Yes, indeed it is alive and well. I'm sorry to say my eldest son called me to ask if I had any of these the following history texts around the house: A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present by Howard Zinn, Give Me Liberty: An American History Vol. 1 by Eric Foner, and Confederate Emancipation: Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves during the Civil War by Bruce Levine. I told him I did not have copies of these books as he ticked off the books' authors. I let him know these books have a very strong liberal bias and are considered some of what elitest types of people call "revisionist history." I told him it was quite likely his professor was going to present a rather left leaning viewpoint. His response, "I'm not surprised. Guess this class might not go as well as I hoped."
I recognize that people have very different view points on the world and what has happened in it over the course of time. It is simply that I expect when teaching my child or anyone else's child for that matter that they present a balanced view. It is even more irking when professors who seemingly claim to know everything claim they do present a balanced view and would NEVER let students know their true bias or feelings. HA! The HA not withstanding, students do need to be presented both sides, it is just that in many classes students are given one side or the other, with no real understanding that the truth often lies somewhere in the middle of it all.
1 comment:
Have you actually read those books? While Zinn is a life-long socialist--see "You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train"--Foner's text is fairly inocuous, standard, and boring. Meanwhile, Zinn's People's History focuses on popular leftist resistance movements, so if you'd like your son to actually understand the movements you hope he'll grow to oppose, you might encourage him to read the book diligently.
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