Reply #48: IMO, I think it's okay if kids are taught the truth by middle school

[Hippo_Tron]

In second grade we learned that same song and also about how Columbus proved that the earth wasn't flat, etc. I think that as a second grader it's probably better than I didn't learn about genocide of the Native Americans. I think that when you teach history to young children, it kind of needs to be taught in a simplified way without any real analysis.

Here's another example. Rosa Parks is one of the most beloved figures by all people in American History. But would she be so beloved if we taught second graders that she was legal counsel to the NAACP and trying to start a controversy and not an old lady who wouldn't give up her seat because she was tired? Should we teach second graders that Martin Luther King wasn't faithful to his wife?

I think that we absolutely should teach kids these things when they get older, but for second graders, I think there's a reason that we spoon feed them the mythological version of history. The real thing is too much to handle.