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
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http://www.educationalsynthesis.org
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