I will not name their names because they had lots of company. Or maybe, somehow, they didn’t know the history they didn’t teach us. But it was not hidden from them. Our teachers were all old enough to have heard about the treatment of the Native Americans.
They were history instructors, after all. Did they lack curiosity? Were they afraid of breaking from the expected public school curriculum? They never mentioned the unsavory, tarnished America absent from our textbooks.
Surely they realized that West Coast American citizens were taken from their homes and incarcerated because they were of Japanese descent. It happened during the lifetimes of the male and female educators at Mather High School in Chicago.
There was no evidence that the Japanese betrayed their country, the USA. Nothing justified FDR’s decision to intern 120,000 people in 1942, of whom two-thirds were citizens. Fear and suspicion drove it.
Whose responsibility is it to inform young people of the world’s dark side? I did some of this with my children, but that information was about half a century old at the time. And most of it happened elsewhere: in Germany during World War II and in other occupied countries. The land of genocide, and what most of us thought was over there, somewhere else.
It couldn’t happen here, right?
Well, that’s complicated. When I was just about to enter my teens, I recall seeing a newsreel film about the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, better known as Hitler’s Nazis. I watched and heard Hitler ranting at one of his many rallies. In German, of course. But I wondered to myself, what if he spoke English?
Another thought followed. If he spoke English and delivered it in a way that made his followers enthusiastic acolytes, maybe it could happen here.
Why not?
Were people here so different from those 4000 miles away in central Europe? Didn’t Germans of the first half of the 20th century pride themselves on their technology, scientists, visual artists, writers, and musicians?
I knew two German families who immigrated to the USA. They were more than kind to me. Just regular people.
But didn’t the United States have a pro-Nazi organization during the 1930s? It was called the German American Bund.
Later I learned that Hitler took notice of the Jim-Crow American South before he launched a world of evils on the Romani and the Jews. His attention focused on the South’s racial laws and segregation, after which he modeled his own regime, applying much of what our country had done to blacks. The Jews, in particular, were targeted by Hitler in ways similar to those that happened here first.
The answer to the question then changed. To those who wondered whether it could happen here, one could state, of course! It already did!
What do we do with this knowledge? Again, it is complicated.
We do not want to think that our friends, relatives, or children might be steered toward an authoritarian dictator. But we also know that many of our countrymen have been. Nor can we comfortably fix our minds on the awfulness around us, on TV, in the news, in podcasts, in the streets, and the endless commercials that praise one candidate, disparage the next, and remind us of Orwell’s Big Brother, a leader not easily escaped.
Who will educate children about the real U.S. history, including the history of our time? The texts? The school teachers? Ourselves? At what age? To what extent?
Under what conditions?
It seems to me that we should hope, make certain, and pray that their history books include something like this.
It happened here once, during which there were terrible injustices visited upon people of color and the Native Americans who lived here before we took their land and many of their lives.
And it was almost here when the country was 250 years old.
But decent people rose up and did everything they could to make sure the USA’s founders vision of our country wasn’t lost again.
Those people, the ones who lived here in 2026 were brave.
As your textbooks will tell you, 2026 was a long time ago, before you were born.
Now, really, finally, we live ‘in the land of the free and the home of the brave.’
God bless America.
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The top photo is of “Dr. Kier Klepzig is a Research Entomologist at the Department of Agriculture Forest Service Southern Research Station. He is teaching 5th graders about town ants at Phoenix Magnet School in Alexandria, LA.” It was sourced from Wikimedia Commons.
Next comes Julie Mehretu’s — “Retopistics: A Renegade Excavation, 2001.”
Our history has plenty of moments we should be proud of and others we should be ashamed of. It is our responsibility to learn from our previous mistakes as a society, so that we make better decisions and are prepared for dictators and ignorance that is sure to repeat itself again when another minority is singled out.
Many thanks, Pete. You have described our history well. We live with little attention to a sense of national shame, but must learn from our previous mistakes, as you say. The future of our country and its people depend on it.
Oh, I am 100% certain everyone will be better off if there is a blurb like that in our history books. May we work to make it so. Thanks, Dr. Stein.
Indeed, Wynne. We must hope and we must make it so in this interesting, potentially transformative time. Let us.”try,” as you say in your helpful blog, “The Life of Try,” and create what is essential.
yes, this is so incredibly important for the young people to learn the truth, (the bad as well as the good), and recognize when things are starting to head in the wrong direction, or something is wrong or hurtful to others, so they don’t repeat it, and that they can actively do something to change it or stop it.
i feel fortunate that my school adopted a policy of truth telling with regard to history, and science, and an openness to learning about all religions, politics, cultures, etc. each teacher/grade level had to gear their lessons to what was age/developmentally appropriate, but there are always ways to teach most lessons to children of any age, and even though i taught young children (3-5 year olds), we found a way.
for example, we talked about the native americans, (all year, not at thanksgiving) how they were the first people here, about the tribe that lived where our school now was, their culture, their language, their art, how they loved nature. also about some people making them move and give up their homes, and how it might feel if someone took over their playground or special spaces. this led to a discussion about how to be kind to other people and about respect.
we read them a lot of biographies and the conversations were so interesting, one was about Mae Jemmings, and they were shocked that she was the first african american and female astronaut, it wasn’t even on their radar that you couldn’t be whatever you wanted to be just because of who you were or what you looked like. this led to discussions about discrimination and equal rights.
and on and on, they were very open, asked questions, and expressed feelings about all of these things.
This is remarkable, Beth. I have been unaware of any such schools as the one you described. The school children surely were not only lucky to be in that school, but to have you as a teacher. Might you send me the link to the school website? I’d love to know more.
Thank you for your comment and for the heroic and desperately important work you have done and continue to do.
Dr. Stein, you raise very important questions about educating children about the real US history. Are we the people ready for the truth? As you say, the truth can be complicated. We cannot count on our education system that serves the dominant power of the day. I believe that our diverse communities must continue sharing their truth through all means available: art, drama, songs, poetry, stories, and others. All forms can be age appropriate. God bless America.
I appreciate you concluding thoughts, Dr. Stein. If not now, when? I see glimpses of good, a rallying toward truth telling, even though too many leaders seem focused on calculating the personal risks in doing so — fearful, watchful rather than brave. Being at the Printers Row Lit Fest yesterday was such a joy; diversity everywhere and a sense of community. Read, learn. Be informed. 💝