History classes on the US

[Subcomandante Marcos]

I'm wondering, for thos of you that live in the US andhave/had classes of history on either a private or a State school.

What do they teah you? Do you see things as the Cuban Revolution? Latina America Statu quo? Russian Revolution? US intervension on international affairs?if so, on what perspective? Do you get brain washed? are there any socialist teachers or a reaganist? What about the mexican war, any Zapata ? Sandino? Farabundo Marti? Salvador Allende? FARC-EP? EZLN? 17N? Chechenian Separaist? Marx?

lets see what the State teachse its kids.

[Jesus Christ]

you have a totally wrong misconseption about US education
it is american influenced, but not brainwashing

in the US you usually learn about the American Revolution, the American Civil War, World War I & II, Cold War, ancient civilizations, and a tiny tiny bit about the Cuban revolution and the USSR
and from my experience, what they taught us about the USSR and the Cuban Revolution was not biased at all
it did not establish Castro as a bloodthirsty communist, and Lenin was not portrayed that way either
its not biased what they put in the textbooks(mine at least), its the person teaching you who is biased here
but its the same throughout the entire world
everyone is biased to their liking, all over the world

[Finality]

In Canada we are taught about the personality and what the motivations were behind their actions. It was quite interesting actually.

[EneME]

Yeah..I dont remember ever being taught about American foreign policy, only as far as their involvements in the wars. We aren't ever really taught that we lost the Vietnam war either...not that I remember at least. (bad memory so i could be wrong) Mostly it's about the American Revolution, George Washington, and the different era's in the USA. Like the Industrial Revolution, when women got the right to vote. Mostly just interior stuff....but also it was sort of unbiased, just the facts.
Also it depends on the teachers...I went to school in the San Francisco bay area so we learned alot about Ghandi and international history, but it wasn't in the books. It was purely lecture...

[Subcomandante Marcos]

I tried to answer your thread question on history in the US. Unfortunately, Malte has restricted me to Opposing Ideologies.

You can post this yourself if you want, I can't.

History classes in America are not in depth, they do not discuss any of the things you mentioned. They skim over the Cuban Missile Crisis, mention Stalin making a deal with Hitler, make Andrew Jackson out to be a hero and ...dun dun.

[Xvall]

Maybe not for Primus. For me it was brainwashing. They didn't even bother to mention that Colombus slaughtered the Native Americans. They used the 'melting pot' excuse. They teach us that communism is an evil form of tyranny, and that the government is always right. At my schools, anyways.

[Bolschewik]

My school is full of leftist educators, so our history course is not a typical right-wing line. When I was a sophomore, in US history class, they covered the Cuban Revolution and acknowledged it was a popular revolution that ousted a corrupt dictator. Our class, however, did not get far enough in history as to the 80's and the struggles for freedom in central america by various factions such as the sandinistas and the FMLN.

[timbaly]

I find my education in school to be extremely biased. The United States is never portrayed as being wrong when discussing manifest destiny or wars against mexico. The United States is never portryed as being imperial when it took over hawaii, cuba, puerto rico or the phillipines. We are told that we are liberators. The CIA history of the cold war has never been mentioned throughout my schooling. We never deal with US military action during the Reagan administration. We never learn about the agents of Orange or the very likely possibility of the faking of the Gulf of Tolkin incident. Plus we almost never discuss todays events in the world. It's treated as if it isn't happening.

[suffianr]

Two of my course electives were US Government (POL100), and History of Western Imperialism, er, Civilization (HIST101). I can't remember much; I skipped classes a lot in those days. :D

[Jesus Christ]

Originally posted by [email protected] 27 2003, 09:18 PM
My school is full of leftist educators, so our history course is not a typical right-wing line. When I was a sophomore, in US history class, they covered the Cuban Revolution and acknowledged it was a popular revolution that ousted a corrupt dictator. Our class, however, did not get far enough in history as to the 80's and the struggles for freedom in central america by various factions such as the sandinistas and the FMLN.
same here
my global history teacher and my biology teacher were a part of the Socialist Party
but which one, i didnt ask

[Indysocialist]

My class was mixed at best. On one hand it talked about the injustices of segregation, slavery, imperialism (to an extent), renounced the Red Scare, and a few other injustices committed. BUT it would leave parts out and it did paint the Soviet Union as an aggressive tyranical nation.
My World History book also had this quote, "...as Communism fades into the past..." as part of it's conclusion. But it didn't really attack Lenin or Marx, but it was open season on Stalin.

[Marxist in Nebraska]

My experience is pretty similar to Indysocialist's. Of course, when imperialism is discussed, the U.S. was never mentioned as an imperialist power. Some damning facts were in the text, but one had to be looking for them. Such information was hidden in the open. It surely was not in the lectures of the teachers or recalled on worksheets, but sometimes information got into the books...

[Sovietski Soyuz]

State-funded education in the USA is brainwashing, but once you get to college or university level, the academia is mainly populated by leftists. You get fairly unbiased information.

[Vinny Rafarino]

I would not be so sure comrade. I did my undergraduate work in a yanqui University and my graduate studies at University in the UK.

All levels of institution gave inaccurate presentations on socialism, communism, anarchism and it's history.

[187]

"...the academia is mainly populated by leftists. You get fairly unbiased information."

Wouldn't that be a Leftist bias then?

[Vinny Rafarino]

It can be construed that way friend 187 however I have found that leftist peopaganda is more factual that rightist propaganda. The left, being the minority, is more concerned with exposing actual fact versus historical fiction.

[Sovietski Soyuz]

Originally posted by COMRADE [email protected] 4 2003, 12:05 AM
I would not be so sure comrade. I did my undergraduate work in a yanqui University and my graduate studies at University in the UK.

All levels of institution gave inaccurate presentations on socialism, communism, anarchism and it's history.
True, this has just been my experience. The local rigties even tried to get a petition going to get one particularly leftist macro econ professor fired. They failed, of course.

[Marxist in Nebraska]

It has been my understanding that many teachers and college professors are liberal. Liberals are center-leftists, not to be confused with radicals of course...

[Elect Marx]

Originally posted by Marxist in [email protected] 3 2003, 11:08 PM
My experience is pretty similar to Indysocialist's. Of course, when imperialism is discussed, the U.S. was never mentioned as an imperialist power. Some damning facts were in the text, but one had to be looking for them. Such information was hidden in the open. It surely was not in the lectures of the teachers or recalled on worksheets, but sometimes information got into the books...
Mine too, we went to the same schools&#33; You had better teachers than me <_<

"It has been my understanding that many teachers and college professors are liberal. Liberals are center-leftists, not to be confused with radicals of course..."

Me too, and were still going to school together :lol:

The classes are largely uncritical then there is the massive omission of important facts. This just produces bad students, prepared to be chewed up by capitalism. The skills needed to resist manipulative economic/political systems and make a contribution to society, are not to prevailently encouraged in the schools :(

[Marxist in Nebraska]

Originally posted by 313C7 [email protected] 4 2003, 06:04 PM
The classes are largely uncritical then there is the massive omission of important facts. This just produces bad students, prepared to be chewed up by capitalism. The skills needed to resist manipulative economic/political systems and make a contribution to society, are not to prevailently encouraged in the schools
Very true, Comrade 313C7 iVi4RX...

About the poor quality of my history classes, I was speaking in general. I had one great U.S. history class. My teacher actually used Howard Zinn&#39;s People&#39;s History as a supplement to the white-washed, quasi-liberal base texts. That teacher would be one of the "better" ones my comrade was talking about.

It really is little surprise that so many Americans take George Bush seriously when he talks of "bringing democracy" to whatever country we happen to be bombing, when that is the justification given to our foreign adventures in history classes.

The point about American education not providing tools to combat capitalism actually reminds me of something I read in Zinn&#39;s book recently (Since that class, I bought a copy for myself). Zinn explained that philanthropy on the part of the robber barons to provide liberal arts colleges is actually an investment in prolonging the capitalist system. Liberal arts colleges do not teach us how to join the ruling class, or how to deconstruct that ruling class. The products of these institutions become a middle class buffer between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, or the "guards" of the system as Zinn calls them later.

[Elect Marx]

Originally posted by Marxist in [email protected] 4 2003, 11:22 PM
The point about American education not providing tools to combat capitalism actually reminds me of something I read in Zinn&#39;s book recently (Since that class, I bought a copy for myself). Zinn explained that philanthropy on the part of the robber barons to provide liberal arts colleges is actually an investment in prolonging the capitalist system. Liberal arts colleges do not teach us how to join the ruling class, or how to deconstruct that ruling class. The products of these institutions become a middle class buffer between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, or the "guards" of the system as Zinn calls them later.
Start a thread Comrade&#33;

[BuyOurEverything]

My history book actually calls Lenin "ruthless." The Soviet Union is portrayed as a pretty totalitarian place. It briefly mentions Castro but doesn&#39;t get into any detail. Also, it said that Germany deliberately sent Lenin to the USSR in an attempt to destabalize it. Anyone else heard that?

[Marxist in Nebraska]

I have heard the story about Lenin as a "secret weapon" of sorts in its war with Russia--the Eastern front of World War I. As far as I know (and on this topic, not very far), the story is accurate.

[BuyOurEverything]

Interesting, but I fail to see what Germany could have played in Lenin&#39;s return. Wouldn&#39;t Lenin have gone by himself anyways? Seeing as the tsarist government had pretty much fallen, what was stopping him?

[Marxist in Nebraska]

According to the story, the Germans helped to smuggle Lenin back into Russia. The idea, of course, is for him to stir up so much shit (and did he ever&#33;) that Russia would pull out of the war, and Germany could devote its entire military to crushing Britain and France on the Western Front.

[BuyOurEverything]

How much help could he really need getting back to Russia?

[Marxist in Nebraska]

The czar had a secret police force, didn&#39;t he? Autocratic rulers generally invest quite a bit in security and surveillance. Any help one could use to get past them could be useful.