Tannan and Cheney

Cheney discusses that American history education nowadays is taught negatively to an extreme. Some educators are teaching that Colombus was a thief "a greedy man and a murderer". One teacher, Cheney says, teaches her students "the positive" myth of Colombus is used for political reasons and that the government supports this version only to keep from being criticized for U.S. imperialism. Cheney thinks that history education was too positive in the past and is now turning more negative as the years go on. Cheney is a conservative and they are generally traditional, so I can see where this change in education can upset her. In my personal experience in history, I was taught that Colombus was a hero who founded America and never once heard that Colombus was a thief of any kind. I think politics should not have anything to do with education. Education should be the truth, whether that be positive or negative. If your not taught all aspects of history, good and the bad, how are we as Americans to learn from it. Cheney also discusses how in one incident the AAUW said that textbooks are discriminatory against women which is not true. The AAUW also made claims about sexual harrassment in school. Because of these reports the AAUW issued, congress passed legislation for schools to be more female friendly and of course millions of dollars of federal funds went to the schools. I dont think that politics should be involved in any aspect of school. School is there for you to learn.

In general Tannen discusses the different opinions on how arguments are productive or unproductive in the classroom. One example she uses is how teachers are at first excited to hear their students in a heated debate, but soon realize it is usually only a couple people who speak and they are usually out to be right and "go for the most gross and dramatic statements they can muster" instead of listening to the oponents view. I agree that in most classroom debates students tend to get very emotional and heated when disagreed upon. Tannen believes that there are usually more than two sides in discussions and we shouldn't just look at the two, we should discuss all the points of views and opinions.