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.”


North Korean Hackers Hijacked US Employee Webcams to Steal Hundreds of Millions – The FBI Just Put a Stop to It
These AI Startups Want To Predict Your Moves, Speak For The Dead — And ‘Take Your Jobs’
Buttigieg takes swipe at Trump administration amid FAA flight chaos
NYC DSA urges AOC to run for president while planning to take over City Council
Congress’ incoming wealthiest member vows to crack down on politicians getting rich in office
Virginia parents charged after house party draws hundreds of teens, fireworks and alleged underage drinking
OnlyFans model Courtney Clenney moved to new prison, listed as minimum custody inmate: records
Trump’s top officials retreat behind military gates as ex-FBI deputy points to what’s fueling threats
Dem Senator Who Called for RFK Jr to ‘Resign or Be Fired’ Is Backed By Big Pharma
Inside Senate GOP’s tense post-election reckoning as Thune clashes with Republican critics
Fed Up Over Soaring Power Bills, Georgia Voters Hand Spend-Happy Democrats Power Over What They Pay for Electricity
Democrat Pushes GOP Leadership to Renew Warrantless Spying Before His Party Takes Power
Bird Flu Outbreak Rages in Blue State as Illegal Farm Hands Dodge Health Officials, Union Says
Marc Siegel hopes readers will ‘look for signs from God’ through his new book The Angels Among Us
Small town residents cry for help as immigrant influx fueled by trucking industry has unintended consequences

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.”


North Korean Hackers Hijacked US Employee Webcams to Steal Hundreds of Millions – The FBI Just Put a Stop to It
These AI Startups Want To Predict Your Moves, Speak For The Dead — And ‘Take Your Jobs’
Buttigieg takes swipe at Trump administration amid FAA flight chaos
NYC DSA urges AOC to run for president while planning to take over City Council
Congress’ incoming wealthiest member vows to crack down on politicians getting rich in office
Virginia parents charged after house party draws hundreds of teens, fireworks and alleged underage drinking
OnlyFans model Courtney Clenney moved to new prison, listed as minimum custody inmate: records
Trump’s top officials retreat behind military gates as ex-FBI deputy points to what’s fueling threats
Dem Senator Who Called for RFK Jr to ‘Resign or Be Fired’ Is Backed By Big Pharma
Inside Senate GOP’s tense post-election reckoning as Thune clashes with Republican critics
Fed Up Over Soaring Power Bills, Georgia Voters Hand Spend-Happy Democrats Power Over What They Pay for Electricity
Democrat Pushes GOP Leadership to Renew Warrantless Spying Before His Party Takes Power
Bird Flu Outbreak Rages in Blue State as Illegal Farm Hands Dodge Health Officials, Union Says
Marc Siegel hopes readers will ‘look for signs from God’ through his new book The Angels Among Us
Small town residents cry for help as immigrant influx fueled by trucking industry has unintended consequences

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
Share on twitter
Twitter