Chapter 1: Present Day History
History classes are without a doubt a critical component of academic curriculum. Not only do they provide several opportunities to gain insight and wisdom on a personal level, but it also manages to teach upcoming generations the shortcomings of our elders as well as their times of greatness and how we can learn from them. That is, if history is taught correctly. An important part of teaching history is making sure that bias is avoided as much as possible. Otherwise it will do nothing but cause tense emotions. That doesn’t necessarily mean that all history topics will turn into a harsh split between two sides, but it doesn’t help prevent it. The problem is, getting rid of bias in with teaching history is impossible, no matter what idea is taken.
In middle school, a primary source of knowledge comes from the textbooks that the school district purchases and then distributes among the students to be used day to day in lesson plans. For subjects such as writing and arithmetic, these are perfectly acceptable due to it just being factual lessons taught thin at can’t be altered such as factoring, or sentence structure, but in a course such as history, bias can be put in between every word and used to portray things in a completely different way. Michael H. Romanowski states in his document entitled “Problems of History Bias in Textbooks” that textbooks are able to do this freely due to the data still being factual. Going off of this, the amount of influence that a bias has is severely underrated to those writing these books, and although it may not be apparent to those reading, the bias in the book is affecting them as well.
An article written by David Sadker speaks of “Seven Forms of Bias in Instructional Materials.” The article goes about listing examples and the different ways in which an article may go about hiding bias. David lists what he notes are the seven main forms of showing bias in the article.
In middle school, a primary source of knowledge comes from the textbooks that the school district purchases and then distributes among the students to be used day to day in lesson plans. For subjects such as writing and arithmetic, these are perfectly acceptable due to it just being factual lessons taught thin at can’t be altered such as factoring, or sentence structure, but in a course such as history, bias can be put in between every word and used to portray things in a completely different way. Michael H. Romanowski states in his document entitled “Problems of History Bias in Textbooks” that textbooks are able to do this freely due to the data still being factual. Going off of this, the amount of influence that a bias has is severely underrated to those writing these books, and although it may not be apparent to those reading, the bias in the book is affecting them as well.
An article written by David Sadker speaks of “Seven Forms of Bias in Instructional Materials.” The article goes about listing examples and the different ways in which an article may go about hiding bias. David lists what he notes are the seven main forms of showing bias in the article.
Invisibility, The Unseen:
At often times, the most important details in a piece of writing is what wasn’t put in the article at all “ Textbooks published prior to the 1960s largely omitted African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans from both the narrative and illustrations.” For example, Chinese accomplishments were excluded from history textbooks due do wartime emotions against them. Nowadays it’s less common as to provide equal knowledge, but still is potentially an issue. If a child never even hears about the other side of the topic, how are they supposed to choose a side fairly? It’s terrible.
Stereotyping
Stereotypes are outstandingly common. After so much time, stereotyping has become a very common thing, being seen in media such as commercials, through actions an individual takes such as deliberately avoiding a certain type of person, and in writing through the roles given. “Men portrayed as assertive and successful in their jobs, but rarely discussed as husbands or fathers” and “Women as caregivers” are two very prominent examples. These can be very effective in portraying a certain groups of persons as bad or good no matter what other factors are put in. Just if some southern farmers decide to go against something doesn’t mean that they all do.
Imbalance & Selectivity
A very important problem is the way in which information and events are portrayed. To clarify, an event can be shown with both sides but if one side is given favor over the other it will greatly influence the mindset of the class. Still going off of what David had said, “Text reports that women were ‘given’ the vote, but does not discuss the work, sacrifices, and even physical abuse suffered by the leaders of the suffrage movement that ‘won’ the vote.” This shows how although they do get what they desired for in the end, it wasn’t properly portrayed how much of a struggle that it was for them to achieve it.
Unreality
Unreality can be classified as ignorance. If a problem is left alone it will resolve itself. That’s not the case however, and it rarely will be, especially when educating the masses on history. If the world was never taught about World War 2, that would be disastrous and wouldn't mean that it neer happened. The same goes for nearly anything. Racial problems can be denied, economic problems, etc. That doesn't mean that they're gone though.
Fragmentation & Isolation
Fragmentation and Isolation is the focus of a certain subject which shows bias by giving more information or praise to one group of persons. For example, in a textbook, there will be one page devoted to how the confederate soldiers spent their days, how they trained and their rations. Afterward, there will be 3 pages on the same topics. It brings about an unfair representation, and in some cases manages to portray the other party as sub-par and/or barbaric.
Linguistic Bias
Word choice manages to be a very powerful; exemplary is much more efficient than good, barbaric is much stronger than wild, etc. There can be other cases too. “Such words as forefathers, mankind, and businessmen serve to deny the contributions (even the existence of) females.” Linguistic bias can sometimes occur accidentally as well, or purposely depending on intent. Using large words for descriptions consecutively manages to confuse and turn away foreign people, which ultimately leads to theories and ideas being secluded to a small portion of individuals.
Cosmetic Bias
Imagery is a powerful tool, and to put it in a textbook makes it no less powerful. The first thing seen when opening a page is the image, it’s hard to ignore. This power can be used to portray a false meaning or importance however, by putting emphasis on something that isn’t relevant to what the text is referring. “A science textbook that features a glossy pullout of female scientists but includes precious little narrative of the scientific contributions of women.“ Using imagery is a very easy way to slide in something that doesn’t belong. Humans are naturally inclined to show interest to imagery, and knowing that will bring a lot of ease to persuasion of false ideas.
Community as a Whole
A community is meant to give new ideas to the world through intuitive thinking and a creative mindset, but how can this be if all they are given is meant to be taken one way? History can give so much to society. It can bring about wisdom of all sorts such as teaching past mistakes to future generations. The Great Depression, Jim Crow, World War 2 and so many more can all be just memories forever if we just properly teach children about them. There must be change to history to give the world a new mindset that has never been seen in all of the ages. Progress is supposed to be happening, so why isn’t it?