and constantly changing to be more in tune with today's political bias.  Recognizing this fact, I am often sharing stories and facts that are not taught in the majority of public schools.  It is quite easy to compare history books of various generations to illustrate the changing nature of how history is viewed and taught to the masses.  It is skewed by the political opinions prevalent in the hearts and minds of the editors of the day, which often reflect a majority agreement from the general citizens of each county, state, and the country.  Religious motivation and influence has been all but expunged from the history of the Revolution.  Founding Fathers are no longer held in high esteem, rather they are viewed as naive but hopeful idealists whose sins often garner more attention than their accomplishments.  The very term "Founding Fathers" is no longer used in public curriculum, as it has been deemed too religious and too sexist, so the more appropriate and secular term "Founding Figures" has been inserted in its place.  In sum, I view the treatment of history in public education as utterly appalling.  It does not represent an avenue to the truth, nor teach the skills to pursue that endeavor.  Rather, it has become a tool to "retune" our vision of the past to simply harmonize it with the political ideologies of today.  My views of this are so strong that I use language to match my passion, and to put it bluntly, I believe history has been raped by political correctness and people's modern day motives of enforcing social justice on the history books.  I use this language because I believe history has been violated and used by people who seek only to satisfy their own interpretation of history without any regard for the truth.  History is often used, selfishly, to satisfy someone's appetite of pride at bolstering their own perceptions of history to build their ego, vanity, and desire to be right.

Now, having plainly stated my position, I wish to issue a warning for the very position I just espoused--you must also be leery of the slogan "what you're not taught in schools."  While many truths that should be taught in schools are not, many falsehoods that are not taught in schools are not taught there for a good reason, because they are representative of distorted history, inaccuracies, or outright falsehoods.  Every year, books are released that somehow utilize the slogan "what you're not taught in schools" as a tagline, promotional point, or even part of the title.  Some of these books strive to sift through the distortions of the present to arrive at a truthful presentation of the contemporary facts concerning certain individuals or events.  Others, however, commit the same sin as "the establishment," but simply in the other direction.  They try to fight against the political correctness invading our history curriculum by presenting an equally filtered and distorted version of events in the extreme.  Often, the authors of these books hold their own political views as their standard against which history is measured rather than the goal of understanding these events from a contemporary perspective and in light of contemporary circumstances without the filter of hindsight or through the lens of modern political ideologies.

Recently, I have read several books that are proud of the fact that they present material not taught in schools.  They seem to relish the idea, as if the fact that they utilize material not found in public education somehow bestows those facts with an automatic degree of validity, importance, and truth.  Frankly, many of the ideas are not taught in schools for good reason--and those same reasons lead me to state that they shouldn't be taught period!  Some of them are written to appeal to extreme convictions held by solid minority groups in the country.  While their arguments are full of emotionally charged applause lines, they are often conspicuously lacking in facts.  When facts are presented, they are used to support claims so wild, bold, and far fetched that no reasonable individual could actually support their claims.  One such claim, that is practically comical in its near absurdity, declared that every individual who died as a result of military conflict in the 20th century should have inscribed on their headstone that "I was killed by the United States of America."  The claim was that due to America's foreign policy, she alone bore responsibility for every death that occurred during both World War's, including the holocaust, and every other political conflict of the 20th century.  Such a claim is ludicrous and quite egotistical.  Is America the only sovereign nation whose actions actually influence the other countries in the world?  And is every other government really just sitting around, waiting for America to do something so that they can respond to it?  Is everything that every other government does directly influenced and controlled by the actions of the United States of America?  I think not.

Another recent example came from a similar book which made wildly absurd claims.  In virtually every chapter of the book, it used the phrase repeatedly that "this IS what you're being taught in schools."  Virtually every page was full of declarations that this IS what is being taught generally.  Oddly, despite my many years teaching history AND taking history courses, I had actually never come across the wild ideas that this author was boldly declaring "this is what is being taught in our schools today."  Despite his extravagant claims, I found none of them to be grounded in reality.  I couldn't help but laugh whenever I encountered another idea that the author held up as an example of the lies being perpetuated in schools...because I had never encountered them! Now I'm not trying to be egotistical myself and declare I am familiar with every history curriculum in our country, but this individual DID claim that he was debunking myths that ARE generally taught, pervasively, in all districts and states in the country.  As a curriculum developer of history curriculum, I am sure I would have at least encountered one or two of his claims as I sifted through many different curriculum's from across the country.

So, while the history curriculum is indeed being changed, warped, and distorted to serve people's present day political agendas, don't buy into every "what's not taught in schools" argument simply because it may cater to your own personal beliefs.  Always analyze the author's claims compared to all available evidence, and NOT merely the evidence they provide.  That is all too convenient, is it not?  I'm sure that their evidences have been carefully selected to strengthen their argument.  Seek your own verification from other sources, and even check out their own sources in the end notes.  If they use primary source quotes, go to the actual quote and read the longer and entire version.  What statements did they leave out?  Surprisingly, many of these books don't even HAVE footnotes or endnotes.  Those authors, in my view, have just dug their own grave.  Trust, but verify.  I trust authors to be honest, but not when I can't verify what they've said.  Seek truth, but do so from many sources.  More often than not, the truth will manifest itself only after a well rounded, extended study of many sources, sought with the right attitude and a desire to seek truth with an open mind.