Deane,

         Do you have any basis for your presumption on what is taught in
high school? Have you looked at the Virginia SOLs? If not, they are at
http://www.pen.k12.va.us/VDOE/Instruction/historysol2001.pdf and include
the civil war period in 4th grade Virginia studies, 5th grade American
history and again in high school US History. There's enough substance there
to keep kids and teachers very busy.

         As for the notion that southerners were "evil", that was not
taught even in my history class "up north" . Southerners were misguided in
their use of slaves, since free labor is better for all Americans (albeit
inconvenient to slaveholders). What was not taught "up north" were the
"evil" Jim Crow laws - I had to learn that from tv during the time of Civil
Rights activities and my subsequent move to Virginia.

         If the north had thought of southerners as "evil" either then or
now, we wouldn't have wanted so badly to keep them in the family.  The
south, after all, is only recently becoming a strong economic region
compared to the industrial states.

                                         Anne

At 10:21 PM 2/9/02 -0500, Deane wrote:

>----- Original Message -----
>From: Deane <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2002 10:17 PM
>Subject: Re: Re: eventual phasing out of slavery AND RE-UNIFICATION
>
>
> > Dear Bill,
> > I was talking about Civil War history  from within the context of pedagogy
> > and  classroom instruction.
> > Yes, there is a plethora of literature available to those who wish to do
> > independent study or pursue a particular avenue of scholarship concerning
> > aspects of  that War or simply choose to "read up" for one's own personal
> > pleasure.
> > It is highly likely, I'm sorry to say, that 100% of American high school
> > students are not being TAUGHT, in school, anything of substance about that
> > period of our history.
> > And, I will say, that what little is taught is probably grossly
> > over-simplified and can be summed up with the notion that "Southerners
>were
> > evil people who kept slaves and went to war to fight to keep their
>slaves."
> > Deane Mills
> > (one "n"; pronounced like Dean)
> >
> >
> > > > The Civil War happened and it happened for a myriad of reasons.
> > > > But no one wants to take the risk of thoroughly examining all those
> > reasons
> > > > and filtering through them  to see what was worthwhile and worth
> > salvaging
> > > > from BOTH sides of the conflict.
> > >
> > > The Civil War and Reconstruction eras are not really my primary areas of
> > > interest. I am really interested in and somewhat better equipped to deal
> > with
> > >
> > > the 17th Century. Having said that, I cannot imagine an era of history
>in
> > the
> > >
> > > U.S. - or Virginia - that has been more written about than the Civil War
> > > period. Just go into any bookstore and compare the Civil War books to,
> > say,
> > > the Revolutionary War or the Great Depression. Maybe World War II has a
> > > greater output, but it doesn't seem so to me.
> > >
> > > You want both sides? I should think that the literature in the field is
> > > filled with as many memoirs on one side as the other and as many popular
> > > histories advocating each side as the other.
> >

Anne Pemberton
[log in to unmask]

http://www.erols.com/stevepem
http://www.geocities.com/apembert45

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