Read the articles under the “History” module.
https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/us-west-2.files.campus.edublogs.org/sites.gsu.edu/dist/c/1023/files/2020/01/How-Texas-Teaches-History-Passive-Voice-1.pdf
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/10/the-history-class-dilemma/411601/
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/01/12/us/texas-vs-california-history-textbooks.html
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/aug/12/right-wing-textbooks-teach-slavery-black-immigration
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/09/podcasts/the-daily-newsletter-critical-race-theory.html?.?mc=aud_dev&ad-keywords=auddevgate&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpsW1gNGh8wIVN3xvBB2DDQGhEAAYASAAEgI2PvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/sep/14/black-us-teachers-critical-race-theory-silenced
https://www.foxnews.com/us/what-is-critical-race-theory
When Holocaust education meets critical race theory: A partisan history debate unfolds in Louisiana
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/apr/18/morgan-freeman-says-the-terms-black-history-month-and-african-american-are-insults
https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/floridas-new-history-standard-blow-our-students-and-nation
https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/education/2023/07/24/floridas-new-black-history-curriculum-slavery-kamala-harris-ron-desantis/70455510007/
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/new-florida-standards-teach-black-people-benefited-slavery-taught-usef-rcna95418
There is a lot to talk about here, but for now I want to focus on PASSIVE voice v. ACTIVE Voice. You should always strive to write in the ACTIVE Voice. Here is an example:
ACTIVE: John threw the ball.
PASSIVE: The ball was thrown by John.
This might seem easy, but many students fall into the trap of Passive Voice without realizing it. Passive Voice is bad because it allows the sentence to avoid telling the reader WHO is doing the action. For example, you could say: “The ball was thrown.” That is a complete sentence, and it is grammatically correct, but it is PASSIVE, and it does not reveal who did the action.
(You can reveal who did the action and yet still be in Passive Voice. For example, you might say, “The ball was thrown by John.” This tells the reader who did the action, but the sentence is still passive. The active version would be: “John threw the ball.”)
When you use the Passive Voice, and don’t say WHO did the action, it can be one method of whitewashing a story. How about this example:
Active: “Police killed protesters.”
Passive: “Protesters were killed.”
Now, you could add “by police” to the second sentence if you want, but you don’t have to, because the sentence is already complete on its own. But either way, it’s PASSIVE. This is one way of avoiding placing blame on someone or something. You might hear politicians say this sometimes when they screw up: “Mistakes were made.” That is PASSIVE language; it doesn’t tell us WHO made the mistakes! We rarely hear politicians say: “I made mistakes.”
Now that you (hopefully) understand the difference between ACTIVE and PASSIVE voice, answer the following questions:
(If you cannot open a particular link, and you can’t find it using Google, then do the best you can without it. I recognize that links sometimes expire or require paywalls.)
1. How do History textbooks use Passive Voice to whitewash certain aspects of history? Give some specific examples, especially from the NYT article by Rockmore.
2. Why do textbooks do this? Who benefits?
3. What are some solutions proposed by historians, particularly James Loewen in the Atlantic article by Wong?
4. How do you feel about the state of history education in the United States? What has been your experience with History classes?
5. Make up a PASSIVE sentence and an ACTIVE sentence to match it, similar to my examples above.
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THIS RESPONSE IS WORTH FIVE POINTS!
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As always:
–Microsoft Word doc
–double-spaced
–300 words minimum (no maximum)
–TNR, 12-point, standard margins
–number the pages
–put your name on it
–don’t use the word STATES/STATED!!!