9 thoughts on “Lies My Teacher Told Me”

1. 1. Booker T. Washington. Former slave and educator of former slaves, IMO, understood what the newly freedmen needed to survive.

   2. W.E.B. Dubois which seems to have dominated much of the the thinking of the black intelligencia both in the 1920’s and in today. He taught that we are deserving of reparations.

   3. One pushes the opinion that we are and will always be victims. The other believes that we control our own destiny.

   4. One stayed in the south to work with the Freeman. The other moved to that great communist, socialist, utopia.

   5. I recommend everyone read BT Washington’s “up from slavery”.

2. 1. That Columbus discovered America

   2. Teachers should never be allowed to craft their own curriculum, this would allow their beliefs and prejudices to be taught as facts.

   3. Indoctrinate, children are impressionable. They Are taught to believe what teachers tell them. Unfortunately some teach their own prejudices and beliefs not facts.

3. Thank You for Advancing The Community’s Thoughts & Actions Toward Civility Thru Dialogue. In response to your inquiry, I can only be of limited help. My early childhood education was in segregated schools where the Administration & the Teachers were graduates of Historical Black. Colleges. They planted seeds of Strength. Positiveness, Achievement, Hope & a sense of God within us. I cannot recall any instance of being psycologically hampered. That education was bolstered by Community Church and good neighbors. A Village of people …so to speak. Be well.

4. 1. What is the biggest lie perpetuated in American schools and does it impact Black people? Blacks painted as slaves and largely irrelevant in history. It impacts blacks by relegating them to the sidelines of history and leading many to believe that the fortunes of blacks have been largely a byproduct of the goodness of whites as opposed to their own power. Also, the bad done by the US is severely downplayed or non-existent, misleading people to believe the govt has your best interests at heart.

   2. Should teachers be given more freedom to craft a curriculum or would you rather there be a universal curriculum for grade school? I would rather a universal curriculum that is proper for all that speaks to the good and bad done by this country, history-wise. And everyone should start at the same level. So those that come to kindergarten are expected to know nothing and be taught from there. The expectation today is largely that children can read and write, to some degree, by the time they arrive. Some parents don’t have the time, opportunity, acumen, or ability to teach their child and they don’t deserve to wind up in special education because of it. Picture a parent that cant read, how does anyone expect them to teach their child?

   3. Do you believe the American school system is meant to indoctrinate children or to educate them? I don’t think it as intended to indoctrinate children, I believe it has been perverted by those in power to do just that in furtherance or hiding the ghoulish acts this country has perpetrated around the world and to its own citizens.

5. I’m going to take all three of these at once and think i’ll circle back and it’ll make sense. We’ll see right? I think the biggest lie (albeit the greatest truth) I was told was “we hold these truths to be self-evident, all men are created equal”. As a child I believed this. I have learned to realize that they are, in fact, the truest words ever written, spoken. As a child, I saw other children as children, black children, white children, spanish, asian but we were kids. The indoctrination hadn’t started. I don’t know where it begins. Certainly not with my parents ( and i mean mine specifically, clearly with others thats exactly where it starts). But if all men are created equal why didn’t I get “the talk”, why did people start referring to my friends as “African-Americans”. We were just kids, put on this earth, dealing with the some kind of living hell that being a teenager is but we kept growing apart. How could this be if “all men are created equal”? Why did I just then learn about Jim Crow, Plessy vs Fergussen? How did this happen if “all men (and of course women) were created equal? “ I wish I knew the answer. What I do know is the lie I was told is now a truth we must never forget. WE can re-make these words in our image for our youth. We need schools to teach history unbiased, the good and bad of it. To teach that seeing the color of ones skin is important but more importantly is not judging one by that. Recognizing our differences starts the conversation and if we can’t have these conversations in places of learning then often time it’s left to the ill-equipped.

6. 1. What is the biggest lie perpetuated in American schools and does it impact Black people? I honestly don’t remember specific lies I was told by teachers. Not because it didn’t happen but because outside of English and art class, I didn’t really take too much information from school, especially early education, that impacted me in an overt way. Example. In high school, I was one of 2 black kids in the class and already didn’t really value much of the information being taught in the first place. I did a lot of self-learning particularly for black history. And got a lot from home and church as well.

   2. Should teachers be given more freedom to craft a curriculum or would you rather there be a universal curriculum for grade school? Yes. But the only way that can work is if you have diverse teachers and teachers who actually care about the job And care about actually educating students rather then just pushing them through the system or chasing test scores. This can be very valuable if the teacher is Committed. Regardless, it should be a collaborative effort with oversight from parents. No one group or individual should have the power to make that decision.

   3. Do you believe the American school system is meant to indoctrinate children or to educate them? Yes. But i don’t think it’s all malicious. Some of it is just laziness and some is being stuck in an old world view and traditional ways of thinking. Which, often are the result of systematic racism.

7. 1. What is the biggest lie perpetuated in American schools and does it impact Black people?

   I think it’s mostly lies by omission, or that for long (and still in many places) little attention is given to historical achievements and contributions, in fields like math, science, technology, philosophy, and government, by people other than Greco-Roman and later Franco-Anglo thinkers and their descendants in the Americas.

   This problem existed but wasn’t as glaring where I grew up, where Virginia and US history curricula at least included some black inventors, scholars, and activists. That has since expanded a bit to World History, too – my sister’s kids going to the same elementary school learned about the medieval kingdom of Mali in 3rd grade. (I on the other hand never knew about any old world empires in Africa besides Egypt until I was 30.) But, when meeting others from different parts of the country while in the military, I discovered there were many people who never learned even the limited things I did in public school.

   I also agree with the other commenter that history lessons also tend to downplay the bad and ugly parts of US history. I think this contributes to a belief in an overly-romanticized history of the US and its government as more just, fair, and ethical in its development than anywhere else ever (which can be arguably true in some respects and not so true in others).

   I think public school curricula in this country leaves out enough to generally convince Americans that most if not all positive social advancements throughout world history have come, directly and indirectly, from Europe. I think this fosters myths like non-white people are incapable of creating things like good governments elsewhere in the world (and that if their governments struggle or fail it’s not at all because of any meddling or exploitation on the part of the European governments), and that non-white people are generally less capable of contributing positive advancements to society.

   I think this can negatively impact levels of self-esteem and self-motivation in Black people and other minorities. I think it also affects the psychology of white Americans and how they view black people and other minorities, and can in turn influence all sorts of future decision making such as grading, hiring, law making, and foreign policy.

   2. Should teachers be given more freedom to craft a curriculum or would you rather there be a universal curriculum for grade school?

   To some extent there can be some freedoms to add things a teacher might like to include. But I think there should be at least a base curriculum for subjects like history that is more inclusive of accomplishments by people and societies beyond Europe and their descendants.

   3. Do you believe the American school system is meant to indoctrinate children or to educate them?

   Educate to some degree but indoctrination is definitely part of the agenda. For example the daily morning ritual of standing and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance is unique to the US (and the threat of suspension many kids face for not doing it) and considered weird and fascistic by people in other countries.

8. 1. What is the biggest lie perpetuated in American schools and does it impact Black people?
   I am not going to go as far as calling it a lie, I will call it an omission. Every country skews their school history curriculum to present their country as great, moral, and just in order to promote national pride and a sense of patriotism. America is no different in that regard. Therefore, the history curriculum that I remember from school avoided going to deeper levels that would both help give a more accurate picture of the economic impact of the culture in America and an understanding of what that culture is in reality. This definitely affects Black people because without an understanding of the many ways Blacks are oppressed, they may feel that the imbalance is really due to some kind of inferiority.
   2. Should teachers be given more freedom to craft a curriculum or would you rather there be a universal curriculum for grade school?
   A universal curriculum is likely better because there are levels of teachers just like any other profession. Some children will undoubtedly be at a disadvantage if they have a teacher that is less than for any reason. For the individual lessons within that curriculum, I support teachers having the freedom to teach the lessons in whatever way they deem best for their students to learn.
   3. Do you believe the American school system is meant to indoctrinate children or to educate them?
   I believe that the goal is to accomplish both. I think that the school system does want to educate children so that they will be able to positively contribute to society when they become adults. However, I also believe that curriculum about history specifically is geared towards building a sense of national pride and patriotism.

9. 1. What is the biggest lie perpetuated in American schools and does it impact Black people?

   I cannot remember any lies that was taught to me when I was in school. We were expectd to perform to the best of our abilities. We were judged by our GPA only. I think that many people (black and white) need to somehow blame their failures on something. Anything except themselves.

   2. Should teachers be given more freedom to craft a curriculum or would you rather there be a universal curriculum for grade school?

   I think that teachers should have a minimum level of competency that they must demand from their students. Who develops this curriculum may be up for debate. However, the parents should have a large role in making those decisions.

   3.  Do you believe the American school system is meant to indoctrinate children or to educate them?

   indoctrinate? I thought only socialist societies brainwash people. Schools are designed to provide the students with the skills needed to survive in a very completive world. More instruction needs to be taught in privately own business development.
   Bottom line is that intercity schools, controlled by blacks are failing our students.

   https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/06/05/75-of-black-california-boys-dont-meet-state-reading-standards/