Scrambling for Voice, Choice, and Agency: Episode 9

Teaching History Without Accurate Facts

To read this story from the beginning, use the links in the Table of Contents.

From: Chance
Almost Halloween already
To: Kerry sent - Gmail at 9:02 PM

Hi Kerry—

It was so good to see you last week and get all caught up on things.

Wanda and Stan……What a pair! I wonder if they know each other……two peas in a pod.

I’m so happy that your parent group agreed to reimburse you for all those copies of Lies My Teacher Told Me that you charged to your credit card. People do not understand how difficult it is to live around here on a teacher’s salary.

It is going to be interesting to watch what happens at your school with the dual process teacher evaluation. It should be clear to everyone that when the teachers evaluate themselves against school values and then develop their own goals and professional development plan, it is a stronger and more meaningful evaluation than a quick observation coupled with checking off some boxes on a form.

I’m getting together with my college friends again. Rich is trying to recruit some of us to go to work at his start-up. He is paying for the whole weekend. I’m sure it will be lots of fun, but I can’t imagine leaving the kids to go to work in a tech company.

I’m finishing up the first part of Unit 1 in the SS curriculum. Can you believe this? In one hour of class time, I am supposed to teach the kids about where people migrate in the United States today. It suggests that I should have the kids research and discuss different situations where Americans might have to migrate……natural disasters, poverty, economy, cost of living are all ideas that it suggests the students explore.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again……Have the authors ever met a fifth grader? I’m wondering if they even remember being a fifth grader.

I may just skip that lesson and go straight to the Pony Express.

By this time in the year, how far are you into the US history textbook?

Chance

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From: Kerry
Re: Almost Halloween already
To: Chance sent - Gmail 5:55 AM

Hi Chance—

It is so funny that you would ask how far I am in the US history textbook. We are on page 210—Chapter 10: The Triumphs and Travails of the Jeffersonian Republic 1800-1812.

Yesterday, Wanda stopped by my classroom and saw this on the whiteboard:

1) Read Chapter 10 in textbook

2) Read pages 147-155 in Lies My Teacher Told Me

In real life, the Founding Fathers and their wives wrestled with slavery. Write a paragraph describing the contradiction between what you learn in the textbook with what you learn in the book Lies My Teacher Told Me. Compare how slavery is depicted in the textbook to the reality of owning people as property.

Wanda actually told me that I could not talk about any aspect of slavery that was not covered in the textbook. The textbook says almost nothing, so that means that the only thing I can say is that there is a controversy around Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings. A controversy about two people…that is it… Nothing about the reality of the lives of almost a million people in 1800. Not teaching about slavery prevents a full understanding of American history. It perpetuates systemic racism, and hinders the ability to address current injustices rooted in the past.

I can’t believe this turn of events….It is not just Wanda Won’t when it comes to questions of school leadership……It is Wanda Won’t when it comes to facing proven historical facts.

I’ll let you know what happens today when I go over to the district office and plead my case to the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum.

Maybe you should ask your friend Rich if he has any openings for a US history teacher who can’t teach history if it includes anything other than positive stories about the founding of the nation.

Kerry