• MintyFresh@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    When I was in the third grade, I had a teacher tell me it was okay we pushed the natives off the land because we made more efficient use of it, and could therefore carry a greater population.

    In the previous grade the teacher passed around a worksheet, and we had to choose which jobs were most suited to what gender.

    Oh what a glorious whitebread bublefuck town I grew up in!

    • SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      4 days ago

      My second grade teacher taught us the civil war was because of a disagreement over state’s rights.

      The same teacher marked me and a few other students down for completing a subtraction assignment using negative numbers. She explained we were supposed to be confused and write that we couldn’t do it.

      Edit: I forgot one! My third grade teacher marked me down for not knowing how much a hen weighed. It wasn’t a joke. Apparently there was a rule of thumb for estimating chicken weight. Any kids who weren’t raised on a farm missed the question.

      • calmblue75@lemmy.ml
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        4 days ago

        we were supposed to be confused and write that we couldn’t do it.

        Is this a US specific thing? In our schools, they taught us stuff, then took a test to see how much of it got inside our head. I can’t imagine a test having a question about a topic which is not taught yet. It feels like straight up bullying by the system. We send kids to school to learn things, not to get bullied for not knowing things they haven’t even been taught yet.

        • SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          3 days ago

          I was raised in an exceedingly rural area of an already rural state. My school district was rated amongst the worst in the nation, so my experience was more indicative of the worst 1980s US had to offer. It was bad then, but not usually that bad.

      • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        I remember in 7th grade social studies (on the edge of the SF bay area in the 90s for crab godssake) we had to do a little assignment where we made up pros and cons of slavery.

        the pros i made up were absolute bullshit “uh maybe the technology was better in the states than africa so even with slavery quality of life improved? that doesn’t sound right but maybe i don’t know” racist fucking ass shit turd bull fuck assignment.

        sorry i’m like 10 years behind on my swears i got some catching up to do

      • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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        3 days ago

        She explained we were supposed to be confused and write that we couldn’t do it.

        That is astonishing.

        The most incredible case of teacher malpractice I’ve ever heard of, came from my son. He was in college, taking a film class, which is my son’s expertise. He’s a deep film guy, for real. He could literally teach it, so he doesn’t tolerate nonsense from bad film teachers.

        So this teacher showed a clip of The Color Purple, and proceeded to criticize all of Stephen Spielberg’s artistic choices, painting him as a hack. Spielberg isn’t my son’s favorite director, but he respects his talent. He doesn’t believe that Spielberg is a hack.

        But a stupid conclusion wasn’t the problem. The problem was that the clip the teacher used to illustrate Spielberg’s poor directing, was taken from the terrible remake of it, which wasn’t directed by Spielberg. The teacher criticized Spielberg, using a movie Spielberg hadn’t directed. And it turned out that the teacher hadn’t known there were two versions of The Color Purple, nor that there was a musical, either.

        This was in a COLLEGE film class. My son was disgusted, and I thought it was unforgivable, and told him to report the incident, but he didn’t. He just pledged to never waste another course on that professor.

      • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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        3 days ago

        Fuck no. Teachers are in such short supply that they aren’t looking for reasons to fire them, just pay them less.

        Besides, every state creates their own curriculum. It’s possible that’s the state’s official take on the Native American Genocide. After all, for over 150 years, southern schools have been teaching that the Civil War wasn’t about slavery, it was about the states rights to decide their own fates, without interference from the aggressive north. They teach this despite the evidence of their own state constitutions of the era, which all mention the protection of slavery right at the beginning, as well as the Confederate “Declaration of Independence,” which puts the blame squarely on Slavery. They’ve spent 150 years OFFICIALLY teaching an alternative lie.

        So that Native America explanation might well be an official government position in your state.

        • johnyreeferseed@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          3 days ago

          My favorite thing to point to when someone says the civil war was about states rights is to point out the fugitive slave act. They didn’t want the federal government to get involved in slavery unless it was in their favor .

          • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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            3 days ago

            “Sure it was about State’s Rights. The States Rights to own slaves.”

            That’s the truth, and it’s literally in their State Constitutions. If someone is spewing that nonsense, Google it, and read it to them, because they probably can’t read.

      • lepinkainen@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Most likely that teacher is the wife of the pastor or sister of the mayor or some shit and thus invulnerable