(no subject)
Jun. 10th, 2011 09:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
:
Full Article:
http://www.startribune.com/opinion/otherviews/123497829.html
Excerpt:
Where history is concerned, this is fast becoming a nation of ignoramuses and amnesiacs.
The alarm bell has been ringing for years. Consider "Losing America's Memory: Historical Illiteracy in the 21st Century," a 2000 study by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a Washington-based advocacy group.
And then, there is a 2006 assessment by the Education Department's National Center for Education Statistics, often called the Nation's Report Card. It found that nearly 40 percent of high school seniors could not identify the purpose of the Lewis and Clark Expedition {...} If kids are bored by that, who can blame them? And who cares?
It is a narrative of slaves and soldiers, inventors and investors, demagogues and visionaries, of homicide, fratricide and genocide, of truths held self-evident and of government of the people, by the people and for the people....
(rest of article: http://www.startribune.com/opinion/otherviews/123497829.html )
Book Rec's in this regard:
Lies My Teacher Told Me
(Professional review: Americans have lost touch with their history, and in Lies My Teacher Told Me Professor James Loewen shows why. After surveying eighteen leading high school American history texts, he has concluded that not one does a decent job of making history interesting or memorable. Marred by an embarrassing combination of blind patriotism, mindless optimism, sheer misinformation, and outright lies, these books omit almost all the ambiguity, passion, conflict, and drama from our past. From the truth about Columbus's historic voyages to our national leaders, Loewen revives our history, restoring the vitality and relevance it truly possesses.
Thought provoking, nonpartisan, and often shocking, Loewen unveils the real America in this iconoclastic classic beloved by high school teachers and history buffs alike. )
Back to fannish material:
Meanwhile, in the totally fictional (and bloodsoaked) history of Westeros (Game of Thrones), I have finished about 85% of Storm of Swords now and...
OMG I hate Cersei Lannister! I want deeply horrible, vile, horrible, dire, awful, painful, excruciating, horrible things to happen to her!
I don't hate her in a 'she's a villain and so I hate in a love to hate" way where I wonder "Hmm... what scheme will she come up with next?" while mentally rubbing my hands together in anticipation (Littlefinger has me intrigued in this regard) . No, the hate I bear for this character is "I know she's only a fictional character but I want something truly permanent, horrible, and painful to happen to her, and I will most likely cheer any character that can do it ...because did I mention that I HATE her? Because I do!"
*ahem*
Back to your usual LJ broadcasting....
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Date: 2011-06-10 02:14 pm (UTC)What a world.
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Date: 2011-06-10 03:51 pm (UTC)On Cersei: She's so horrible, isn't she. She gets even more horrible when she has her own chapters. She so insanely stupid.
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Date: 2011-06-10 04:37 pm (UTC)Generally, History as a subject is largely underdone. The main reason I scored highly in History on college entrance exams was the fact that I had a thing for historical novels when I was in high school. Otherwise I think I don't know how much history I would've had at all.
And, I think my Lannister hate has now focused on Cersei because, by this point, who else is left? My only internal debate is who most deserves the honor of getting to kill her. Tyrion, Sansa, Arya? Possibly Jaime? Can there be a gang killing? I want karmic justice to be done!
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Date: 2011-06-10 04:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-10 05:42 pm (UTC)I hope I'm not spoilering you, if I say, it looks like you'll get your wish by the end of Feast. Only I'm not sure I want to read it. It's bound to be a horrorfest.
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Date: 2011-06-10 04:40 pm (UTC)Hee. I'm guessing you read the bits I was sort of alluding to in my journal now? The reason, I ended up skimming ahead, and even went and scanned parts of Feast for Crows - because I got worried about Tyrion and really, really wanted to strangle Cersei. I think I spent the last 100 pages of that book wishing Cersei would get it.
She does by the way - at the end of Feast, from a surprising source and in a satisfying way. (I know because I scanned ahead.) I'll give Martin this - he does plot a fairly karmic universe, but much like daytime soap operas it takes forever for the character to pay for their crimes and when they do, you often forget why you wanted them to in the first place. (Although I don't think that was ever true about Cersei - she's a bit too mwwaaahhaahaa evil - which is a big weakness in the books that they appear to be trying to remedy in the television series. They've already added two things to make her more likable and sympathetic. I think Martin's original intent was to make Cersei the female equivalent of Tywin Lannister, cold, calculating, all about his own legacy and power. Her father's daughter literally. Which isn't sexist at all. It's actually interesting. Except...for the fact that Jamie and Tyrion are nicer and have redeemptive arcs and Cersei is painted fairly black and white. I remember it grating on me.)
Regarding the history?
They don't know Valley Forge, the Gettysburg Address or Lewis and Clarke? Well, that does explain a lot...but..
okay, granted, my father is a frustrated historian so I was going to get that information regardless, but still- I remember being inundated with early American history leading up to the Civil War from the first grade to the fifth grade, to the point that I could recite it by memory. How much of it was truly accurate is another thing entirely. Remember my father being annoyed that my high school history teachers' had degrees in Physical Education, not *cough*history*cough* and one was a libertarian (we were living in Kansas - 85% of Kansas considers itself to be libertarian and they define it the same way Sarah Palin does.) Too much emphasis on math and science, not enough on the humanities...except our math and science departments suck too. Should rephrase that - too much emphasis on "computer science".
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Date: 2011-06-10 05:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-10 06:17 pm (UTC)Weirdly enough the best history teacher I had in high school was the year I had the head football coach. Admittedly, he liked to spend a lot of time on WWII, but at least it was clear that the subject interested him... or at least WWII did.
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Date: 2011-06-10 06:30 pm (UTC)Nope! And he wasn't censured for letting the football players chew tobacco and spit huge gobs of it in the trash can so that the janitorial staff got slimed when they emptied the bins. He called the Japanese exchange student a derogatory name for a Chinese person, frequently made statements that any woman who didn't want to bang him was obviously a man-hating lesbian, made "Democrat-bashing" part of the curriculum, and eventually had to quit his job because he had sex with a 15 year old cheerleader who then claimed she was pregnant and her father was going to make the two of them get married... until it was discovered that she wasn't actually pregnant, just wanted to marry the coach... I hear he's currently teaching at an all girls high school.
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Date: 2011-06-10 06:22 pm (UTC)Another interesting phenomenon is the incomplete historical course - no course I ever took in public school ever got closer to the present day than the end of WWII. Whether things like the Vietnam War or more present politics were considered too controversial to teach, it was never really touched upon. It's a shame, because I don't know half as much about the Vietnam, Korean, or Cold Wars as I would like to.
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Date: 2011-06-10 06:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-10 06:21 pm (UTC)Cersei is one of the great villains of the books and they've turned her into someone who used to "love" her husband (and had an otherwise non-existent baby with him out of "love") and who is carrying out her father's mandate because 1) her brothers are incapable of it, 2) she is a mother fiercely protecting her child and 3) she was wronged and thwarted by her awful husband and so had to take his power. Please. Martin was pretty plain about Cersei's nature in the books: she's a power-mad, selfish, vicious LOON.
I'm really tired of watching Lena Headey furrowing her brow thoughtfully and making quiet, measured observations. CERSEI IS CRAZY. When the hell are they going to show it?
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Date: 2011-06-11 01:26 am (UTC)Of course, I never understand people who AREN'T interested in learning more about any subject... I can't figure why Americans are so proud of being dumb. There's a girl I work with who seems to be bright and on-the-ball, and she honest-to-God doesn't know the order of the months. "November is eight, right?" "No, eleven!"