This book I actually got from an education historian who was cleaning out many of his books from his office. I have had conversations with him in the past and in one of these conversations he had disclosed to me that he really didn’t want people to know that he was an education historian. I found this a little odd since everything has a history, professionals in every field have a specialty, and the fact that he held a relative high position at a college. I could see how this specialty could go out of fashion, but with how adamant he was about it I decided to let it go (especially since he was being so kind as to let me have first pick of his books for free). Then I read this book and I understood his position a bit better.
The book starts off by focusing on race and ethnicity as presented in school text books. This took up the majority of the book, but it also included a section on prayer in schools and sex education. First off I did not know how aggressive people could get about what is in text books. I have read more than my share of text books and most of my criticisms of them are on how well they are written or how they present information. I understand not everyone may approve of material or ideas presented, but I think that not everyone can be pleased by any decision. I also feel that it is important for people to read books that have ideas they do not like or approve of. This is a necessary part of learning, because at the very least you are learning what other ideas are out there and that not everyone thinks the same. I also like reading books from different time periods on one subject to see how concepts change with time and cultural influence. This book does cover both sides of arguments around these topics.
One point the author addressed was that instead of letting the experts write the material for the books, the parents felt that they should be in control of what their kids learned. I fully disagree with parents being in charge of the curriculum. Every parent can’t be an expert in all the different subjects that their kids take in school and can actually end up hurting their child by restricting their learning. At the same time as a society we are starting to not care about experts (even though they have spent a lot of time and money in educating themselves and working in respective fields). Here is my little political soap box: a great example of this can be seen in how the republicans treated the academic experts on constitutional law and history that the democrats brought in to testify at the Trump impeachment. These people have spent years studying these subjects and the republicans dismissed what they had to say just because they didn’t like it. Most of the republicans were either businessmen, professional politicians, or from rich families. This means that they did not have the expertise on the subject needed to make an informed decision that would impact the whole world. By this single act they downgraded the value of education in our country. Why get a degree when you can be a republican? This is just an example of how our society is moving away from trusting experts and allowing anyone to make up facts how they go. People are always talking about how bad education is in America, but dose education even matter when we do not trust the educated anymore?
I would recommend this book to anyone who works in education or has to deal with cultural issues in an educational setting. I have to give it 4 stars out of 5 or a B due to the writing style not making it a page turner.
Book picture from: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/671843.Whose_America_ .
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