Week 4: Cantu Ch 4 & Lowen Ch 4

I find it interesting that James Loewen in his book goes to great lengths to expose the American public to the crimes and atrocities committed by Europeans and their descendants throughout history. He claims that education these day is completely one sided focusing on the white contributions to society and ignoring those of the minority groups entirely. Loewen suggests that history textbooks should be rewritten in order to include the contributions of Native Americans, African Americans, and so on and so forth. The problem with this argument, in my mind, is that the focus of history will once again be viewed from the perspective of one ethnic group. When talking about Native Americans, Loewen wants history teachers to talk to their students about how Europeans invaded this land and massacred all the Indians. Once again there is a bad guy and a victimized good guy. I think as history teachers we should present our lessons as Switzerland. There are no good guys or bad guys (or good or bad women)! There is only imperfect people prone to making mistakes. History should not be about good verses evil or right verses wrong, it should be about differing people interacting with one another.

This discussion of ethnic groups got me to thinking about the privileges I have experienced being born as a white person. The idea that my values and beliefs are consistently represented in the institutions that govern my country and the curriculum that is exposed to the country's children, makes it difficult to put myself in the shoes of a Native American who has not received those privileges. For example the caricature of the Cleveland Indian would not have crossed my mind as offensive unless I had not been exposed to it in the classroom. There are just some things that one does not think about until someone else points it out.  With this knowledge I think it is important to constantly be in check of those values and beliefs while in the classroom. I think without even realizing it, I could start teaching with a Euro centric standpoint and will continue doing so until someone alerts me to the inconsistencies in my curriculum. My question then remains...how can a teacher avoid this trap in the classroom? What could a teacher do in order to include every group, whether that be women or men, whites or blacks, Christians or Jews, into their classroom curriculum everyday?