Archive for the ‘Schools’ Category
On this day: AR Nat. Guard prevents Little Rock Nine from going to school
Unfortunately: On this day in 1957 Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus used the Arkansas National Guard to prevent 9 black students from entering Little Rock Central High School. He left the National Guard in place for 16 days until a federal judge ordered him to withdraw them.
On the Twenty-third, the students were snuck into the school and when the white parents who had been demonstrating outside heard of it there was a near riot. The students were quickly whisked from the school to ensure their safety.
On September 24, President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the 101st Airborn Division to escort the black students into Little Rock Central High School and to ensure their safety. Eisenhower also federalized the Arkansas National Guard.
The 101st stayed at Central High until Thanksgiving when its guard duties were handed over to Task Force 153rd Infantry, a specialized unit of the Arkansas National Guard. Task Force 153rd Infantry stayed on guard duty at Central High until the end of the school year.
Arkansas Troops Bar Negro Pupils; Governor Defiant | New York Times’ On This Day
UK Schools shying away from teaching history
There’s an article on the Telegraph’s site about research that shows that schools in the UK are shying away from teaching history because they don’t want to upset the sensibilities of their students or their students’ parents. The most outrageous part of the article is this:
“In another department, the Holocaust was taught despite anti-semitic sentiment among some pupils, but the same department deliberately avoided teaching the Crusades at Key Stage 3 (for 11- to 14-year-olds) because their balanced treatment of the topic would have directly challenged what was taught in some local mosques.”
I don’t really know how to respond to that but here’s a stab at it: teach history, teach truth and leave no room for the consideration of whatever propaganda is being fed to students in their mosques–or churches or synagogues for that matter. Isn’t one of the most touted reasons for teaching history to students that “if you don’t learn from history, you’re doomed to repeat it”?
JeffSay... 