Letters to the Editor
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Regarding the OT history musings...
History classes bore kids because the curriculum is full of lies--boring lies. History is, in fact, very interesting and exciting. That's because it directly relates to what's happening right now. And that is controversial. It's controversial to teach high school kids the truth--like the fact that the CIA helped overthrow Mossadegh, Iran's first democratically elected leader. In order to teach history in a way that is accurate, and therefore interesting, America would have to come to terms with its own history. And that would entail some serious soul-searching. And that would threaten the American Exceptionalism that allows the masses to believe that America invading other countries and dominating the world is a good thing.
Read "Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James Loewen. He's a history professor; he examines a number of widely used high school history texts and details a staggering number of omissions and blatant lies in them.
p.s. Let's please promise to remember that the Iranians are not Arabs. They are Persians.
p.p.s. I want to plug Marjane Satrapi's new autobiographical animated film, Persepolis. (Greek for "city of the Persians.") It's based on her childhood in Tehran, she was 10 during the Islamic revolution. It's a wonderful window into life inside Iran, and into the minds of folks who don't agree with the current regime. The black and white animation is gorgeous, as is her art in the graphic novels on which the movie is based. She now lives in France, so the movie is in French--Catherine Deneuve does the voice of her grandmother. It's awesome!