News • Opinons • Politics

Teachers Strive to Ensure Students ‘Unlearn’ Thanksgiving ‘Myth’

Teachers across America are striving to have their students “unlearn” what progressive activists say is nothing more than a “feel-good” Thanksgiving “myth.”

“Thanksgiving became a national holiday during the administration of President Abraham Lincoln, and the myth of familial relations between colonial settlers and Native Americans has persisted in American culture ever since,” says Education Week:

The education media outlet interviewed Jacob Tsotigh, tribal education specialist for the National Indian Education Association, who said, “There’s less and less” of K-12 teachers having students participate in the narrative of the early American settlers sharing a meal with Native Americans.


Tsotigh said more Americans are being “made aware of that version being a myth, and our realization that there is a really different perspective that needs to be considered.”


Photos show aftermath of riots as masked groups clash with police across France
Pro-Israel leader warns Democrats failing to condemn ‘vicious Jew haters’ in Congress
Brother of possible OJ Simpson accomplice claims he returned with bloody hands on night of murders: report
Obama backs Ilhan Omar amid probe, accuses Trump admin of ‘appalling’ targeting in lengthy statement
Breaking: Airman Dies in Front of Tens of Thousands in Tragic Navy-UTSA Football Game Accident After Falling from Rafters
James Talarico’s adoptive father linked to X account mocking Christianity and women
Fauci Diary Entry Complains Trump Pushed Lab-Leak Theory ‘With No Evidence’
Cyberattack Turns Hundreds of Grocery Coolers Into Saunas – Dozens of US Military Stores Faced Similar, Unexplained Attack
Saudi National Caught by FBI Hiding Bug in Toilet Paper to Steal AI Secrets: Report
The nine key races that will decide who controls the Senate, and where they stand
California Mocked for Trying to ‘Haze’ Feral Hogs: Texas Dealt with Them the Old Fashioned Way
Daughters of the American Revolution Dissolves TX Chapter That Fought to Stop Transgender Membership
Trump tries different approach with Russia to bring Americans relief amid ongoing war with Ukraine
WATCH: Virginia cops crawl through burning house to save man trapped in fire
House panel warns Singham-linked nonprofits: Comply with subpoenas or face Congress

See also  Federal agents conduct predawn search of Ilhan Omar’s home in Washington

He added that more public school teachers are reaching out to tribal communities to “connect to authentic teaching sources.”

Education Week continued:

To help students appreciate colonial oppression of Natives and the violence that ensued from it, Tsotigh recommends reframing the holiday as an opportunity to honor representatives of Native communities who greeted European visitors with open arms.

“They didn’t perceive them as invaders at the time because their numbers were so small,” Tsotigh said. “They felt from the mindset of Native people that we share with those less fortunate. That was part of how that myth evolved.”

For “related video,” Education Week linked to a 2018 PBS NewsHour report titled “Teaching the Real Lessons of Thanksgiving.”

“Thanksgiving is often seen as a quintessential feel-good holiday, but many argue the way it’s taught in schools perpetuates myths as well as being disrespectful to Native Americans,” PBS host Judy Woodruff states, adding these individuals claim the traditional Thanksgiving story “leaves out the context of relations between them and the early immigrants, how the settlers brought diseases, for example, that decimated native tribes or information about the massacres of natives that followed.”


Photos show aftermath of riots as masked groups clash with police across France
Pro-Israel leader warns Democrats failing to condemn ‘vicious Jew haters’ in Congress
Brother of possible OJ Simpson accomplice claims he returned with bloody hands on night of murders: report
Obama backs Ilhan Omar amid probe, accuses Trump admin of ‘appalling’ targeting in lengthy statement
Breaking: Airman Dies in Front of Tens of Thousands in Tragic Navy-UTSA Football Game Accident After Falling from Rafters
James Talarico’s adoptive father linked to X account mocking Christianity and women
Fauci Diary Entry Complains Trump Pushed Lab-Leak Theory ‘With No Evidence’
Cyberattack Turns Hundreds of Grocery Coolers Into Saunas – Dozens of US Military Stores Faced Similar, Unexplained Attack
Saudi National Caught by FBI Hiding Bug in Toilet Paper to Steal AI Secrets: Report
The nine key races that will decide who controls the Senate, and where they stand
California Mocked for Trying to ‘Haze’ Feral Hogs: Texas Dealt with Them the Old Fashioned Way
Daughters of the American Revolution Dissolves TX Chapter That Fought to Stop Transgender Membership
Trump tries different approach with Russia to bring Americans relief amid ongoing war with Ukraine
WATCH: Virginia cops crawl through burning house to save man trapped in fire
House panel warns Singham-linked nonprofits: Comply with subpoenas or face Congress

See also  When purity politics runs its course: Even the most strident DSA politicians must learn to compromise

In keeping with the “unlearning” process, Education Week offers its project titled Citizen Z: Teaching Civics in a Divided Nation, which, it says, “has been exploring the evolving cultural understanding of Thanksgiving through the lens of the K-12 classroom.”

Story cited here.

Share this article:
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter