SEARCH
Report: Textbooks Ignore Union Contributions
 |
Most American children never receive any education about the union movement’s proper place in our country’s history and its many contributions to the nation’s development, according to a new report.
“American Labor and U.S. History Textbooks: How Labor’s Story Is Distorted in High School History Textbooks,” sponsored by the Albert Shanker Institute in cooperation with the American Labor Studies Center, surveys four major textbooks that together account for most of the market in U.S. history textbooks. The report found that these textbooks often present labor history in a biased, negative way, focusing on strikes and strike violence while giving little or no attention to the employer abuse and violence that caused the strikes.
In addition, it notes that the textbooks virtually ignore:
- The role of unions in passing protections and reforms such as the eight-hour work day, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, occupational safety and health, the end of abusive child labor, and environmental protection;
- Unions’ strong support for the civil rights movement; and
- The role unions played in the 1960s in particular, when the rise of public sector unions brought many more Americans into the middle class and gave new rights to public employees.
AFT President Randi Weingarten said the report “explains why so few Americans know much about labor’s history and contributions.”
It paints a devastating picture of distortion and omission. Too often, labor’s role in U.S. history is misrepresented, downplayed, or ignored. The result is that most American students have little sense of how the labor movement changed the lives of Americans for the better. A vital piece of U.S. history is disappearing before our eyes.
Weingarten also is president of the Albert Shanker Institute.
 |
Become a Fan on Facebook |  |
Follow Us on Twitter |  |
Subscribe to YouTube |  |
Subscribe to Blog RSS | ||||
21 Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Very well written, James. And this reminds me of all of the other important contributions by people who have gone uncelebrated in our country’s history.
Such as, how many of us know that those refrigeration units on semi-truck trailers was invented by an African American U.S. natizen? And of course, I am caucasian myself but I am quite impressed, because those refrigeration units are everywhere!
Labor has always been given the slandered treatment of being “those trouble-makers”. But unionization has given us so many humane employment benefits and safety laws which today are under attack. It was the Teamsters Union that stopped United Parcel Service from paying and treating their full-time employees as part-timers to save on taxes and wages!!!!! And you’ve covered the vital mainstream effects of the unions, Jim.
Now for the textbooks to inform students of the real nature of our nation’s progress, which is rooted in Democracy which The Establishment hates so much, because The Establishment wants us to shut up and obey! Obey just like the Chinese government requires of their miners, even though several times each year there are major mine tunnel cave-ins and explosions that continually happen again and again and again every year !!!!!!
OF COURSE. The ruling class writes the books according to their world view. Heres another kicker- color television was invented by a Mexican, yes a real Mexican in Mexico. His name was Gonzalez Camarena, and thanks to his invention color TV became generalized by 1962.
Most textbooks in the US are being written to conform to the rigid, ideological right-wing standards set forth by the Texas School Boards Association.
They are ignoring the contributions of anyone who is less than white, republican or male and the school children across America are getting this uber- conservative commentary regarding American history!
It is shocking and alarming how the members of this fascist school board and friends of the reactionary Koch brothers, are being allowed to rewrite history of the USA to their liking!
And the Repugnicans call corrections to make history honest “Revisionist History”. Just like they call themselves “conservatives” which they most certainly are not!
Not even land-owning WASPs are safe – they shredded Thomas Jefferson from the books for being a scientific politician that advocated for secular government informed by scientific debate and skeptical inquiry.
Anyone here suprised by this? They will teach your children that you are evil because you belong to a union.
Growing inaccurate text books have been distributed within our educational system. Virginal in their 4th grade history had the African American fighting for slavery! As well as quite a few more false representations. Memory serves me right, 22 items as blatant lies. Don’t forget Texas and their biases on evolutions in their text books that had to be recalled. Now here we go again with misrepresentations of our labors. Odd that Right Wing NEEDS to resort to propaganda Taliban tactics. Illuminates their true character and agendas. Are we to return to President Adam’s Alien and Seditions Act?
Emulate our forefathers of December 1733 and gather up the Tea flavored republicans and cast them out unto the waters of political oblivion.
Read your children’s history books; Educational and keep an eye on the right’s falsehoods. Are we smarter than a 5th grader?
Well, there were those slaves who obeyed their masters against other slaves for a variety of reasons, and one of those actually fomented the major rebellion. He was a servant who had travelling permission to visit various other plantations without being escorted, and one of his duties was to return other escaped slaves back to his master. but what he did clandestinely was to organize a rebellion in 1811.
“Slave Resistance in Natchez, Mississippi (1719-1861)
By Jaime Boler — From the time of their first arrival in Natchez, slaves resisted bondage. Slavery existed in Natchez beginning in 1719 and continued through French, British, Spanish, and finally (US) American rule.” http://mshistory.k12.ms.us/articles/58/slave-resistance-in-natchez-mississippi-1719-1861
1811 slave revolt can’t be forgotten: A guest column by Daniel Rasmussen Published: Tuesday, January 04, 2011 — In January 1811, a slave army, 500 strong, mounted the largest single act of slave resistance in American history; a revolt several times the magnitude of the uprisings led by Nat Turner or John Brown. Led by 11 men representing different ethnic groups, the army demonstrated not only an ability to organize in the face of severe oppression, but also a remarkable level of political sophistication. The rebels marched in military formation, dressed in military uniform, and came within 15 miles of conquering New Orleans.
http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2011/01/1811_slave_revolt_cant_be_forg.html
No Bernie010 apparently we are not smarter than a fifth grader. Some one put those people in office and from what I am reading on this site seems some of the people want to put more of them in power.
A good introductory text for high school students would be Boyer And Morais “Labor’s Untold Story” it is published by the UE(unaffiliated)
When i had history in high school in the 1950, I learn how impoant
union were. My history book said, that reformest told workers to to vote for people who wanted to pass legistlation ssto better worker people
lives and their familyies Wokers did vote for such legislators that favored their views, but they formed unions to bargain with companies
they worked for, and to pass legistlation to better their lives and their
families lives. That why I think in my day labor history was explained
very well in school.
Parents really do need to read through their child’s text books and where possible challenge the school to bring in someone to discuss labors role in history. I was able to do that where I lived and teachers often like to have visitors come to speak to their classes who can talk to labor history. The text books need to be challenged and any school system that accepts the texas text book standards need to be challenged seriously. The Texas system leave Thomas Jefferson out and has revised history. The word democracy can not be used because it is too close to Democrat. We all need to stay aware and object to these serious breaches of trust by our school systems.
In the past I think the news media treated unions much better too and told the whole story. Now all you hear from the corporate media is about the strikes or when an employer complains of property damage. I have not ever seen a newspaper report how badly the employers were treating their employees or how much the employers were trying to take away from workers.
wages and benefits have been going down since Ronald Reagan was elected, but the text books won’t reflect that either, and the national media will seldom touch the subject.
Corporations refuse democracy for workers without a voice. There has always been propaganda on the corporate side, money rules, they will never tell about the company store, child labor, or killing families during coal miner strike’s. We here all about union thugs but never about company thugs. The sad thing is that american corporations are still at it in third world countries.The mark of the.beast 666?
My high school history book not only failed to address the strikes and violence, it didn’t even mention the forces behind worker’s rights, like they just appeared. It totally ignores union existence in its entirety.
I’ll be brief. This is the same as the holocaust denyiers! Deny anything about the history of unions!!
Except that there were about a dozen holocausts against Jews, and some of them were by Jews against Jews which ultimately resulted in Christianity!
.
The anti-union propaganda and persecution by commerce has actually exacerbated the conflicts between unons and employers, it is THEIR fault! Now we need to set the record straight and The Establishment STILL wants to fight the truth! BUT… we ourselves need to be TOTALLY honest ourselves, but with all of the violence and murder and tyranny of commerce against workers for hundreds of years, their attrocious behavior would definitely incriminate commerce to absolute shame… if they let the truth be known! And this is exactly what is going on in China — they are copying us as we copy them!
Every local union, or the Central Labor Council, should have community outreach programs. Schools would welcome a program that educates and informs students about organized labor, and we could be living proof that we’re not just thugs and violent strikers. Here in California,the first week of May is dedicated to labor education programs. I would like to see a traveling program, featuring labor-themed music, storytelling and eyewitness accounts or just an informal chat with students where we could find out what they know about unions—and then dispel the myths. It is an opportunity that will build good will among the young, and even educate their elders. We should be highly visible doing good in the community, not just during contract squabbles.
Oh yes we can’t say anything bad that happened in America. I would suggest reading ( Lies the Teacher tolds us ) And yes the Texas School Boards Association is were a lot the crap comes from.
If social media like Facebook can fuel revolutions in places like the Middle-East Arab nations, we should use them to help teach Labor History until we get it properly restored in school texts. It is important that today’s youth know that innocent people were gunned down by private security firms as well as state & federal militia fo refusing to go to work. Equally important is that they understand that we are not automatically immune from those conditions again. Teach your children. Spread the word.
I thank God every day for the fact that even though I took US History during the Reagan years, when this crap began and Government classes were sanitized as well, that the poor Catholic school I went to couldn’t afford new books – they were left overs from the late 60′s/early 70′s. We learned so much about the unions, the busting of monopolies, the greed and lack of regulation that spurned the big crash on Wall Street and the Great Depression. My husband is a teacher today, and these kids know nothing about the unions, corporate interests, or any of it. It’s truly sad that this has happened in America.