In episode 9, Dr. Bezio discussed the study of history and its role in the humanities. During the discussion, one of the most interesting points raised, to me, was the Great Man Theory of leadership. This theory argued that individuals, or in this case white men, are born with the traits that make them good leaders. With this theory, and with the almost exclusive writings about male accomplishments due to rich white men funding many of the writing expeditions, history has come to focus predominantly on the male experience and tends to ignore the accomplishments and history of women, poor people, and POC. While listening to this discussion of the rich white male-centric account of history, I was reminded of the books and history that I – and I bet many other students – were taught growing up. Throughout k-12 public school, the majority of the books we read were written by white men, along with many of our classes focusing only on the history and accounts of white men and their accomplishments, lives, and thoughts. For example, until I was a senior in high school, I never read any book in school written by an African author about African history, and only a handful of the 400 students in my grade read that book. The focus of history and historical writings is apparent in our education system that focuses almost exclusive attention on the history and accounts of, and the writings of, rich white men.
Critical Thinking
It really is crazy to look back and think about they way we were educated in elementary, middle, and high school. As young people, especially in elementary and middle school, we believe everything we are taught in school because we are impressionable and believe school to be important and the facts we learn to be true – there is no reason not to think that. But, it is scary to think that so many of the things we were taught were biased and that is the foundation of our education. We have to work very hard to change the foundation of education in our young people if we want things to be different.
I completely agree – the more aware I have become over the past few years, the more I look back and am astonished by the lack of diversity of authors, topics, and more that are included in our education system. I remember talking to my parents over and over again about what I had learned at school that day, specifically history class, and they would be astonished as to how focused it was on American history and from the Western point of view of the world. I will never forget reading a US history textbook and there literally being only half a page about the Trail of Tears, while the rest of class focused on commemorating Andrew Jackson’s presidency. It is very easy to see the information/views that are ignored when we are learning about various topics, and that is where the education system fails so many people and creates a larger need for people to pursue higher education.