It's very clear that these historical events, rules and laws still impact our society today in so many harmful ways. The damage and trauma runs deep and I feel we need to walk through the fire of acknowledgement and enlightenment to reach real growth and evolution as a nation. This affirmed for me that we need to approach deconstruction and reconstruction of the American education system in systematic and organized manners to unearth and re-prioritize our nation's knowledge and understanding so we can empower our people to see reality instead of propaganda filled with agendas. We need to reject the adolescent and mind-numbing explanations we have been given and accepted for so long and take some responsibility that we aren't embracing truth or even critical thinking here anymore. The misinformation that has spanned our history was deliberate and took commitment over the decades and so should our efforts to reclaim truth in the name of all who have been marginalized and pushed into invisibility. We can start by following the money and the textbooks used to create curriculum for children all over the country. A literal re-writing of the history books needs to take place and we need to have alternative education paths for regular people to pursue even in the face of resistance to that change. I believe that we need to have a few additional paradigms to view and understand our history within that addresses both race and class for a full spectrum of understanding and investigation. No one should be able to get through our school systems without knowing where we really came from, what this country was really founded upon and who the heroes really were.
I appreciate your perspective. As an educator, I see it as absolutely critical for teachers and administrators to be questioning the texts and curricula we are purchasing. We need to take inventory of the narratives sitting neatly on our classroom shelves. And, not only do we need to be questioning the materials, we need to be seeking out professional development (PD) that is comprehensive and no matter what that PD is, it needs to include more than training just the content. The methods and pedagogy also need to consider issues of implicit racism which is materialized in profound measures in our schools.