my high school history education was weirdly eclectic
in part because australian history is so boring, i think
there was a lot on the aborigines and how we killed them all, a bit on our participation in the world wars, another bit on sixties counterculture and the rise of the new left, some greece, some rome and a whole thing about 20th-century china
also probably some convict stuff but i've blocked it out
I really wish we'd cover more on exactly how badly the Aborigines have been treated because there is always some arsehole who thinks it'd be great to abolish Native Title or Welfare because of stupid bullshit reasons. If you've ever had a conversation with one of these dickheads you know what those arguments are. Of course it's usually a pretty simple matter to end the conversation by asking how they think the Tasmanian Aborigines are enjoying their welfare. You don't know you say? Well here's a hint, they aren't. BECAUSE WE MURDERED THEM DOWN TO THE LAST MAN WOMAN AND CHILD. Well not quite, it's not really genocide if we round up the last three survivors and put them on a rock in the middle of the ocean until they die is it?
I once read a comment on some right wing site or facebook page which was like "Obama is embarrassing he will go down in history as the worst president we've ever had, the world is laughing at us".
Its like...dude, George Bush...? Like the world is largely enamored with Obama and respect him as a political figure. George Bush on the other hand...
Its just amazing how you could exist in such an echo chamber that you genuinely believe that worldwide people hate and laugh at obama as much as you do.
Also I teach high school history (im Australian) and getting past the stigma of "Australian history is boring" and "I dont care about aboriginals" is pretty tough (even when I teach in schools largely made up of pacific islander kids or the children of immigrants).
Im pretty scared that the abbot governments going to damage the curriculum actually, since it provides a neat way to break into Australian colonialism by sneaking it in under comparative studies of American and South American colonialism, which for some reason students respond to more quickly and enthusiastically.
Well yeah largely ignoring things like the fact that Obama has ordered more drone strikes etc, I mean just in terms of personality and appearing as a competent adult human on the world stage.
Hard right conservatives don't give a flying fart if the president is well liked in the world stage. If anything they consider it a good thing if we're pissing off the rest of the world
What they care about is that non-allies fear us. Their ideal president is the kind of person that can play nuclear chicken with Putin and win.
Im pretty scared that the abbot governments going to damage the curriculum actually, since it provides a neat way to break into Australian colonialism by sneaking it in under comparative studies of American and South American colonialism, which for some reason students respond to more quickly and enthusiastically.
You know this is something I've gotten from talking to a lot of teachers. But it amazes me the hoops that some instructors have to go through to make their classes interesting.
It at least lightens up a bit once you get to college but sheesh.
ronald reagan was a traitor. there isn't really any way around that fact.
Please explain?
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knitdanIn ur baseKillin ur guysRegistered Userregular
There is a conspiracy theory which alleges that before he was elected, Reagan plotted with the Iranians to delay releasing hostages until after the election.
The hostages were released shortly after Reagan was inaugurated.
The conspiracy theory then alleges they the Iran-Contra affair was, in part, payback for Iran's cooperation with the "plot."
“I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
also what they need to do with australian history is contextualize it as part of the history of south-east asia
so instead of beginning with the first fleet they could tell the story of the various chinese, indian and muslim incursions into south-east asia, of which the europeans were simply the last and most technologically advanced wave
then they could talk about the initial portuguese and dutch expeditions to indonesia, china and japan, and how the trade routes thus established were the powerhouse of the european economy for hundreds of years
and finally they could go into how the british conquests in india, burma and malaysia gave them a string of ports that allowed them to efficiently trade with the furthest points of the world, and how the american revolution cut them off from their most viable prison colony and forced them into a desperate search for any continent that might have been overlooked
also how the social system of eighteenth-century britain left them with a huge surplus of poor people that basically no-one gave a shit of any kind about and with whom the existing prison system was fundamentally incapable of coping
australia is interesting in the context of world history, is my point
unfortunately we tend to teach it in a vacuum, which i think is indicative of a broader isolationism that's somehow become lodged in the australian psyche
It's always surprising to me how long Australia remained isolated from contact with the outside world. Like, it's pretty huge and stuff!
more than one european sailed straight between, like, papua new guinea and australia without ever noticing there was a continent there
but also it was far away from europe, and the europeans were the only people doing any systematic exploring
obviously the polynesians knew it was there, and indonesian fisherman have been trading with aborigines for centuries. apparently the natives of arnhem land used to harvest sea cucumber for the chinese markets and trade them with merchants from sulawesi who would ship them up to guangzhou, a practice which continued until the british put a stop to it in the nineteenth century
but nobody who was capable of making a serious impression on the continent took much of an interest in colonization or cartography. the world would be a very different place if the chinese and the japanese hadn't had such a fetish for isolationism
It is a fucking brilliant idea and (optimistically) would put a nail in the three or four terms I spent learning about fucking Charles Sturt.
Australian history as taught in australian primary schools* is boring because it is a history of idiotic white men trying to kill themselves in the desert, with some gold-rush stuff thrown in for colour. Dull as butts. Because I was from SA we didn't even really hear about the rum rebellion or the eureka stockade (gotta get all that Charles Sturt info in there, dontcha know. Maybe a little Matthew Flinders).
I still think my favourite thing I've heard on the history curriculum in the UK was this one time someone apparently recommended additional lesson times focused specifically on a more patriotic bent and a celebration of England's history and culture.
It got shot down on the basis that no, alot of England's history is us being massive dicks and maybe we shouldn't celebrate that.
I was taught about the UK being massive dicks in school. In fact all we got on the revolution was "the US used to be part of the Empire, and they fought us for independence and won, which was the right result"
Yeah, fairly certain UK history is really loose in which periods you teach. Like even my sister going at a different school or in the year below me would be doing different stuff from what I did in that year. Which is really neat honestly.
Year 3: Viking, Celts, bit of Anglo-Saxons, Rome
Year 4: Tudors
Year 5: Greeks, I think
Year 6: Victorians, WW2
Year 7: Battle of Hastings and Normans
Year 8: American West
Year 9: Liberal Reforms
Year 10/11: World War 1, inter-war period, Cold War
Then I avoided history at A Level because it was just going to be the Tudors again and did Classics, so I learnt about Greek architecture, the Iliad and Aeneid, and women in Greece and Rome.
Then went all the way back to Vikings, Celts and Anglo-Saxons at uni, and the 13th century for Ars Magica campaigns.
[Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
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HunterChemist with a heart of AuRegistered Userregular
I once read a comment on some right wing site or facebook page which was like "Obama is embarrassing he will go down in history as the worst president we've ever had, the world is laughing at us".
Its like...dude, George Bush...? Like the world is largely enamored with Obama and respect him as a political figure. George Bush on the other hand...
Its just amazing how you could exist in such an echo chamber that you genuinely believe that worldwide people hate and laugh at obama as much as you do.
Also I teach high school history (im Australian) and getting past the stigma of "Australian history is boring" and "I dont care about aboriginals" is pretty tough (even when I teach in schools largely made up of pacific islander kids or the children of immigrants).
Im pretty scared that the abbot governments going to damage the curriculum actually, since it provides a neat way to break into Australian colonialism by sneaking it in under comparative studies of American and South American colonialism, which for some reason students respond to more quickly and enthusiastically.
You mean George W Bush.
Not that George Bush was some shining beacon of awesomeness, but compared to Jr. he was middle of the road.
As for worst president ever, I would still say that Nixon was the worst president in the modern era simply for all his crazy behind the scenes antics, secret recordings, and the whole Watergate thing.
I liked how my history was taught. At first, it was all about the good stuff. Underground Railroad! Immigrants settling in the New World! Natives help out said Immigrants! Winning the War of 1812! Killing Nazis!
Then, in grade 7-8, our teacher taught us about 'critical thinking' and 'bias' which opened my eyes on how history was written and viewed.
So, when high school history rolled around and we learned about the not so nice stuff, it made more sense. Stuff like Racist Voting Policies! Lying to Immigrants! Residential schools! Okay-maybe-we-didn't-quite-win-the-War-of-1812! Rejecting Jews fleeing from Nazi Germany!
I honestly think that the critical thinking and bias is the most important part of it all.
Our GCSE History course taught a lot about how to use sources, and identify the strengths and weaknesses of different types of record - eyewitness statements, newspaper articles, official records, stuff like that. We spent a lot of time analysing political cartoons, like this one:
[Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
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HunterChemist with a heart of AuRegistered Userregular
99% of political cartoonists should be kicked in the genitals for their horrid contributions to society.
my high school history education was weirdly eclectic
in part because australian history is so boring, i think
there was a lot on the aborigines and how we killed them all, a bit on our participation in the world wars, another bit on sixties counterculture and the rise of the new left, some greece, some rome and a whole thing about 20th-century china
also probably some convict stuff but i've blocked it out
I really wish we'd cover more on exactly how badly the Aborigines have been treated because there is always some arsehole who thinks it'd be great to abolish Native Title or Welfare because of stupid bullshit reasons. If you've ever had a conversation with one of these dickheads you know what those arguments are. Of course it's usually a pretty simple matter to end the conversation by asking how they think the Tasmanian Aborigines are enjoying their welfare. You don't know you say? Well here's a hint, they aren't. BECAUSE WE MURDERED THEM DOWN TO THE LAST MAN WOMAN AND CHILD. Well not quite, it's not really genocide if we round up the last three survivors and put them on a rock in the middle of the ocean until they die is it?
My current law stuff has been fantastic for this kind of thing. They do not mince words in the slightest about how the conquest of australia happened. How violence against the Aboriginal Peoples was decriminalised, how life as an Aboriginal person was increasingly criminalised, how welfare was used to deprive them of any chance at betterment.
It is not possible to come out of any of the courses thinking that anything less than genocide happened.
I'm kinda bummed that most of the australian history that we focused on in school was mainly the various wars, and how australians were soooooo much better at fighting them than anyone else.
Posts
Well, I could add more, but it gets much less lighthearted with each new detail. ( Mostly people actually being stabbed)
you have to be a lunatic to enjoy risk anyway, so, I mean, murders can't be far behind.
I really wish we'd cover more on exactly how badly the Aborigines have been treated because there is always some arsehole who thinks it'd be great to abolish Native Title or Welfare because of stupid bullshit reasons. If you've ever had a conversation with one of these dickheads you know what those arguments are. Of course it's usually a pretty simple matter to end the conversation by asking how they think the Tasmanian Aborigines are enjoying their welfare. You don't know you say? Well here's a hint, they aren't. BECAUSE WE MURDERED THEM DOWN TO THE LAST MAN WOMAN AND CHILD. Well not quite, it's not really genocide if we round up the last three survivors and put them on a rock in the middle of the ocean until they die is it?
Its like...dude, George Bush...? Like the world is largely enamored with Obama and respect him as a political figure. George Bush on the other hand...
Its just amazing how you could exist in such an echo chamber that you genuinely believe that worldwide people hate and laugh at obama as much as you do.
Also I teach high school history (im Australian) and getting past the stigma of "Australian history is boring" and "I dont care about aboriginals" is pretty tough (even when I teach in schools largely made up of pacific islander kids or the children of immigrants).
Im pretty scared that the abbot governments going to damage the curriculum actually, since it provides a neat way to break into Australian colonialism by sneaking it in under comparative studies of American and South American colonialism, which for some reason students respond to more quickly and enthusiastically.
I'm pretty ambivalent about Obama, myself
which is really fucking wonderful for someone raised to believe the conservative/liberal dichotomy
Twitch (I stream most days of the week)
Twitter (mean leftist discourse)
Twitch (I stream most days of the week)
Twitter (mean leftist discourse)
What they care about is that non-allies fear us. Their ideal president is the kind of person that can play nuclear chicken with Putin and win.
http://www.audioentropy.com/
You know this is something I've gotten from talking to a lot of teachers. But it amazes me the hoops that some instructors have to go through to make their classes interesting.
It at least lightens up a bit once you get to college but sheesh.
Please explain?
The hostages were released shortly after Reagan was inaugurated.
The conspiracy theory then alleges they the Iran-Contra affair was, in part, payback for Iran's cooperation with the "plot."
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
he is now alive and living on the moon
so instead of beginning with the first fleet they could tell the story of the various chinese, indian and muslim incursions into south-east asia, of which the europeans were simply the last and most technologically advanced wave
then they could talk about the initial portuguese and dutch expeditions to indonesia, china and japan, and how the trade routes thus established were the powerhouse of the european economy for hundreds of years
and finally they could go into how the british conquests in india, burma and malaysia gave them a string of ports that allowed them to efficiently trade with the furthest points of the world, and how the american revolution cut them off from their most viable prison colony and forced them into a desperate search for any continent that might have been overlooked
also how the social system of eighteenth-century britain left them with a huge surplus of poor people that basically no-one gave a shit of any kind about and with whom the existing prison system was fundamentally incapable of coping
australia is interesting in the context of world history, is my point
unfortunately we tend to teach it in a vacuum, which i think is indicative of a broader isolationism that's somehow become lodged in the australian psyche
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
that would be the colony of america
they used to send prisoners there! but for obvious reasons they no longer could. which is why i am here, now, talking to you
But I just read up on it, and apparently up to a quarter of American colonists were convicts.
This is literally the first time I heard about that.
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
This is such a great idea that I can't believe that I've never come even close to thinking about it.
more than one european sailed straight between, like, papua new guinea and australia without ever noticing there was a continent there
but also it was far away from europe, and the europeans were the only people doing any systematic exploring
obviously the polynesians knew it was there, and indonesian fisherman have been trading with aborigines for centuries. apparently the natives of arnhem land used to harvest sea cucumber for the chinese markets and trade them with merchants from sulawesi who would ship them up to guangzhou, a practice which continued until the british put a stop to it in the nineteenth century
but nobody who was capable of making a serious impression on the continent took much of an interest in colonization or cartography. the world would be a very different place if the chinese and the japanese hadn't had such a fetish for isolationism
yeah i mean i don't know whether it was, like, virginia or maryland specifically, i think it was just all of them
regardless
this means you can never give us shit about being criminals ever again
nobody ever thinks about australia in those terms because they don't fucking teach it
Australian history as taught in australian primary schools* is boring because it is a history of idiotic white men trying to kill themselves in the desert, with some gold-rush stuff thrown in for colour. Dull as butts. Because I was from SA we didn't even really hear about the rum rebellion or the eureka stockade (gotta get all that Charles Sturt info in there, dontcha know. Maybe a little Matthew Flinders).
*at least in the 80s/90s
I think Georgia was the largest colony with prisoners. Or at least debtors.
It got shot down on the basis that no, alot of England's history is us being massive dicks and maybe we shouldn't celebrate that.
Medieval times/1066 onwards kinda stuff
WWII
Cold War
America in the 20's.
We never touched the British Empire. I'm sure there's a module for it but I never learnt about it in school.
Year 4: Tudors
Year 5: Greeks, I think
Year 6: Victorians, WW2
Year 7: Battle of Hastings and Normans
Year 8: American West
Year 9: Liberal Reforms
Year 10/11: World War 1, inter-war period, Cold War
Then I avoided history at A Level because it was just going to be the Tudors again and did Classics, so I learnt about Greek architecture, the Iliad and Aeneid, and women in Greece and Rome.
Then went all the way back to Vikings, Celts and Anglo-Saxons at uni, and the 13th century for Ars Magica campaigns.
You mean George W Bush.
Not that George Bush was some shining beacon of awesomeness, but compared to Jr. he was middle of the road.
As for worst president ever, I would still say that Nixon was the worst president in the modern era simply for all his crazy behind the scenes antics, secret recordings, and the whole Watergate thing.
Secret Satan 2013 Wishlist
asian countries too
not that stuff didn't happen in africa or australia but for the most part it wasn't until the eighteenth century that people started writing it down
Then, in grade 7-8, our teacher taught us about 'critical thinking' and 'bias' which opened my eyes on how history was written and viewed.
So, when high school history rolled around and we learned about the not so nice stuff, it made more sense. Stuff like Racist Voting Policies! Lying to Immigrants! Residential schools! Okay-maybe-we-didn't-quite-win-the-War-of-1812! Rejecting Jews fleeing from Nazi Germany!
I honestly think that the critical thinking and bias is the most important part of it all.
WoW
Dear Satan.....
I'm sure we did other stuff too but I'll be damned if I can remember what.
Secret Satan 2013 Wishlist
My current law stuff has been fantastic for this kind of thing. They do not mince words in the slightest about how the conquest of australia happened. How violence against the Aboriginal Peoples was decriminalised, how life as an Aboriginal person was increasingly criminalised, how welfare was used to deprive them of any chance at betterment.
It is not possible to come out of any of the courses thinking that anything less than genocide happened.
Steam // Secret Satan
Steam // Secret Satan