You, sir, are my hero. As someone with an MA in Poly Sci I am forever attempting the feat you have just completed. You must share this secret so we can go forth and continue the indoctrination elsewhere.
The amount of people who are convinced I provided zero evidence or primary sources to my students is bewildering. My phrasing was satire, because of how people view history educators. Everything we do or say is scrutinized to tiny details, and to be honest, almost proves my point.
Students engaged in primary source discussions, conversations, and analysis. We discussed WHY he showed "The Birth of a Nation" at the White House, how he regressed black rights, and encourages Jim Crow laws. And yes, we also discussed Fourteen Points, antitrust laws, etc.
High School students see right through BS. If I lectured to them about how WW was a great and strong leader, a collaborative president, I'd be lying to them. So I present the evidence and let them craft a conclusion. I "convinced them" by SHOWING THE EVIDENCE. They happened to dislike WW by the end.
People who think that you can just tell teenagers what to do, like hate Woodrow Wilson, and that they will just do that without still deciding on their own that's the thing to do, really don't know teenagers. An adult can barely convince them to not play in traffic.
I can barely get them to listen without constant redirecting from their phones or other distractions. It was a miracle they found Wilson's background and presidency so intriguing.
Exactly. I teach Canadian history to grade 10 students. I know your pain and the challenges of breaking through by keeping it interesting. I teach it all under the big question "Did Canada move towards becoming a better country?" For each point in history from 1914 to today.
Hate shouldn’t be the goal. The goal should be telling the entire truth. Teach how to think through the events.
Convincing them to think critically and indoctrinating them to the necessity to question information would serve them better than just hating on Wilson.
Hate was never the goal. By telling the truth through lecture and primary sources, it was the conclusion they came to. My pedagogical integrity is fronted with questions and evidence. By analyzing events, it’s clear Wilson’s policies were regressive. Students know BS when they see it.
I thoroughly, completely, and irrevocably disagree with you. An education is about how to learn not how to memorize.
The scientific method is the only tool that mankind has found that distinguishes and defines the world as it exists from popular belief and mythology. Anti indoctrination at its best
Indoctrination, socialization, tomato, tomato. Indoctrination is to inform a group to accept beliefs "uncritically." Did you lie? Teaching the ugly truth may be uncomfortable, but by definition, unbiased. Indoctrination is to skip Wilson screening "Birth of a Nation" in the White House.
Wilson was an intense racist who passed significant policies to regress the black community. He promoted segregation and Jim Crow, and was a KKK sympathizer. He was reluctant to the growing Women’s Rights movement.
While he governed with many reforms for banks and monopolies, he was difficult to task in WWI. He passed the Espionage Act, which is still debated. He was popular in his own time, which provides us a snapshot of the time he lived in to help reflect on our own.
Many of the eugenics laws passed while he was president are still on the books today in 40 states. He was a huge proponent of eugenics and an early student of the racial pseudo-science at the center of the Nazi party. Not a nice guy 🤬🤬😈😈
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Convincing them to think critically and indoctrinating them to the necessity to question information would serve them better than just hating on Wilson.
They came to that realization on their own, given the facts.
Now if only their older siblings, parents and elders learn to discern BS.
The scientific method is the only tool that mankind has found that distinguishes and defines the world as it exists from popular belief and mythology. Anti indoctrination at its best
Woodrow Wilson is the tariff man right? Yeah that’s probably fair.
Most Americans study US History in school and most of us wind up not hating Woodrow Wilson, so... hm.
Nah, that’s just common sense.