Textbooks & History

Yes, I know that our textbook says _____ about the Pilgrims and other early settlers but how do we know if what we’re reading is true? What if someone at the textbook company just made this stuff up? What if they misunderstood an idea–just plain got it wrong–and passed along incorrect information by accident? How would we know? Should we believe everything that’s in this book? What if that kind of thing happened and no one bothered to check? What if some wrong ideas or facts were shared so much that people started to believe they were true? Would it matter if we believed something was true when it really wasn’t true at all? Does anyone ever check the facts in the history books being used in our school and if so, how can we believe what they have to say?

Our Thanksgiving holiday is often misunderstood. Many textbooks publish inaccurate, misleading, or just flat out wrong information. The following links shed some interesting light into the real history of Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving resources

• The History of Thanksgiving - from the History Channel. This contains information on the first thanksgiving, Mayflower Myths, and many other resources, including a 5 minute video.
  
• History.com encyclopedia entry - This discusses the origin of the holiday
• Thanksgiving Articles from Plymoth Plantation
• Images of Settlement recreations - Includes Plymouth, Salem, and Wampanoag settlements
  

• Additional historic information on Wampanoag - very informative. Scroll down to the History section for information on Samoset and Squanto

Posts on Thanksgiving from SEGA Tech Blog:

• Howdy, Pilgrim: Plimoth Plantation
• What’s The Deal With This Meal?
• Thanking you, our readers
  

More information on textbooks:

• Consumer's Guide to High School History Books
• Great American Textbook Scandal
• Excerpts from Lies My Teacher Told Me
• Edutopia: The Muddle Machine
  

Re-Writing the Science

"In my more than three decades in the government I've never witnessed such restrictions on the ability of scientists to communicate with the public."James Hansen

James Hansen is the country's premier Global Climate change scientist. Since the 1970s he has been at the forefront of the studying global climate change and has provided his expert opinion to every administration since then. Dr. Hansen believes that the world is in serious trouble -- so much trouble that he refuses to remain silent even when the Bush administration orders him to be so.
Recently he was interviewed on 60 Minutes about why he was insisting on speaking out when the Bush administration has made it clear his talking to the public was unwelcome. Although James Hansen is an extremely well-known scientist, he was not allowed to talk with 60 Minutes without having a government minder sitting in the room.

What I find intriguing is that the final edits of many major scientific reports were being hand-written by Phil Cooney, the editor at the Council on Environmental Quality. He made consistent changes to the documents that downplayed environmental concerns, and deleted whole passages about glacial melting.

Importance of Primary Sources

One way to help students sort through misrepresentations is to assist them as they look for and make use of historical records that were generated at the time historically significant events occurred. Such resources are known as primary sources. They may include but are not limited to diaries, journals, manuscripts, letters, newspaper articles, speeches, official government documents, interviews, and memoirs. Many of these resources are available in digital form or via the internet. An excellent place to begin looking for primary sources is the American Memory site hosted by the Library of Congress.

Urban legends

www.snopes.com