I was really surprised to find out, as an american, standing with feet on the ground in Manila, near age 30, having grown up in the US and gone to public schools, that the Philippines had been a US Territory off and on, on par with Puerto Rico, for about 50 years starting around 1898. There's even a big obelisk in the center of Union Square in San Francisco commemorating this event, it turns out.
None of this was ever covered in public schools. I realize there's a lot of history to cover and kids can only absorb so much, but when people talk about "only focusing on europe and the middle east" it's good to have a couple of concrete examples. The Philippines actually has a larger english speaking population than the UK. Anyways, it always seemed that the Philippines got conveniently swept under the rug when discussing things like WW2 and American Imperialism.
Yes certainly. I recently started listening to the audiobook A Peoples History of the United States and there is a LOT of history we don't cover. Right now I am listening to a talk by Noam Chomsky about inequality and it's remarkable that the top % of the wealthy that have control over the country also do not go to public schools. It's as if we have a second school system for the subservient class.
Public schools in some districts are terrible. If you can afford to send your children to private school, that’s an easier option than changing the entire public school system in your district (unless you’re Bill Gates).
Why do you think they are cancelling AP classes in San Francisco and California under the guise of social justice? It's to further weaken the underclass since the rich don't even go to public school.
> Why do you think they are cancelling AP classes in San Francisco and California under the guise of social justice?
Can you document this? I'm a southern California resident, and I keep hearing stuff like this from people online, but I know no local examples of this at all.
Having gone to high school in California, we never covered Mexican-american or Spanish-american wars, civil war focused almost exclusively on slavery. 90% of WW2 was about Japanese internment or how racist nuking Japan was. History of Communism was never mentioned for obvious reasons.
The teacher's union does not dictate the curriculum.
Typically the state legislatures dictate what is in the curriculum broadly, sometimes extra specifically, and the administrators and teachers create their lessons to satisfy the legislation.
How does the teacher's union suppress subject matters in the history department?
It doesn't follow that they suppress Filipino colonization, is there some example of teachers union demanding of legislators that they pass laws like that?
It's also hard to get elected without people voting for you, or funding for political campaigns.
The Army ran out of Native Americans to massacre, so they arranged another indigenous group to terrorize for the next several decades. (It really was the same racist officers doing the same racist shit.) Some Filipinos had thought USA military would join them in overthrowing Spanish tyranny, but they soon discovered the actual intent was to replace Spain. Decent Americans like Mark Twain were horrified, but the war media was full of lies about subhuman savages who needed American government so most Americans had no idea. Plus ça change...
Hmm, don’t know what school you went to, but in my American public school they certainly covered the Spanish-American war, and the consequent status of the Philippines. Spanish colony, turned over to the U.S., taken over by Japan, independant after WWII ended.
None of this was ever covered in public schools. I realize there's a lot of history to cover and kids can only absorb so much, but when people talk about "only focusing on europe and the middle east" it's good to have a couple of concrete examples. The Philippines actually has a larger english speaking population than the UK. Anyways, it always seemed that the Philippines got conveniently swept under the rug when discussing things like WW2 and American Imperialism.