By KEN IRVING
Student Reporter
On Nov. 19, 1863, 6 – foot – 4 Abraham Lincoln spoke among an anxious crowd of 15,000 “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
This famous line single handedly saved the United States of America. However, this line about freedom and prosperity stems from the pen of Thomas Jefferson, who was a slave owner. Pretty ironic I say.
The history of the United States of America is filled with irony, such as in 1944 we fought the Nazi’s who burned books and today we’re quick to ban any book that is somewhat controversial.
We despise North Korea for their propaganda, yet we change our history textbooks to fit the eyes of “a model U.S. citizen.” Now of course I’m not comparing us to those monstrosities of a government, however I am very critical of ours for one thing. Why don’t we ever get taught the truth in history classes?
Why is it that we rarely learn about Black History? After all, Black History is American History.
You would think the greatest country on the planet would teach its young that Black History is more than Martin Luther King Jr. and slavery, but you’d be wrong.
The success of African Americans in this country is just rarely ever acknowledged and it’s downright disgusting considering this country was built on the backs of African Americans. Literally and physically.
There are so many Black American’s that never get mentioned in school, such as; Jesse Owens, Bessie Coleman, Robert Abbott, Louis Armstrong, etc.
Without Black History there would be no American History. I’m lucky to be able to say that my school taught me about the Harlem Rennaissance, and that’s really the bare minimum!
There’s a simple reason why we don’t learn more about Black History; it comes down to the fact that the U.S. government is ashamed of its past. They want people to forget about the past and move forward.
Forgetting or leaving out key moments of history is the absolute most problematic and detrimental thing you can do to a generation. History isn’t just the past, but a map of the past. Without history, you are bound to repeat and make the same mistakes again and again.
History is passed on from generation to generation, so it’s normal to lose some facts or information during this process. However, deliberately changing the facts is borderline unconstitutional.
States, such as Texas and Florida, have already begun these changes and it’s quite frightening. One Texas School District was under fire for their textbooks depicting slavery as a “choice.”
Florida’s Governor doesn’t even want the schools to teach Black History because of his political agenda.
As bad as this is for us students, it’s even worse for the teachers.
I genuinely feel sympathy for them because they are forced to follow education plans that are mandated by the State Government, which is full of men who haven’t been in a classroom since they were students themselves.
Basically, the way the U.S. education curriculum works are the States are allowed to mandate their own requirements and schoolboards follow those requirements. The thing about this is that teachers have little to no say in what they must teach in their classes.
Teachers must use either outdated textbooks or the new “woke” textbooks and it’s honestly a lose-lose situation for them. If you teach the old textbooks, you’re canceled for not being sensitive enough. If you teach the new textbooks, you’re disgusting and to “woke.”
Okay let’s forget the textbooks and stick to good old-fashioned books. Numerous presidents have advocated for reading books. 15 of them even have their own libraries.
Well pump the brakes because the teachers can’t do that either. More and more books are being added to the “banned” list and honestly the reasons are quite ridiculous.
Books like “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Huckleberry Finn” are banned because of the racial depictions in them.
Although it’s crude, we can’t be sensitive to it. These books are based off a time when America was racist and there were ignorant people who treated African Americans poorly.
In this century, the LGBTQ+ community has had very active voices. Books about them, such as “Gender Queer” have also been banned. You may call these books disgusting or insensitive, but that’s life.
The great Rocky Balboa once spoke “Life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, it’s a very mean and nasty place…”
We must stop sheltering our society. No matter what generation it is, literature is and will be the strongest threshold on mankind. It doesn’t matter how techno savvy you are, if you cannot read you cannot succeed.
“Fahrenheit 451” inscribes it best. If you take away all literature from a nation, the people will no longer think for themselves. The government will have all the power. Oh, and by the way that book is also banned.
What type of society do we want to be? Do we want to control and censor everything and be a Dystopia like in “The Giver?” Do we want to control our citizens’ thoughts? Isn’t that against the constitution?
Weren’t our founding fathers against these exact policies?
So why do we continue to handicap ourselves? Why would we want the younger generations to believe everything has always been peaches and roses?
We should be proud of our history whether it’s good or bad. We should be proud that we belong to a nation that has grown from its horrific mistakes. We should be proud we live in a country that even has a somewhat successful education system.
We shouldn’t hide our past issues, but instead embrace them. We should be able to learn from our dark past and not ignore it. We should live for the future and not control it.
Stop making everything political and stop making everything sensitive. You need rainy days so we can appreciate the sun. History has no race, no gender, no political party, no affiliations. It’s just an account of events that transpired. Let’s leave it that way. God Bless.
