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Do you remember being taught history in school? Now, I only had Norwegian history for 10 years instead of 12, seeing as I transferred to an international school which focused on European, rather than Norwegian modern history, but unless I´m very much mistaken, there was a lot of important stuff left out of my curriculum.
Did you for instance know that the Vikings enjoyed same sex relations?
Or did your teacher or curriculum state anything about the results of Norwegian development aid, or question the views of Norway as a promoter of peace in the world?
Or, most importantly, did you learn that from 1935-1977, more than 44 000 sterilisations were carried out in Norway, and only about half of them were done on condoning patients?
I didn´t learn any of this in high school. The reason I know it now is because I study history at university level. I think it´s time to be more controversial when deciding the curriculum of Norwegian history classes. People should be aware. Or am I wrong? Were you taught this in school? Was I the only one who missed those classes?
And to you people from other countries: Do you ever wonder what might have been left out of your curriculums?
Did you for instance know that the Vikings enjoyed same sex relations?
Or did your teacher or curriculum state anything about the results of Norwegian development aid, or question the views of Norway as a promoter of peace in the world?
Or, most importantly, did you learn that from 1935-1977, more than 44 000 sterilisations were carried out in Norway, and only about half of them were done on condoning patients?
I didn´t learn any of this in high school. The reason I know it now is because I study history at university level. I think it´s time to be more controversial when deciding the curriculum of Norwegian history classes. People should be aware. Or am I wrong? Were you taught this in school? Was I the only one who missed those classes?
And to you people from other countries: Do you ever wonder what might have been left out of your curriculums?
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From:
no subject
As for gaps in our own history, Ireland is hardly mentioned at all in UK history lessons (is william of orange's campaign, cromwell's campaigns, absorbed the country in 1800 and the potato famine all get left out). So to is the Boer war (where Britain invented concentration camps).
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From:
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With some subjects (particularly history) it's very hard to present information from an objective view (indeed, may even be impossible). All teaching contains bias (if only in what is not taught in the finite time available). In some sense, all teaching is indoctrination.
Homesexuality is normally not covered in schools. It might give children ideas after all. Sexuality is not covered in history at all normally.
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From:
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It is in my school. We have just gotten this awesome book called "Gaykids - kule barn som også finnes" (Gaykids, cool kids that are also there). Lots of anecdotes where adult homosexuals tell about their childhoods.
And although some teachers might still have difficulty speaking about it, at least in my classes the pupils don't. Either the world's going forward, or I'm wearing rose tinted glasses.
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As old as history itself
What is taught in school in the U.S. is pretty sanitized. The justification for editing history books here in the states is to make historical subjects that are unlikely to anger parents, and are more easily understood by students. It is something often debated on local levels, but not so much on a national one.
Usually people tend not to push for more accurate curriculum, because they believe students that are interested in the subject will likely take courses in history if they attend a university. But some of these texts read like patriotic propaganda.
Hopefully it is not as bad as the Japanese history textbook controversy from a year or two ago. That was a little scary.
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Re: As old as history itself
From: (Anonymous)
Re: As old as history itself
From: (Anonymous)
Re: As old as history itself
The controversy concerns the behavior of the Japanese government and military during World War II. Some conservative groups have tried to whitewash the atrocities committed by the government, while some liberal groups have tried to portray the Communist forces in a heroic light.
Since 2000 however it has been mostly about the whitewash attempts by Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform.
Here is a Wikipedia link,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_history_textbook_controversies
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Re: As old as history itself
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There has been a lot of change in the field of history in the past few decades, exposing bias. However, textbooks are very slow to change, and often opposed by government.
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And I didn't even have normal history for the last three years, I had art and music history.
If you didn't learn about point two and/or three in history or social science that means your school/teacher didn't follow the curriculum plans, which is quite common and a big problem when it happens. The curriculum plans are there for a reason...
From:
no subject
Guess my country isn´t as bad as I thought, and I was just in the vicinity of bad teachers.
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no subject
But no, it's probably not as bad as you thought, our politicians do have their moments, you know... :p
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