Thursday's discussion was very deep, very reflective. I think we all agree that having bias in textbooks is not a positive thing. When a student only hears or reads a story from one person's, or as single group's side first, the student tends to see history from that one [biased] point of view only. In that case, it certainly matters whether history is taught to a pupil from a biased standpoint. Unless he is taught from an objective view, the student can only see one side of the story, be it true or only relatively true.
All students should be taught in an unbiased manner in order that they may develop their own opinions, and thus attempt or not attempt to solve the problems in utterly their own manners, rather than ones taught to them from one biased side and particularly that biased side, only.
When students, especially children--who absorb any information given unto them like sponges--are taught anything, they remember most clearly what they are taught first and foremost. Therefore, if and when a student is taught history firstly from one standpoint (subjective or not), that is what he will recall the most clearly, and that is what he will base any future opinions, regarding the subject, off of. For particularly this reason, bias should be kept out of all textbooks--and especially out of any classroom teachings--in order that all students can develop their own, entirely fresh opinions on all subject matter.
Yo woman.
ReplyDeleteI like how your post is pretty much one topic and mine is all over the place, it makes me want to rethink what I did. Anyway, I couldn't agree more. As I put in my post, textbooks should not be biased. My brother is a prime example of a child absorbing any information he hears. Sometimes it is good, but sometimes it is not. As hard as it may be I agree that bias should be kept out of textbooks and the teacher's way of teaching. Students should be able to form their own opinions and theories on the things they learn, and not have them told to them by some higher authority. Teachers should not sway you to believe something a certain way, I think you should decide for yourself. It's scary how they can pretty much make us believe whatever they want by the way they teach it. Makes you question what you have learned all these years.....
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I enjoyed the neat layout of this posting, the other blog i read was all in a jumble, difficult to follow. Well now that that's out of the way, let's get this party started ful.
ReplyDeleteI find what you said very true, i mean small children are not taught to think, they are taught to memorize, and while its the basis of all knowledge acquisition, it's not without its faults. Then again, you can't really ask a first grader to analyze his social studies book... when i was in the first grade the main objective was to stay alive, now i dunno if that's the case with these public schools in texas, but i digress, we have bigger concerns.
First of all, I love your background and I might have to steal it! :) And second of all, I agree with everything you said. If we are only being taught one side, or one person's view of what took place, how are we able to know what else happened? What about the other side to the story? Bias should definitely not be included in textbooks. Like you said, having no bias in classrooms will enable the students to construct their own opinion on the subject, and being able to make their own opinion will help them really know and understand their history.
ReplyDeleteI really like what you have to say, especially the point about younger students being very impressionable. The only question I have for you is how do you think a completely unbiased text book could be written? Who would decide what is important and what is not? What would get left out exactly, but still have the book be 'unbiased'? I do agree that students should be presented material in a fashion in which they can make their own opinion about history, but is making the text book unbiased the most realistic way to make that happen throughout schools?
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