I needs to be considered appropriate to show those kinds of films when relaying the impact the war has on the people. I'm not certain it was relevant to the geography class in question, but I can certainly see how the emotional impact of the war on the iraqi people and the soldiers could have an effect on Geography in the future.

Regardless -- my point is that we should stop considering reality to be inappropriate for high-schoolers. We show them people being blown up constantly in movies and games without ever showing them what it really looks and feels like... that's what is inappropriate. It is no wonder most people don't understand the true impact of war... we trivialize it daily.

Ever see one of the documentaries on the sinking of the Titanic? Everyone knows how it ends, the interesting part is how it got there. Nothing like teaching people to learn from mistakes made in the past, as well as why things that worked out well, did.

"Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it", etc.

That's messed up. Is there a petition online somewhere for this?

I'm a veteran. He can tell me that all he wants. He's not wrong, but I'm also not disagreeing with you entirely either. I don't believe humanity is currently capable of being entirely peaceful, therefor some level of defense will be necessary.

But, in the grand scheme of things, he's right, there is no triumph in war, it is the worst of humanity. I know our WWII veterans served with honor, but that doesn't mean we should celebrate our victory in WWII. We nuked Japan to end the war that may have saved many American lives but resulted in the death of many, many Japanese civilians. Should we celebrate that as a triumph as well?

It is best to explore and remember history as significant as WWII, but not to celebrate it. Those that do so are the same sort to wave in the flag in the face of the dissenters and call them traitors.

as taken from one of the very best books i have ever read called 'the last hours of ancient sunlight-the fate of the world and what we can do before it's too late' by thom hartmann about the sad state of our environment and our worlds apathy and ignorance pushing it futher into oblivion, i quote ;While Columbus once refered to the Taino Indians as canibals, there was then and today still is no evidence that this was so. It was apparently a story made upby Columbus-which is to this day still taught in some U.S. schools-to help justify his slaughter and enslavement of the people....For even a minor offence, an Indian's nose or ear was cut off, so he could go back to his village to impress the people with the brutality the spanish were capable of.Columbus attached them with dogs, skewered them onpoles from anus to mouth, and shot them.Eventually, life for the Taino became so unbearable that, as Pedro de Cordoba wrote to the king Ferdinand in 1517 letter,'as a result of the sufferings and hard labor they endured, the indians choose and have chosen suicide.Occasionally a hundred commited mass suicide. the womenexausted by labor,have shunned conception and child birth,many, when pregnant, have taken something to abort and have aborted.others after deliveryhave killed teir children with hteir own hands, so as not to leave them in such oppressive slavery.'Eventually Columbus and later his brother Bartholomew Columbus, whom he left in charge of the island, simply resorted to wiping out the Taino altogether.prior to columbus's arrival most scholars place the population of Haiti/Hispaniola at around 300,000, by 1496 it was down to 110,000,by 1516 12,000, by 1542 les than 200, and today not a single Taino is alive; their culture, people, and genes have vanished from the planet."-end quote

did you learn that in school? dont you think that a teacher who teaches outside the curiculum is critical to learning something that the government might not standarise into importance. i was shocked when i read that 37 pages into a book about the environment. but im glad i learnt it. and im glad that our ciriculum in canada is eassily bendable and changed every year, because i heard this book was being taught in my old social teachers class now. i think it should be for the environmental issues included but the other info is mind boggling as well.
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please excuse all typos in mt last comment, its hrd to type whilst holding a 5 month old

This is a non-story. Individual teachers don't (nor should they) get to make up their own curriculum in public schools. Let the guy open his own private school and convince people to send their kids to it and he can teach whatever he wants to.

...And this is the reason that I fear my career choice sometimes.

Hello. My name is Vaespoony. I think outside the box and want to teach my students to do the same.

... and then I'm fired!

I do feel like something of an asshole for making the generalization about veterans, but I believe you understood what I was aiming at and I thank you. However, while I understand everyone's stance on how war is shitty (and I agree), I'm trying to explain the fact that it is an unavoidable trait that humanity constantly falls into.

To answer the second paragraph in particular, I will openly agree with anyone that it was a tragic solution to the war, what happened in Japan. My dispute, though, was more along the lines of the Western Theater of the war, in Europe, and the toppling of the Nazis. I do believe it was triumph. It was a tragedy, but it was also s triumph of human achievement (not American), in the sense that a great atrocity was being committed, one whose moral opposition saw past border, language, and race, to band together and stop it.

Admittedly there were plenty of more political aspirations in stopping the war, but for the laymen to be so willing to fight says something.

It is best to explore and remember history as significant as WWII, but not to celebrate it. Those that do so are the same sort to wave in the flag in the face of the dissenters and call them traitors.

dude, you get american and world history for at least 8 out of 12 years. surely one of those years you could study world events in reverse order.

the real thing they nailed him on is related to No Child Left Behind, ie, the schools funding would be cut if the sheep... er students, didnt learn exactly what was on the NCLB tests

The only reason I chopped out your previous post is because it was rather long, and I don't want to really clutter up this thread. No disrespect was intended.

No, I was not admittedly taught such things in High School. I must ask, though: were you? Or did you discover this upon your own investigation? Listen, I'm not sitting here that Columbus is a saint, by any means. What I was trying to get at is that I believed my predecessor was trying to make a point that his teachers were lying to him that Christopher Columbus is the be-all-end-all of the Americas. True, his teachers may have actually taught him that, and for this, I fault them.

BUT...in my history of education, I've never been duped into believing ANYthing. Obviously, this is arguable. However, in my life, my teachers have always promoted individual thought and group discussion and debate, and encouraged us to find our own answers. We depend on our teachers to tell us the truth. Whether or not they do is something else entirely. In this case, we can bring it back home. The older generation, or the generation which is about to become older, can take this knowledge of faulty school systems and teach their children to pay attention in school, but also to question. My professor of Art History told us the other day, he wants us to learn, then revolt. Teaching us is useless unless we choose to question him and learn for ourselves.

We waatched "The Three Amigos" in spanish class.

+1 for Human Geography 415: Social Issues in the Mesopotamian Valley.

That's what I caught too... Most of my family are teachers and when I saw that they used the reason of preparing kids for the standardized tests. It's unfortunate that he was fired. The guy in the article who commented that many students were unhappy with him forgets that hardly any teachers are universally liked, especially when they make students think, since it requires an engaged mind and work.

Institutions are necessary to administer to various human needs, but they come with the hazard of institutional thought patterns on the part of those who operate them. Chains of command like people who like chains of command, conformists like conformists, authoritarians like people who like to serve authority figures without question, authoritarians like institutions that rigidly organize people, they like people who like to be told what to do. This is true everywhere and everywhen. You can fight it, but I doubt you're ever going to be able to get rid of this sort of human situation, because institutions will always be necessary, but there are certain sorts of people who thrive in them, who have a more deeply conformist outlook than is best for institutions that purport to be conduits for learning.