In today’s Opinion section of the New York Times, in honor of Canada Day there are short statements from notable Canadians living in the Untied States. They write about what they miss most about Canada. Included is a the response from Malcolm Gladwell:
In history class, in seventh grade (or as we like to say in Canada, grade seven) we learned the story of the American Revolution — from the British perspective. Turns out you were all a bunch of ungrateful tax cheats. And you weren’t very nice to the Loyalists. What I miss most about Canada is getting the truth about the United States.
I think that this speaks volumes about the history classes in the United States. It dovetails nicely with another article that I posted via Twitter from about the “lull” the culture wars, as represented by the appointment of former congressman Jim Leach to head the NEH. Noting one of my favorite subjects: the battle of the National History Standards. I think that there is a time and a place to discuss the “truth” about the Untied States in our social studies classrooms. I think showing students the whole story of our past (and present) policies is something we all have to do a better job with. We had a great discussion about this in my last methods class when discussing the pros and cons of using just the Zinn People History of the Untied States text.
I think the Gladwell statement above would be a great writing prompt during a unit on the Revolution and you can work with students to bring it all the way to the present: We still do not like paying taxes!
Happy Cananda Day!
