I may be biased on this being a career public school teacher who grew up in a family of public school teachers, but I firmly believe it's true:
A high-quality free public education, containing a full, factual, and uncensored history curriculum and delivered equitably for all would solve a great many of modern society's problems.
@corlin
Well said
On the US history front:
Even though it was many years ago but I was in school, I am still mad as hell that I never learned about things like the Trail of Tears or the Tulsa Massacre until well into adulthood. And I'm even more upset that some local school boards or even entire state boards of ed are trying to bring back that sort of hyper-sanitized history curricula that I grew up with.
@voltronic @corlin Amen and preach
I too grew up with a sanitized version of history. I never learned about Tulsa, and although I did learn about the Trail of Tears, it was glossed over & sanitized, like you say.
Public education is so important. Telling people the Truth is so important. I still get angry that I was lied to, or only told half truths. As were my parents.
Education never ends, and it takes many forms.
I'm worried about the future of public education.
@janallmac
The sad reality is that public education is as much on the front lines of the current culture wars as it ever has been in the past. Local school boards are often the target of those who wish to find the ultimate political wedge and foment a rabid zeal for or against an issue.
@voltronic @corlin I learned about the Trail of Tears in school (private school with liberal faculty) but not about Tulsa. Heck, from what I've read, it was buried so completely that many Black people who lived all their lives in Tulsa didn't know about it until just a few years ago.
It's a similar story in other areas (not just the South!) where such genocidal incidents occurred & were covered up. The survivors didn't talk about it because of the trauma/shame and white people hushed it up.