Gregg,
I grew up in Pennsylvania, which was another colony and a whole other
set of weirdnesses ...
I was fascinated to read some of the "primary documents" on both
Plymouth and Jamestown ... and notice the specific weirdnesses to each.
All regions have a mythology used to teach their children .... some
become national classics, like Paul Revere's Ride, and the Battle of New
Orleans.
Washington's Cherry Tree has fallen into disfavor.
Get it all out there. Available as needed. Educators can then chart
paths or encourage discovery ... There is an online tool called Primary
Access that encourages comparison of primary documents ... but, are
there enough primary documents to paint an accurate picture??? And is
there enough information to flesh out any Chapter 12 ???
I find that websites of historical sites are often good sources of links
suitable for K-12. National Park sites are generally less useful.
I've found an interesting historical map concept that shows affected
areas on maps --- slides that do a slide show over time, showing changes
over time. But, such things are subject to bias. Perhaps folks in
geography could buddy up with techies, and make an accurate learning
tool .... complete with bibliography and pop-up foot notes ...
Anne
On 3/22/2012 10:53 AM, Kimball, Gregg (LVA) wrote:
> I grew up in New England, and there is just as much bad history there
> based on poor textbooks and local myth as in the South. A prime example
> is the fact that just about every town in upstate New England used to
> claim a house that was a stop on Underground Railroad, which is
> obviously logistically and historically preposterous. For quite some
> time the New Englanders ruled the day in terms of teaching American
> history through the lens of 1620. Now we all know thanks to Jack Green
> and others that the Puritans were off the charts weird and Plymouth
> pretty much unlike any other North American colony. In my experience,
> the "revisionist" problem is also widespread.
>
> I do agree that textbooks might profitably be replaced by the analytical
> examination of actual documents and more dynamic means of exploring the
> past.
>
> Gregg
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Anne Pemberton
> Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 10:27 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Civil War and Textbooks
>
> An observation on what sounds like an interesting article:
>
> As I chat with diverse people on Facebook, I run into those educated "in
>
> the south", who were clearly the product of bad textbooks! And it is
> interesting that they all graduated armed with the firm belief that
> anything contrary is "revisionist" and to be dismissed.
>
> I would like to see textbooks replaced by use of online sources for
> information. Instead of doing Chapter 12, students could study, label,
> and rank the Founding Fathers. Seems the Internet could be a means of
> giving students access to the "best in their field" ...
>
> Anne
>
>
>
> On 3/21/2012 2:55 PM, Tarter, Brent (LVA) wrote:
>> I have just received a copy of the current issue of Civil War History
>> that contains a very interesting article by Carol Sheriff, "Virginia's
>> Embattled Textbooks: Lessons (Learned and Not) from the Centennial
> Era,"
>> Civil War History 58 (March 2012): 37-74. A professor at the College
> of
>> William and Mary, Sheriff (with the aid of her daughter) brought to
>> public attention in the autumn of 2010 the fourth grade Virginia
> history
>> book that contained a great many factual and interpretive errors,
>> leading ultimately to the removal of the textbook from the state's
> list
>> of approved texts.
>>
>> Looking for reasons why that book was defective led Sheriff to the
>> records of the Virginia State Textbook Commission that oversaw the
>> publication of three standard Virginia textbooks during the 1950s,
> books
>> that were controversial in their time and were withdrawn during the
>> 1970s. Sheriff's article traces how the state's ham-fisted attempt to
>> dictate the contents of textbooks in the 1950s ultimately left the
> field
>> wide open for publishers to issue textbooks without proper vetting for
>> accuracy or reliance on the best available scholarship.
>>
>> It is fascinating reading, which I highly recommend to everybody, not
>> only to people who have a particular interest in the Civil War period,
>> because the article is not about that, only, or even chiefly. It is
>> about textbooks and education.
>>
>> Brent Tarter
>> The Library of Virginia
>> [log in to unmask]
>>
>> Please visit the Library of Virginia's Web site at
>> http://www.lva.virginia.gov
>>
>>
>> ______________________________________
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>
--
Anne Pemberton
[log in to unmask]
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org
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