This is of a follow-on of my blog entry about my problem with schools. This one deals specifically with 'history':
In grade school I never really questioned what I was being taught (very few children do). The school's job was to indoctrinate students with the 'Leave it to Beaver' social norms and beliefs of the time and they did their job well. And, honestly, there was nothing in my experience that caused me to question any of it.
That changed when I was 11 years old and got stuck in a German boarding school (Aloisiuskolleg in Bad Godesberg). It was an eye-opening experience for a number of reasons. For example - did you know that Germans invented the light bulb and the phonograph rather than Thomas Edison? I hadn't know that :-)
But by far the most stunning dichotomy was the account of WWII in the German school books of the 1960s. Now you have to realize that a lot of what happened during WWII was immediately sanitized from German society. Using the word 'Nazi' was illegal as was any display of a swastika (even in museums) so German baby-boomers (for the most part) were blissfully unaware that anything unseemly had happened (and certainly weren't taught about it in school). I suppose you could call it 'government mandated cultural amnesia'.
And what about Germany's involvement in WWII? As it turns out, they were just preemptively defending themselves against unjustified foreign aggression. And they were actually winning the war when they decided to end to the hostilities to stop the Allied bombing of innocent German civilians. So no - they weren't defeated at all.
I just sat there biting my lip while all of this was being fed to the inquiring young minds around me. But it made me take a step back and rethink everything I'd been taught about history.
I realized that they are as many different accounts of history as there are participants, and that there are grains of truth in every account, and that understanding history involves evaluating and balancing all of the viewpoints.
And from that point on I've questioned pretty much everything.
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4 comments:
Great analysis Pete... I have had very similar thoughts and comments on schooling.
I used to tell people that the problem I had with school was this:
In 4th grade they teach you about George Washington crossing the Potomac...
In 5th grade they teach you that he did it in a boat.
B O R I N G with bigger than big capital letters.
Hi Pete
Just joined your blog readership and have added it to my "favorites." GREAT so far. Keep it up.
And your comments re school are highly resonant believe me (coming from England, I just can't believe the US version of events (such as the American Rebellion!! ;-))
Hi Pete:
Just joined your blog readership. Love it so far! I have added you to my "favorites." The analysis of school is excellent and resonant. Personally, coming from England, I can't understand the US account of the "American Rebellion!" ;-))
Yeah - I had really never thought about what Germans might teach their kids about the war. I might have actually been expecting something like this:
"Congratulations on being born German! Your parents were evil monsters who tried to take over the world and got their butts kicked into oblivion for it. You should be VERY embarrassed and ashamed!"
Pretty unrealistic, right?
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