Politicizing the Curriculum

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Just curious what you teach? You don’t have to answer, of course.
 
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The question terribly oversimplifies the matter.

Would Turing’s sexuality matter when brought up in a computer science class? Not especially. But it certainly matters in, say, a history class. At least, a history class that’s above the 10th grade level. Usually history classes below that are about trivia - who did what in what year and etc. You don’t start thinking about history until later, when cause and effect chains start being taught. The history of social groups is worthy of consideration. Period.
 
Rhubarb said:
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Whose history? If it’s not just times and events then it’s always someone’s ‘version’ of history, which can also be likened to propaganda, which a lot of it is, because teachers are not unbiased and certainly not in a post LGBTQIA activism and same sex marriage west.

Thank you for reading.
 
If I may go on. I would say it’s important in any history level. I know people don’t like that the LGBTQ community is a thing. But it is. And it impacts our history.
 
History is the story of all of us. They are part of all of us. They have a story. And it’s important.
 
Rhubarb said:
I know people don’t like that the LGBTQ community is a thing. But it is. And it impacts our history.
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When much of society in the west are deluded enough to buy the propaganda and vote this nonsense in, I don’t have much faith in their teaching abilities and reasoning skills.
 
I’m having a hard time imagining a history course in a US high school that would have time to go into the sociological implications of Turing’s being gay.
 
I’ve been a roving teacher for almost two years - basically I act as substitute teacher and co-teacher for classes that have too many students, rowdy students, or the subject is complex enough that a second set of eyes and hands can help the students in their work. I’m currently working towards my credential. My speciality is math and social studies.
 
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A high school US history course should go into detail in some degree about how various events and streams of thought impact various communities in our country.
 
So the question remains: How does being gay have any impact on one’s achievements, like Alan Turing? I don’t have a problem with it being noted in a biographical book but as a mandatory subject criteria? Turing did important work but it didn’t happen because he was gay. Non-gay people have done important work as well. This whole ‘sexual orientation’ issue should not be required education but optional education.
 
We need to pray for Catholic schools and support them any way we can. They need to become as affordable as public schools so all Catholic parents have the option of placing their children in them.
 
Rhubarb said:
History is the story of all of us. They are part of all of us. They have a story. And it’s important.
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I’ve watched many documentaries on history, they can’t help themselves, and it’s getting worse in recent times.

There’s always a ‘version’ of it. If it’s something like WWII it will be relatively good because we are all in agreement in regards to the Nazi’s.

When it involves Christianity, Islam, Atheism or LGBTQIA agenda’s etc, then it’s ridiculously pathetic their attempts of being non bias, they all bring to the table their own version of events to the point where two documentaries on the same events are irreconcilable.

Thank you for reading.
 
I’ve read very detailed histories about certain individuals who made an impact in their communities and how various events and streams of thought impacted them and their community at the time. And, in one case, I lived through that time, which is hard to convey unless the reader also lived through that time.
 
See, the issue is your question smacks of what is called “great man history”. Don’t get all riled up, this isn’t a feminist thing. I mean, I guess it could be. But it isn’t in this case.

History has theories and methods that rise and fall. Great man history is the idea that history is ran by big shots and we can learn all we need to learn about history by learning about these great men. (Again, not a feminist slur. Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria are often figured associated with this. I guess Great Person history is more appropriate).

And while great men (and women) are important to learn about it leaves out the vast majority of the people who make history. Because as I said, we’re all making history every day. And it’s useful to look at history as it pertains to groups of all types.

You ask what being gay matters to the history of Alan I posit that Alan Turin matters to the history of “gays”. Historians today, the cutting edge ones (yes that’s a thing) care more about what the average Joe was like in history, and how their lives were affected and how their lives affected history.
 
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I’m a student of World War II history and I’m a contributor to the research community, which includes a number of published authors and others who have spent decades setting the record straight or revealing new information or both.

I understand what you mean by “great man history” but I don’t know much about a lot of people who would fall under that category. Abraham Lincoln, Henry Ford, maybe a few others.

I don’t know how “the average Joe” is going to be covered. It sounds like a million books, at least, to just scratch the surface of that, considering the millions of average Joe’s we’re talking about.
 
Usually it’s world leaders, industry innovators, and the like. And I don’t mean to say they aren’t important. They are.

Usually these Joe’s are studied at the community level. That’s where the exciting work is done now. My Japanese history teacher went on and on about how the life of the Japanese peasant is the big topic right now. Historians use what tools and discoveries they have to piece together the what their life might have looked like.

It’s the business of historians to overturn simplistic beliefs when the evidence bears out that things are more complicated. For instance for the longest time it was a forgone academic conclusion that women were simply incapable of intellectual pursuits in the same way men were. Historians and other academics have turned that around. The same is true about lots of communities. There are numerous examples. Civilization in sub-sarahan Africa is another subject that was wildly misunderstood because of simple bias. (Cities in East Africa were thought to have been built by Muslim Invaders because it never dawned on them that Africans could make huge sprawling cities) Historians have a much better view of it now.

This is a bit far afield but I think it’s part of the reason it’s important to study communities and populations at lots of levels. Lots of ink has been spilled about the people in Berkeley in the 60s, for instance. That’s a pretty limited community. I would hope that a student with a high school diploma could talk about the Japanese-American experience during WW2, or the Catholic experience in the 19th century, or the Native American experience at X time, etc. The gay community is another community that has a fascinating history. And I don’t think teaching that these people existed endorses the lifestyle. We can like Oscar Wilde for his wit and know he’s gay and not think that means we should be gay.
 
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Why mandate this? Especially to kids? I mean, publish all you want, but as someone who works in the book industry, the number of readers is low, the number of really bad books (as in, poorly researched and/or poorly written) is high and many people have been conditioned to do other things.

I know something about Japanese people, but I doubt the average person would bother reading a word. In my view, as a professional researcher, the internet has made a significant portion of internet users less educated.

People look at my library like “You paid money for this?” Historical non-fiction took the biggest hit after the planned 2008 global economic collapse.
 
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I believe it is important to have a broad and rich historical context in order to be good citizens who exercise their Civic duties. The fact that people wouldn’t read a word of it is proof positive that it’s needed.

I think a full blooded rich understanding of history is important for its own sake.

No teacher in my district has said “lookit all these gay people, you should go be gay!” The only thing that’s being pushed is that gay people exist. They work in our society and they have a population that has impacted and been impacted by history. Also it’s bad to do violence to them for the sake of their sexuality.
 
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Maybe I’m just backwards but I don’t understand why deviancy can’t just go back to being under the surface and out of the view of polite society.
 
Come gather around people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
And if your breath to you is worth saving
Then you better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changing
 
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