Sometimes I feel a little bit like Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde in my own feelings about different education issues. On the one hand, as I learn about different battles over various topics covered in textbooks, I find myself thinking "jeez! simmer down everyone! this is not the end of the world! what a student reads in a textbook is not going to define their view of the world--teachers play a big role in guiding students through topics, there are supplemental materials, other influences, etc. etc...".
But then, I see something like this, and I snap back to the reality that just as Michael Apple and many others have said, teaching is a political act. It *does* matter what we teach, how we teach it, and what school textbooks say--otherwise entire legacies of oppression can just be swept under the rug as Rep. Michele Bachmann does so glibly here. How can we learn from the past if we rewrite what actually happened?
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