teaching history

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• 9/25/2022
  

  Around the World, Censorship of Historians is Tied to Attacks on Democracy

  by Ruben Zeeman

  Teachers and researchers of history are under attack – sometimes literally – by regimes who seek to make history a foundational element of their legitimacy and authority.

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• SOURCE: The Conversation
  9/20/2022
  

  Book Bans Reflect Outdated Views on How Children Read

  by Trisha Tucker

  Research shows that children are not vessels into which books pour ideas, but co-creators of meaning as they read and process a book. Yet today's moral panic imagines books breaking down barriers between innocent childhood and a corrupt world. 

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• SOURCE: New York Review of Books
  9/17/2022
  

  Eric Foner on the Study of History and Democracy

  "I’m always interested in the connections between past and present. The questions that interest me historically tend to come out of the moment I’m living in."

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• SOURCE: Salon
  9/17/2022
  

  A Short History of Fake History, and Why We Fight for the Truth

  by Robert S. Mcelvanie

  One of the most important parts of the civil rights struggle was an interracial effort to fight against a narrative of fake history that had been institutionalized in and out of the Jim Crow South—the white supremacist mythology of the "lost cause." That legacy should guide schools today. 

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• SOURCE: NBC News
  9/12/2022
  

  The Slave Dwelling Project Pushes History of Slave Rebellions to the Public

  Joseph McGill Jr. links the history of the Stono Rebellion and subsequent slave uprisings to the current effort to suppress so-called Critical Race Theory in schools. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  9/12/2022
  

  Today's Book Bans Might be Most Dangerous Yet

  by Jonna Perrillo

  Today's book banners have broadened their attention from communist themes in textbooks and are attacking young adult literature titles that students are choosing to read, a much more significant intrusion on freedom of thought. 

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• SOURCE: Politico
  9/7/2022
  

  Miami-Dade Schools Reject Proposal for LGBTQ History Month for Fear of Violating "Don't Say Gay" Law

  Though the school board's counsel said that the proposal was likely compliant with the law, the board voted 8-1 against it largely because of the pressure of a vocal group of parents in opposition. A contingent of the Proud Boys neofascist paramilitary organization was seen outside the meeting. 

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• SOURCE: The Racket
  9/1/2022
  

  Why the Right Hates History Now

  by Jonathan M. Katz

  Conservative intellectuals like L. Brent Bozell used to claim the authority of history because the saw it as a set of texts that affirmed the right of men like them to rule. Now that the field has changed, pundits like Bret Stephens have little use for it. 

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• SOURCE: New York Review of Books
  9/5/2022
  

  The Complicity of Textbooks in America's Racism

  by Eric Foner

  Donald Yacovone is an inheritor of the legacy of WEB DuBois, slogging through the nation's history textbooks to identify the propaganda of white supremacy, says reviewer Eric Foner.

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• 9/4/2022
  

  Society and Historical Memory: Six Common Ways People Relate to the Past

  by Andrew Joseph Pegoda

  Although historians are trained to think of the past in particular and disciplined ways, understanding how people en masse understand the past is also vital because these understandings—inaccurate as they often are—are vital and embody important information about their hopes and fears.

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  9/1/2022
  

  The Danger of Encouraging Americans to Inform on Each Other

  by Christine Adams

  Governors like Virginia's Glenn Youngkin are repeating a tactic of despots throughout history: encouraging the public to denounce individuals to the authorities. Whether its witches or teachers, this is a formula for intimidation and conformity. 

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• SOURCE: NPR
  4/26/2022
  

  After 4 Decades in the Classroom, a Teacher Keeps History Alive

  "When we take out big chunks of history, that diminishment diminishes us. You know, my grandmother was a quilter. And she put scraps together into these beautiful patterns. And I feel that I'm doing that, but with history."

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• SOURCE: KCCI
  8/26/2022
  

  For One Iowa Teacher Leaving the Field, Harassment Over Curriculum Played a Big Role

  "You really start to say, 'Well, can I teach about these topics at all? Can I —if a student brings it up — do I feel comfortable addressing that in class'?"

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  8/17/2022
  

  States Curtailing Students' Access to Books, Ideas

  In many states, school librarians will be less free to recommend books, and students less free to explore them, with potentially serious consequences for educational quality and personal and intellectual growth, experts argue. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  8/25/2022
  

  The Virginia History that Conservatives are Suppressing

  by Kevin M. Levin

  Conservatives appointed by Glenn Youngkin to the state Board of Education are ignoring the important history of the Readjusters—a biracial party that governed in the tumultuous era between the end of Reconstruction and the consolidation of Jim Crow. Students need to know about them. 

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• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  8/22/2022
  

  Our Civics Education Can't Fight These Threats to Democracy

  by Eric Mlyn

  Educational institutions are already "politicized" by organized attacks by an authoritarian movement. They need to set aside the fear of controversy and assert themselves as defenders of democracy. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  8/15/2022
  

  The Context of the New History Wars is Our Missing Sense of a Shared Past

  by Jonathan Zimmerman

  Grievances over secular issues like teaching racism have replaced Christian concerns over evolution and prayer in the battles over curriculum. Have advocates of progressive curricula opened the door to this attack by undermining a shared national historical narrative? 

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• SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
  8/14/2022
  

  If American History Needs Heroes, Why Aren't We Teaching about the Abolitionists?

  by Stephanie Coontz

  Those who feel discomfort over studying the history of abolitionism do so because of their refusal to build on the work of an interracial group of American visionaries. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  8/8/2022
  

  VA Governor Youngkin Faces Second Lawsuit over Tattle-On-A-Teacher Line

  A suit filed by American Oversight seeks information from the governor's office about how it has used information from a tip line set up to allow Virginians to report teachers who raised "divisive" concepts in their classes. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  8/9/2022
  

  Fighting Back Against Book Banners

  by Margaret Sullivan

  Attempts to ban books from public libraries are a threat to democratic culture and should alarm all Americans, argues Post columnist Margaret Sullivan.