“Social Justice” for grade-schoolers: The Howard Zinn Education Project
Photoshop: Leo Alberti
Howard Zinn’s Marxist history book, “A People’s History of the United States,” is de rigeur reading on college campuses and in Hollywood salons.
Dan Flynn wrote a trenchant review of the book several years ago, concluding:
More striking than Zinn’s inaccuracies—intentional and otherwise—is what he leaves out.
Washington’s Farewell Address, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, and Reagan’s speech at the Brandenburg Gate all fail to merit a mention. Nowhere do we learn that Americans were first in flight, first to fly across the Atlantic, and first to walk on the moon. Alexander Graham Bell, Jonas Salk, and the Wright Brothers are entirely absent. Instead, the reader is treated to the exploits of Speckled Snake, Joan Baez, and the Berrigan brothers. While Zinn sees fit to mention that immigrants often went into professions like ditch-digging and prostitution, American success stories like those of Alexander Hamilton, John Jacob Astor, and Louis B. Mayer—to name but a few—are excluded. Valley Forge rates a single fleeting reference, while D-Day’s Normandy invasion, Gettysburg, and other important military battles are left out. In their place, we get several pages on the My Lai massacre and colorful descriptions of U.S. bombs falling on hotels, air-raid shelters, and markets during the Gulf War of the early 1990s.
How do students learn about U.S. history with all these omissions? They don’t.
Zinn utters perhaps the most honest words of A People’s History of the United States in the conclusion of the book’s 1995 edition, conceding that his work is “a biased account.” “I am not troubled by that,” he adds, “because the mountain of history books under which we all stand leans so heavily in the other direction—so tremblingly respectful of states and statesmen and so disrespectful, by inattention, to people’s movements—that we need some counterforce to avoid being crushed into submission.” Two wrongs, he seems to be saying, make a right.
More recently, Zinn made clear that it is not just the idea of objectivity that he finds fault with, but facts themselves. In the current updated version of A People’s History, the author declares: “there is no such thing as pure fact.” Whether Zinn really believes this, or if it serves to rationalize intellectual dishonesty, one can only guess.
Now, there’s a documentary version scheduled to air on the History Channel — reportedly bankrolled by Zinn groupie/actor Matt Damon — and Zinn, Inc. has launched an “education project” to support wider dissemination of his anti-American, anti-capitalist propaganda material to K-12 schools.
Actor Adam Baldwin wonders about the legality of Zinn’s indoctrination plans:
In “A People’s History,” Prof. Zinn declares:
Objectivity is impossible, and it is also undesirable… because if you have any kind of a social aim… then it requires that you make your selection on the basis of what you think will advance causes of humanity.
Moreover:
Professor Zinn announces the overtly political agenda of A People’s History in an explanatory coda to the 1995 edition. Zinn explains to the reader that he has no interest in striving for objectivity, and that his history is ‘a biased account.’ Professor Zinn explains: ‘I am not troubled by that. I wanted my writing of history and my teaching of history to be a part of the social struggle. I wanted to be a part of history and not just a recorder and teacher of history. So that kind of attitude towards history, history itself is a political act, has always informed my writing and my teaching.’
That subjective social aim and biased accounting, when used as the basis for student instruction, is inconsistent with state education codes, local school board policies and administrative regulations.
Public schools are required to provide varying points of view and deal with issues in a factual, rational, objective manner and in a spirit that clearly indicates an attempt to promote greater understanding. They are prohibited from engaging in viewpoint discrimination.
…Hopefully schools will become more cautious before agreeing to institute such curriculum and lesson plans in their classrooms.
Howard Zinn is a famous educator.
Does what he and his Zinn Education Project collaborators and celebrities think will advance causes of humanity comply with the law, and is it ethical instructional material?
If not, then it is inappropriate for use in America’s public schools.
Reason #99,999,951 to home school or start your own charter school.
Fight the power.
***
More on Zinn’s Hollywood fan club:
“The film is an inspirational film about democracy,” Zinn told us. “It’s about how people – not governments – achieve social change.”
Of course, Damon and Zinn go way back. They were neighbors in Newton when Damon was 5 and Zinn was writing “People’s History,” and have been close ever since. In his breakthrough flick, “Good Will Hunting,” Matt’s character, a Southie genius janitor, tells his shrink, played by Robin Williams, to read Zinn’s book: “It’ll knock you on your ass.”
And Will Hunting’s monologue about why he shouldn’t work for the NSA (“It’ll be some kid from Southie over there taking shrapnel in the ass.”) was inspired by Zinn’s work.
“Ben and I were laughing our asses off writing that,” he recalled. “We liked it that the smartest guy in Boston was reading Howard Zinn.”
After Damon’s big-screen shout-out, Zinn’s book went on to sell 2 million copies. So it is only right that Matt is the first big name to appear onscreen in “The People Speak.” He reads The Declaration of Independence . The performance sets up the rest of the documentary, which, the producers say, “celebrates democracy.”
The film intersperses historical footage with dramatic performances of documents, letters, speeches and diaries written by some of the better-known Americans who shaped this country’s history: Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Mark Twain and Susan B. Anthony . But other voices, not often heard in high school civics class, also are included: Nez Perce Chief Joseph, heavyweight champ Muhammad Ali, factory worker Genova Johnson Dollinger, socialist Eugene Debs and rebel Massachusetts farmer Plough Jogger .
The documentary, mostly filmed in Boston at the Emerson Majestic Theatre, features “W” star Josh Brolin, who also produced the flick, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Viggo Mortensen, Danny Glover, Kerry Washington, Marisa Tomei, Q’orianka Kilcher, Michael Ealy, Don Cheadle, Jasmine Guy, David Strathairn, Eddie Vedder, John Legend, Chris Robinson and Lupe Fiasco . It was co-directed by Chris Moore, Damon’s “Project Greenlight” partner and a “Good Will Hunting” producer.
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I’m so glad I homeschool. We learn history from a Providential perspective and I’m not afraid to voice both the positives and negatives. No revisionist history here.
Who uttered the phrase”He who controls the past…” How can this be put in its place and stopped?
Zinn: “Facts?! Facts?! Screw the facts! I’m trying to educate here!”
I want you to be part of history, also!
Go grab yourself an ice floe, you poinyoin!
I’m guessing, too, that there is no mention of American doctors curing yellow fever and malaria, so Americans could build the Panama Canal. Or how American farmers grow the majority of food for the world. Or American pharmacutical companies create most of the medical breakthroughs in the world. Or how Americans develop new strains of grains that can resist disease, and grow in previously-dead soils. Or how Americans…..
More like “He who controls the schools rules the world.” Get your kids out of government school NOW!
Kids here in Hawaii public schools add the insult of having to learn how Hawaii was a peaceful paradise until Captain Cook showed up.
There were two waves of Polynesian immigration to Hawaii. Basically, the second wave either killed or enslaved the first wave. They fought inter-island for a thousand years. You could be put to death just for stepping on the Chief’s shadow.
Everything was fine until the white man ruined it. There was no disease, no poverty, no homelessness, yadaX3.
And this is being taught to the kids by the HSTA (Hawaii State Teachers Association Union) teachers (Hawaiian, Caucasian, Filipino, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and what-ever mix of all). Being a lunatic liberal knows no color.
I am so sorry I couldn’t afford to send my kids to private schools. At least I could undo the damage at the dinner table.
Not surprising that Zinn brought out the ass in Damon.
Re-write our history and future generations will believe this communist/socialist drivel is right. It just makes it easier to indoctrinate future generations. Simple as that.
***
Possibly Zinn could assign some relevant extra credit work for the students. Possibly an essay comparing how the great insights in CHEECH AND CHONG movies trump those boring concepts in the FEDERALIST PAPERS.
***
Or an essay on how much happier the Cuban People have been in their 50 years of joy under Fidel Castro’s communism than they would have been if they had been born in the racist U.S.A.
***
John Bibb
***
Wow tell me thats a joke….I mean please, this sounds like something you’ld see in a school elsewhere when we are at war with them. If its not a joke please let it ruin our military quickly so another nation can stomp our rump. Heck at least the Chinese Communist have more nationalisim, and morality than our Socialist.
I mean hell the history books for the most part ALREADY are split down the middle or judgemental of US policy. I mean how can schools even dare consider it. Where is the media outrage, where is the lench mob or arrest warrent for this man? Where are the Patriots?
A nation with no Nationalisim is like a body with no Soul. Maybe its this mans “right” to write such, but I don’t see it as his right to force it down the throats of our youth. What country is this…
what about the greatest people’s movement ever? The Revolution of 1776? Where the people moved upon an oppressive government to begin to govern themselves? I guess that isn’t mentioned, either?
we need another such movement, i am afraid, today…
Schools are run locally. Take them back or accept this trash- your choice.
My daughter’s history professor recommended this book to his students.
She thought it would be an interesting book for me to read during my hospital stay. First off, the title was a dead giveaway. I felt like I was reading a sci-fi about an alternate universe. At least, I can honestly say I read the book, unlike the left wing nuts…
Oddly enough, my home schooled kids have never heard about or asked about Howard Zinn. They are too busy reading classical literature and dreaming up interesting science experiments to learn that there is no such thing as a “fact.”
We could end this nonsense in the public schools tomorrow if we all took our kids out of public school…
All I need to know about Zinn:
NYU
Columbia
Boston U.
Darn, and I sometimes watch the History Channel, too. Or used to.
Our Republic is slipping away from us.
I say good. The more ignorant these people are about truth and reality, the more epic their failure will be.
Zinn’s book was one of the recommended list of books I had to “use” for graduate school. Flynn’s review of Zinn’s book is pretty accurate, given that when you read this poor excuse for American history, you get nothing but an account of the disenchanted and malcontents whose sole bent is to undermine the “patriarchy” and devise a new reality for America that has nothing to do with its founding or “democracy.”
It’s troubling that history, and the way it’s portrayed by socialist zealots like Zinn, doesn’t account for accuracy or truth. What’s even more troubling is that Zinn holds sway in post-secondary educational environments and even the way history is taught to public school kids TODAY. Zinn has always been transparent about how he sees history and how it should be presented. It’s too bad that Zinn’s supporters can’t seem to appreciate that history should be told from ALL points of view, not just the PC-approved one.
Since I majored in history in college 25 years ago, I thought I was up to the challenge of reading Zinn’s People’s History when a liberal acquaintance told me the book formed the foundation of her beliefs. (Even more frightening, she is a 5th grade social studies teacher in the public school system!)
So for the sake of the children and wanting to be open-minded, I began reading the book.
I put the book down with disgust after reading just 2 chapters. It is pure fiction, discribing Zinn’s personal beliefs about what the history might have been. When I went to what should have been the footnotes section to see what he was using as a basis for his claims, I discovered there are no footnotes in this book. There was a bibliography for a general list of sources, but no footnotes to verify his “facts.”
The lack of footnotes in Zinn’s book is a clear sign that it is a fraud!
I’m really getting tired of hearing about “social-” anything.
It’s just code for theft.
After the coming civil war, the professors, teachers, and journalists must be the first to go.
“Facts” are passe. It’s how you feel about it, i.e. fuzzy math.
HopeyChangey Department of Progressive Education = DOPE
Tool.
So, Howard Zinn writes a book where he establishes the fact that there is no such thing as, er, a fact…
And the libtards think he is a genius.
These people really make me laugh…
Hi, swede!
Wanna help me beat on zero about gay and lesbian marriage and adoption?
Alas; I have at least one for you, Zinn…
1)You. are. an. uneducated. fool.
Hi pure – Quite honestly, I would rather go out in my yard and have a dialogue with a fence post…and the discussion would be more productive…and civil.
But thanks for the invite.
Well, I’ve got him in a very civil dialogue. He’s actually improving.
I learned more in 1 year of US history than my children learned in 2. Their school didn’t think it was necessary to include the War of 1812 either. Teachers never asked what happened in history on a particular date when that date was say…Nov 22, Dec 7, etc, but they had time to do a project on the Sears catalog. No wonder the average citizen knows nothing about this country except that the gov will hand out freebies.
i know one thing for sure that is a fact, i’m damn glad i can give enough money to my child so she can educate her two children in private schools where facts exist, perverts and their practices are frowned upon, and the teachers aren’t working to the lowest common denominator, but instead are stimulating the brightest and helping the rest to try to stay up. work harder grasshopper if you want to master trigonometry.
Good for you cheapseat. I’m doing the same so my daughter-in-law (an x teacher) can home school their kids. These are the only choices left if you want your kids to learn anything and develop decent values.
episode 1,000,001 on rewriting history by a bunch of left liberals who hate this country!
So glad we are homeschooling!
BTW, anyone have any recommendations for early elem. history/govt books?
We’ve found a few bios of founding fathers and we’re vetting them one by one.
Try “Truth Quest History”
Drop a note to Carole Thaxton at KONOS ACADEMY. They develop home school curriculum and offer advanced study. I’m sure she’d be happy to give some suggestions.
To Plymouthacclaim
My love of history began with reading historical novels which gave me a sense of the time and place, often from a child’s perspective which made the history come alive for me.
Here are some of my favorite historical novels from my childhood:
Ben & Me by Robert Lawson
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
Calico Captive by Elizabeth George Speare
Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
and for adults…
1776 by David McCullough
I saw ads for that “The People Speak” crap and realized right away it was pimping Zinn’s twisted “history.” Barf.
I’d rather watch “Matt Daa-mon” in “Team America.”
YIPPEEE!!! The Siemen’s ad is gone!
That was like way stressful.
Johnny Tremain… I read that in 5th grade. I doubt that’s allowed in Public schools anymore.
Thanks all for the tips.
Thanks wren – I read McCullough’s “John Adams” last year. Outstanding!
Just ordered 1776 on Amazon on your recommendation. It better be good!
I’m guessing anything by McCullough is a safe bet.
pure – I couldnt figure out what Siemens was thinking selling windmills on MM. She is more than clear on her views of the big green machine AGW nonsense.
It’s their money I guess. I wonder if Michelle decided to take it down or they pulled it.
swede, there are some insightful comments about that in the different threads. Lemme see if I can find one of the good ones and drag it over here. heh.
Did you see this one?
On December 8th, 2009 at 10:05 am, TK-421 said:
Guys, guys calm down on MM for the ad. Honestly short of using the keyboard how much do you know about the net or google ads?
I’ve ran a few forums over the years, been to a number and to various websites and let me tell you, you have ZERO control over the ads. They are compleatly 100% random and based off of whats typed the most on said sie or forum at the time. We are speaking on global warming so google bots pick it up reguardless of stance and then finds the proper money making ad from a its list.
I’m un-aware of many or any companies going GLOBAL WARMING IS FALSE OR EVIL, rather its more like SAVE YOUR SELF PREY FER GUBERMENT TO SAVE US. So we get a pro-eco ad. For instance we type RPG alot then an RPG Ad will be up, type ann coulter then her books or site. Type Bush’s baked beans enough you get that ad.
Once the summit is over in Denmark I suspect the ad will be gone. Its not MM’s fault nor can she remove it without removing ALL of it. And it cost money to run a site like this, so you want the ad gone, then ask MM where you may send money, till then wait and ignore if you don’t want to pay.
Its much like goverment. All of the complaining we do won’t stop or fix anything, you got to pay to do it, and how or what that is, up to each person.
So move along nothing to see
swede:
I’m partial to A Patriot’s History of the United States from Columbus’s Great Discovery to the War on Terror by Schweikart and Allen
To: Swede
I’m sure you will enjoy 1776! It shows how amazing it is that the “good guys” won the revolution. There were so many times when the outcome could have been very different.
John Adams has been on my must read list for a long time. I now plan to make that my Christmas read this year on your recommendation!
David McCullough does not disappoint! His “Path Between the Seas” was also excellent!
later
Kingfish came and went and did not say hello to me???????
I am crestfallen.
*splat*
I’ll be sure not to include anything starring any of this hollyweird trash on my Christmas list
this yearEVER.It never ceases to amaze me the degree to which “intellectuals” are so un-intellectual. Their very belief system is a logical contradiction.
” . . . there is no such thing as pure fact.” Is that a pure fact? If Zinn is correct, he’s wrong. If Zinn is incorrect he’s wrong. I love to hear enlightened individuals claim that it is absolutely true that there is no absolute truth. It isn’t possible to carry on a sane discussion with someone who denies the very existence of “pure” truth.
Tell me that a civil war will not occur within the next 20 years in this Country. It appears inevitable. We are two nations living within the same borders.
Maybe we can arrange a massive, but civil divorce with liberals living in their new socialist European-style Nation, and conservatives living in their own Nation in accordance with the Constitution, and the vision of the Founding Fathers.
You are dead on target. I think the term is pseudo intellectuals, and what you are talking about is “relativism”.
“There is no absolute truth” is a propositional statement. If it’s true, It can’t be true.
And you are right – this is huge in public education.
I used to be involved with building and managing websites and know a bit about how advertising was done on sites several years ago. Some sites do have complete control over what ads appear there. Some have little or no control over the ads that appear on the site.
I take it that some offending ad appeared on this site but is now gone. Frankly, I don’t care if some idiot advertises global warming messages here. Our host gets a little revenue and we are all smart enough to know it is tripe.
Take care and take your kids out of public schools. They deserve better!
WE82,
Meet up on the Tomato thread.
Be there or be square for a rumble..
WE82,
Meet up on the Tomato thread.
Be there or be square for a rumble..
There are ads on this site?
There were. Big ones.
I look at the buzzworthy items once a week or so. I know there are ads on the page but I rarely pay attention to them. That is one reason I wouldn’t have noticed a Siemens ad. I just tune that stuff out.
(I hope that doesn’t bring financial ruin to our gracious and wonderful host.)
WarEagle82,
You missed the AuroraBorealis here
You win some, you lose some. At least the resident trolls appear to be elsewhere too this evening…
We’ve been homeschooling since Oct, due to the indoctrination in the schools … (long story). Although I was a wee bit anxious, homeschooling is actually very liberating.
Hubbie (a history major) and I sat down and read the middle school history text, and that was the final straw.
Personally, I like to consider history from all viewpoints and voices. Contrarian views are also highly appreciated.
Currently, the Studmuffin is reading
“The Real Lincoln: A new look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda and an Unnecessary War” by Thomas DiLorenzo, and is enjoying it. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, beyond skimming, but am looking forward to it.
I remember being extremely frustrated in high school that they seemed to keep skipping military history. Also, one or two years without dates can be freeing, but when you run into it over and over, you can’t put anything in context.
I took history in college that wasn’t necessary for my degree in order to try to make up for it. It helped a little bit, but I still try to throw history into my reading list when I can.
Incidentally, my high school history was under the influence of the IB Program. There is a push now to get that program into elementary schools. It has a good science curriculum, admittedly. However, I would advise parents of such students to take a look at the history and English material. It may vary by school.
The public schools wouldn’t have nearly so much power if freedom of assembly were taken to include the freedom not to assemble and to fully include Americans who have not reached 18.
The public school establishment only has power because we give it to them. Before we moved back to VA, I watched on YouTube as our school board told parents at a meeting to “Shut Up” and to leave their education “to the professionals”.
Truly, if at all possible….rescue your children from the public school system.
What’s more important than our children?
Statements like this make we wish that I could spend a few minutes of “private time” with this pile of excrement, so I could reshape his skull. This person is a cancer cell eating away at everything decent and true in America.
I don’t think I’ve felt real and true hatred for someone in a LONG time before I read the above statement. This Howard Zinn scum deserves to be kidnapped by Muslim terrorists, forced to read a “confession” before video cameras, and then horribly beheaded.
Excuse me, but I need to go bathe for a few hours…I’m just SO disgusted right now!
Bill Bennett is trying to get his History Books into school curriculum nationwide.
They are pretty good.
If he was just an isolated nut the overwhelming majority of Americans and teachers considered mentally disturbed, your reaction would more likely be one of pity or amused curiosity rather than revulsion.
Our intense revulsion comes from our realization the America we love has been largely converted to Zinn’s demented, civilization destroying way of seeing things.
It is why they voted for Obama.
Just another example of parents being too busy to play a role in their childrens’ education and attend PTA meetings, for several decades.
They took advantage of our non-committment and filled the vaccum.
But why might they have been too busy.
Living on constantly inflating currency while being inundated by new mandates every month. Unable to discipline their own Children for fear of the government. I congratulate Parents that have been able to keep up, but the only real solution is to remove your children from Government Indoctrination Centers (most public schools) and coordinate with other Parents to educate and re-educate the Children of this nation.
In Public Schools nation wide (Government Indoctrination Centers) children are taught to hate America, hate Capitalism and taught their parents are enemies of the state who have lied to them. All this edjamacation is being done with our tax dollars.
Can things get any more discouraging? As a country do we have any light left at all, or is all darkness? My daughter didnt have children – for that I am thankful.
You may read the book in its entirety here:
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/zinnapeopleshistory.html
Agreed +10. I am heartened to find out how many homeschooling families there are on this forum. Once we pulled the trigger, I was shocked how many are in our local area …. we have a small “network/cooperative” of likeminded families where we pool resources and duties. My daughter loves it. I only wish I had been financially able to do so with my older three (now 24, 22 and 20). Better late than never, tho.
Some enlightenment…there ARE facts…here is the base…What is….is and What exists….exists. A reasonable person can move from there. It is reasonable to state the fact that Zinn left much unsaid in his book. As to why he missed so much would be harder to state and fairly unimportant as no reasonable person would give much interest in anything so unreasonable. Many, it seems Zinn included, are incapable of reasoning, to them of course there are no facts, that is because they are as blind to them. We who can reason cannot allow ourselves to be led by the blind, the result would be like the three blind men examining the elephant.
Wow they really said that? Thats cause for a riot right there.
Education as far as I’m concerned is ONLY teaching of educational skills (math reading etc) and of PROVEN facts be they history or Science, in fact evolution should not be taught as it is not fact.
But now Education seems to be teaching your kids how to live and vote. How my kids are raised is no concern of the school system period. Unless of course I did great acts of violance and abuse to them. (IE beating with steal pipes, rape etc, not spankings be it belt or switch)
I presume that most of the MM readers have seen this on Drudge, or will see it soon:
http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bighollywood/2009/12/09/howard-zinn-blames-america-for-911/
VIDEO: Howard Zinn Blames America For 9/11 on Iranian TV
It’s all the US’s fault. This jihadists only murder because the US’s policies drive them to it, you see.