# Letters to History Teachers: An Open Invitation



## SonofaBor (Nov 29, 2020)

*I've been writing to local and regional office holders about both science and history. I'd like to encourage others to do so, too. I'll start this thread with an exchange I had. I would like to invite others to write similarly and post some or all of their missives. Let me know if I'm a fool for starting this thread, and I'll take it down. Comments and rebuttals are, of course, welcome.*

(After brief introduction):


I want to share with you a historically inflected story and ask a couple questions.

In 1979, I took AP American History, as a 15-year-old sophomore. (In those days, we didn’t have World History as a course offering or requirement). Our teacher was Rod Monroe. Mr. Monroe was a Democratic Representative to the Oregon Legislature from Portland. 1979 was an election year, and Mr. Monroe was up for re-election. He won, and two years later he ran for State Superintendent of Public Instruction and lost. A highly political and ambitious man, he only once spoke to our class about contemporary politics. That occurred the day after the presidential election and his own victory. He was subdued. He simply stated that he had known for a couple months that Ronald Reagan would win election. How did he know? He didn’t say. But looking back, I recall the summer of 1979 as severely distressing. The evening news (the equivalent of today’s 24/7 news bombardment) focused without fail on the “Iranian Hostage Crisis.” Each day was numbered; every report was bleak. President Carter’s attempt at rescue failed. Did Mr. Monroe know about the back-door deals between Republican operatives and the Iranian Revolution leadership that would culminate with the inauguration-day release of the hostages? Did he know that elements of our own government (two key players of which bear the surnames Strzok and Dunham— yes, directly related to two very well-known public figures of our contemporary era) had a hand in instigating the revolution? Probably not. The media bombardment was enough to change the mood of the electorate. In any case, as an insider, he knew the score.

Mr. Monroe, however, did focus through the entire course on one key facet of American life: the banks. From Jefferson to Jackson and Lincoln to Wilson, we learned of the constant struggle between farmers and manufacturers and the banking interests. He was always matter-of-fact. And though I wasn’t the best student in those days, I was influenced sufficiently to write my AP paper on the Crash of 1929. I read naively the _NY Times _accounts of how the key banking families were doing everything they could to buy stock and stem the devastation of the crash. I got a B+.

Mr. Monroe never spoke about religion or our personal lives. The only time I went to see him was with a specific question about American religion. I asked about Mormonism and the displacement of Native Americans and sometimes violent encroachments of settlers of other faiths. I remember this meeting was very quick. He simply said, “That is a very interesting question, but I don’t know much about the particulars.” He didn’t inquire about my family or their religion.

The interest kindled by Mr. Monroe in banking remains with me to this day. The matter-of-fact scholarly approach to history served me well as I realized an academic career. For example, during my time as a teacher, I was fortunate to know (the recently deceased) David Graeber (perhaps the most famous scholar in the world on the subjects of debt and activism) as a colleague and friend while he worked on his ground-breaking research. My public high-school education quietly made this possible.

My daughter mentioned to me that you celebrated Kamala Davis Harris during the first class and made a point about the suffering of minorities. The next day she told me you wanted information about her family. She couldn’t understand what this has to do with history. Later, she told me you gave them a quiz on religion without preparation, and she had no idea of any of the answers.

I find this all very odd. For one, a cursory inquiry shows Ms. Harris has very interesting and complicating historical and familial relations to the colonies and slavery of Jamaica. As you might guess based on my own interests, I would ask: Who is she really after all?  From where did she come? Who supports her behind the scenes? Secondly, my daughter is a private person. She does not share information willy-nilly. Moreover, unlike in 1979, when nearly every kid had gone to church at one time or another growing up, churches are closed by un-Constitutional emergency decrees (the Legislatures is supposed to meet in Emergency Session by law).  Isn’t it curious that churches are closed but big-box stores remain open? In any case, I know these questions are much too hot for 14-year-olds (well, at least for their community).  But they are the questions history can help us understand.

Unfortunately, since school districts across the country routinely sell student test-score data to non-academic, commercial interests, I must ask:

1. Did you receive a payment for gathering the “knowledge” of or the religious predilections of your students?

Likewise, I must ask:

2. To what end do you collect the personal data of your students?

I also request that you send a class syllabus to me for examination.

I will copy this missive to the Principal, as well. I think it is important that that parental academic concerns be heard openly. our high school is our community high school. We depend upon you and (as my Libertarian friends remind me) pay you to educate our children in the complexities of the world. If you do so, their growth and achievements may far surpass your expectations.

My reply to his reply:

Thank you for the letter. Please allow me to respond to your points as best I can.



> > Hello - I appreciate you sharing your thoughts and initiating a dialogue regarding your daughter’s educational experience.  My early impression of your daughter after two weeks is that of a bright, thoughtful kid, who demonstrates strong skills in comprehension and written expression. I look forward to witnessing and supporting her continued success in this class in the weeks ahead.



I’m glad that you are a dedicated and experienced teacher. But, I do I wish to note that the “impression” my daughter gives is not my greatest concern. My concern is that she learns to consider the world with depth and complexity. Frankly, the emphasis on impression-management that pulses through academic life these days is a dismal reflection of, well, a media-saturated world. The fact the school now happens “on the screen” makes matters only worse.



> > First, my use of Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech on Nov. 9th was presented not as a political moment, but that of a historic moment.  I pointed out that historic moments aren’t always received the same way by everyone — some may celebrate, while others may be disappointed or upset — but the event is one that represented a first, in the arenas of gender and race.  Not every woman or person of color celebrated the event,  as I similarly explained to my students in 2008 when Barack Obama was first elected.  Since my 3rd year of teaching when we followed the unprecedented recount drama of the 2000 election I have always included such events in my teaching. My focus is the history, not the politics


Ms. Harris has been only inaugurated by the media. And as I implied, this is rather shallow and misleading. The “appearance” of Ms. Harris on the world stage may be more related to banking interests and her familial colonial relations than to her individual achievements. The drama of 2000 was much more than hanging chads, too. People in the know were well aware of the bankruptcy of the USA (from 1933) and the fact that there would be no President of the USA for a given period. None of this is presented in the media. Teaching kids to take opinions on media-induced issues can be interesting. But it is dangerous without thorough consideration.



> > With respect to the assignment (pasted below) that you mentioned, it’s one that I’ve used at the beginning of every school year going back 15+ years.  I present it as a way to break the ice, and begin the all-important process of getting to know my students, and vice versa.  Over the years it has been a very successful way for me to find ways to connect with kids, keep an eye out for possible concerns and areas I can support, and discover interests that I might share with my students.  For 23+ years now teaching one of the constants has been the focus in those schools on building community and connections in our classrooms, and in a year of distance and isolation for so many people, it’s even more important now.


I can understand your argument. But do the students feel the same? Isn’t it enough to promote academic honesty through the reflections and insights students provide through their investigations into historical questions? Breaking the ice in this manner may only create more ice around young people as they become pigeon-holed into some kind of, literally, computer screen character. In my humble opinion, the real work of teaching involves engendering honesty of intellectual questioning and the development of confidence in the presentation, defense and discussion of their results.



> > You also spoke of a personal history assignment, one that I’ve also attached here.  This is one that continues the theme of developing a positive, inclusive classroom culture, where everyone has a chance to contribute their unique history to our larger look at World History.  A highlight is seeing and sensing the pride that students express as they tell their story.  I also participate and share my own history slideshow with the class.  In addition this begins the practice of creating and sharing presentations orally - a significant skill in this and other classes.


I love my daughter very much. She has a unique personality and interesting experiences. But she’d rather keep them to herself. Is this not a reasonable response to your assignment? If she wishes to decline, does this not enhance her so-called “safe-space?”



> > > Lastly, I’ll address your concerns related to our teaching of world religions.  This has been a part of the course curriculum for over 20 years, and is also taught by our colleagues at ....in their 9th grade World History classes.  Our district-approved textbook for this class provides the foundational information for this and all of our units of study. If you’re interested in taking a look at the textbook then Abbey can show you since the students set up their online accounts last week. Speaking of curriculum, I’ve also attached the course syllabus for you to look over.  This unit on world religions provides a key building block for topics covered in 10th grade World History, as the historical context of the events and eras of the past millennium is incomplete without the social, political, and cultural  impact and influence of religion.


Please note. I have no problem with my daughter learning the text-book approach to world religions— although the text-book approach is entirely areligious. My main question remains, however: Do you or does the School District receive payment for providing information about children’s religious acumen and experiences to interests outside the school? As I noted, school districts routinely sell student test-score data to vendors. The aim of this data collection is precisely to pigeon-hole students for purposes beyond those that accord with the will and interests of the students. Insofar as schools, following Jefferson, are supposed to centers of community life, I find this scandalous.  I think you can understand my suspicions.


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## JWW427 (Nov 30, 2020)

Very interesting and telling OP. I like the idea.

Unfortunately, we covered this in another post on education and I said that our learning institutions are wholly corrupt underlings of the info-gathering Deep State in the USA. (Pearson Inc.) Schools are 100% bad all the way on up to Harvard and Yale. Unless you join Skull & Bones, that is...

I was on the alumni board of my private boarding school for ten years. I learned a lot, whoo-boy. Nasty parents, an ineffectual board, and timid teachers for the most part. Big money and relentlessly boring cocktail parties. Fundraising was GOD. Pedophilia and petty crimes covered up. Money for good grades. Falsified college applications and recommendations.

Kids have zero rights and are taught WHAT to think, not HOW to think. Hive mind thinking. Darwin's evolution. Mainstream History is carved in granite. Homosexuals should not teach kids. Men are better than women. White men rule all. We only have 2 strands of DNA and the rest is "junk." Eastern wisdom and medicine are presented as second rate woo-woo science. Etc. etc.
The curriculum is BS everywhere.

I doubt anyone will get much of a clear answer from teachers or headmasters via letters, they are victims of the system themselves and are beholden to their salaries and the school boards that govern them, public or private. It's blackmail, subtle-style. Our Mafia-like educational system is self-healing, like a rubberized fuel tank on a fighter plane. Fire all the complaint bullets you want, the system will heal around the holes in time. Soon, everything is forgotten: "A letter? What letter? Sorry sir, there was a fire in the Alexandria Library mail room."

At colleges tenures are king, rocking the boat is forbidden. Teachers and professors talk a big game and say they are "open-minded," but that's just on academic fluffy pink bunny subjects like safe, scare-free Civil Rights, the Titanic, Thomas Jefferson's black girlfriend, gardening philosophy in Ancient Greece, Jesus' missing sailboat, and the long-ago shameful Viet Nam War...
...not current radioactive "fringe" topics like inconvenient old Tartaria and Antarctica maps, scalar free energy, reincarnation, inexplicable grids and lines in Siberia, torsion field plasma physics, Atlantis and the Bimini Road, Bulgarian Christian history, Russian pyramid therapy, sound resonance affecting our DNA, and the infamous Annunaki Kings List.
In other words, *they wouldn't be caught dead on SH.*

I intimately know more than a few "brilliant" Yale, Princeton, Oxford, and Harvard academics––they're highly awarded idiots, they couldn't rationalize or theorize their way out of a wet toilet paper bag on any subject here on the forum. Not one. Nor would they scrub up the intellectual courage to crack open their rusty minds just enough to even consider any of our rakish scoundrel topics at all. It would destroy their pitiful paradigms, all their hard work, their bought-and-paid-for souls, shatter to splinters their hardwood floors of false reality.

At a public school in the USA, you might find a few humble brave souls to comment on the unfair system, its inaccuracies, falsifications, and illegal and immoral data-collection, but the ones I know (a family member too) are scared shitless of being fired or labeled a heretic. They speak in hushed tones, their cigarette hands shaking as tears well up.

Programming kids with BS is the bedrock of our entire false reality and history, and the status quo want to keep it that way.
Sorry if I sugar-coated it a bit.


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## davtash (Nov 30, 2020)

An excellent thread well done. A couple of years ago I wrote to 'History Workshop' journal in the UK in theory a radical history journal based around the works of EP Thompson and Gareth Stedman Jones and others. I asked if they were interested in  an appraisal of current thinking in alternative history they replied briefly in the negative. As a long time history teacher I can say that if the alternative ideas had been suggested to me around 5 years ago (now 66 years old), I would have laughed but then something happened, an epiphany if you like and I awoke into a different world re everything. Now I still teach english which involves a lot of history, geography and science in a faraway school but many of my students are hooked onto Tartaria etc as I introduce it whenever I can, and when they see news items or travel to places they often share what they saw, I even got a book about the Catecombs from Paris and a photo of Diana in the grounds of Fontainbleu. We are a million miles away from seeing anything like a reappraisal in schools and 99.999999% of people are not in the slightest bit interested, as was written above they are victims of the system, Marx's own ISA. I tell myself that when I die at least some will have been woken up.


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## irishbalt (Nov 30, 2020)

JWW427 said:


> Very interesting and telling. I like the idea.
> 
> Unfortunately, we covered this in another post on education and I said that our learning institutions are wholly corrupt underlings of the info-gathering Deep State in the USA. (Pearson Inc.) Schools are 100% bad all the way on up to Harvard and Yale. Unless you join Skull & Bones, that is...
> 
> ...



well there are many families traditionally schooling.  I can say for our family, any selected scholarly research here on SH shall be included in lesson plans.

we aim to raise upstarts


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## SonofaBor (Nov 30, 2020)

JWW427 said:


> I intimately know more than a few "brilliant" Yale, Princeton, Oxford, and Harvard academics––they're highly awarded idiots, they couldn't rationalize or theorize their way out of a wet toilet paper bag on any subject here on the forum.



Yes. I don my "dress blues" in these letters. Parents in these parts are desperate to get their kids where I have been. It gives me a certain authority or leverage.

I used an article by Felix to help my daughter better understand Christianity and the multiple discourses of religious experience versus what we might rightly conceive as mystical/spiritual life.

I might need to find a alternative network. Maybe I am the key node, but surely there are others. In any case, it is quite a headache to know that the fake world has total reach. I simply cannot afford to be cynical anymore.


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## JWW427 (Nov 30, 2020)

Keep trying, thats the point.
Sometimes lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for.
I think we can all relate to that concept.


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## gkelly (Nov 30, 2020)

I highly doubt this particular teacher had much say in the curriculum that the school teaches, the textbooks, or even what he or she really can teach in the class.  They certainly do not get paid to collect data.  Most teachers that I have met follow the agenda that they are given without really thinking about what they are doing.  You need to remember, it's simply a job to many of them.


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## SonofaBor (Nov 30, 2020)

And so... if it is a job, should I pay them with my tax dollars?

And so... should I not expect them to know history?

And so.... should I not be suspicious about their motives?

And so.... should I forgive the teacher for being a soulless drone-- as you suggest?


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## gkelly (Dec 1, 2020)

How else do you propose to pay public workers?
Most history teachers know about history, whether it is the version that you believe is up for debate.  
I highly doubt a bunch of teachers have motives to deceive (as many people on here probably claim) the youth of the country.
Why is a person a soulless drone simply because they don't possess an all enveloping passion about what they do to get paid?


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## SonofaBor (Dec 1, 2020)

I propose to fire them.

I am trying to help him by teaching him. But is he a good student of history? Or just a guy with a job-- as you say?

They have no desire to deceive, but they are deceived themselves. Do they deserve to have a have a job? Or should we call them what they are? Professional deceivers?

As for your last comment, it says a lot about you.


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## gkelly (Dec 1, 2020)

I suggest you either home school your child or try to find a different school.
And if you honestly believe everyone on the planet is passionate about their job, then you certainly aren't living in reality.
Some people have to take whatever work they can find to earn a living.
And as for your last comment, it also says a lot about you too.


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## SonofaBor (Dec 1, 2020)

It does. History and science are about truth. Truth is the heart of life. Life is short. I love life. I want to know. I want to share. I want to be with like-minded people. I discovered that even at the tippy-top of my profession that what was valued about me was my achievements, but the passion, they could do without. They really didn't understand that one cannot be had without the other. They (the administrations) wanted fame, smooth sailing and money. In other words, they were corrupt, and they couldn't understand why I couldn't/wouldn't join them in their soulless charade.

Right now, the fight is against corruption. For it is the corruption of science and history and, yes, the souls of people that make possible the NWO covid-19 fantasy-fake that is destroying everything that remains of value-- namely the values of passion, faith, hard work, creativity, and beauty. These are the values at the heart of community-life. Public schools are supposed to be community centers. I'm fighting for that center. But, as you show, the corrupt and the soulless run the show.


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## E.Bearclaw (Dec 1, 2020)

gkelly said:


> I highly doubt a bunch of teachers have motives to deceive (as many people on here probably claim) the youth of the country.



It isn't necessarily all about there being a motive to deceive though is it. As Noam Chomsky eloquently puts it:

"If you believed something different, you wouldn't be sitting where you are sitting"


_View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLcpcytUnWU_


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## SonofaBor (Jul 4, 2021)

_This one I sent to the English department and certain History teachers. It includes a follow-up:_

The other day my daughter was more than a little shocked to hear the sounds of slaughtered animals at 8:30AM in her bedroom. Well aware of the nature of animals (for after all, she has seen our cat take out more than a few mice and birds in her time), she was nonetheless horrified by the sudden and unannounced sounds of slaughter.  Today, she tells me that “gun control” is the issue.  We don’t own guns, but I can assure you my parents and grandparents, all of whom grew up on farms, did.

In any case, it is astounding to me that the issues chosen for discussion of agendas relate to basic rights of human beings. Or, do you question that it is a basic right of humans to eat animals? Or that the Constitution of the USA does not stipulate that people have the right to bear arms?

Well, I have my doubts about the historical understanding of young people. For I know what happened to you all. I was there, teaching people like you in universities. Students really began to change after 9/11. By 2005 or so, I began to think of my students as “phone people”— very different from those I knew and enjoyed in the 1990s. What was the key difference? The “phone people” didn’t even have a sense that all the good things they enjoyed came from reality, including the Constitution, and they were given to obedience above all.

I sent this little note to the Principal and Superintendent about agendas and their discussion:

"I agree that agenda bias is important to understand. But isn’t it ironic that the agenda bias of the media and certain political interests are destroying our public schools and that the people who seek to help students dissect such biases are complicit in their perpetuation?  Instead of education, I have concluded that teachers unwittingly produce a kind of torture. Students and families are told they are racist; they are told they must wear masks to associate; and they are told they must conform to survive. And yet— the English department “alerts” students to agenda bias?

I’m sure the English department would appreciate this irony. Please share my note with them if you wish."

Yes, irony is an idea that my public-school teachers in a suburb of Portland, Oregon (and thus not unlike here) taught me to understand. Do you all teach irony? After all, it is a crucial component of all great literature?

I have my doubts. For I have yet to see my daughter open a single book of literature in her English class!

I have, tacked to my door, a question given our Advanced Placement (AP) English class when I was a kid. It concerned Jude the Obscure (Hardy) and the implications of “refusing the comforts of certainty.” What was Ms Wolf trying to do? Well, the answer is easy: think outside the confines of our artificial reality.  Irony is a tool one can use to slice open the agenda and learn where one really stands.

Where do we stand?  Sadly, we stand estranged from the schools. I’m not alone. When Ms. Wolf asked us to entertain Jude’s predicament, she did not do so in terms of any agendas at work. She simply asked us to consider our predicament. Do English teachers here understand their perhaps unwitting complicity in the projection of fraudulent, scientifically unsound and grievously deleterious”agendas”?

I send this not to embarrass you (for I believe you mean well) but to provoke a self-reflective discussion of your own thoughts and actions with regards to the intellectual and social development (i.e., “learning”) of my daughter.


_And I followed a month or so later with this:_

My daughter, 15, completed her honors English class. She tells me so, in any case. She wasn’t too interested in it when the class turned to the subject of the “news.”

I’ll confess right here: it is a little difficult for her to complete any project related to the news because we simply don’t watch or listen to the news. In fact, I’ve never owned a TV in my entire adult life.  People have found this strange. Some have even given me TVs. They never lasted more than a couple months in the house.

Why? Well, I figured out early that TV was lying about everything. It still lies today. If you haven’t figured that out by now, then I really worry about you.

I do have a story to tell. When I was junior in high school, John Lennon was shot and killed in New York.  A kind-hearted senior told me about how Wendy Wolf spent an entire class period talking about John Lennon in AP English. She tried to console me with this school news; for I was devastated since I heard the news, the night before, reported live on Monday Night Football, which I was watching while reading my history textbook. I could probably play every Beatles song on the piano then and probably can today. That’s what kids can do. My daughter has a similar relationship with certain Japanese anime.  In any case, teachers never spoke about the news during class. It was a huge luxury. Maybe daring on her part; I don’t know.

The next year, I took Wendy’s class and we read Lord of the Flies, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Stranger, Jude the Obscure, Macbeth, Oedipus Rex, and many others. I don’t recall talking about the news once. We talked about the stories and the predicaments and the plots; and we wrote five paragraph essays in which we reflected on questions posed by the fiction.

I guess those were the good old days, huh?  I don’t know. But I do know the lies continue.  As P.K. Dick named one of his novels, Lies, Inc.-- in fact, there is good evidence that even ol’ Johnny Lennon didn’t die in NYC in 1980. Like so much else that makes people laugh and cry and fear (oh yes, this is the favorite), it was fake.  Well, I’ll be honest, I’m not 100% sure he faked it, but read this piece by Miles Mathis and convince me he died as reported in the news:  http://mileswmathis.com/lennon.pdf


_And in a brief exchange with the Superintendent, I concluded:_

I think about that class nowadays. Probably 25 students. AP was pretty new. My pastor’s son went to Princeton; a classmate of Armenian descent, who played piano and sang with me, went to Stanford. Eventually, I ended up at Yale as a teacher. But we were all dumb kids— I know I didn’t say anything very important or intelligent. Ms. Wolf was so patient with us. We made her our speaker at graduation. The class, and all my English classes, changed my life. But it is a process that requires patience on the part of teachers and everyone else. Nowadays, it seems like patience has been replaced by goals and agendas and ideological training and the end result is obedience. Obedience to state unconstitutional mandates being one terrible example.

Of course, what is a person to do? I sense you’re of my generation, and I hear you’re leaving. I left teaching ten years ago— seeing the writing on the wall and not liking who I was becoming as the zeitgeist and my students changed.

I see so many young teachers on staff. Actually, they really need people like us. Maybe this summer they’ll open a few books, read some peer-reviewed research, ask the questions: Who and how? Rather than which category and for for whom.  (This has always been a huge problem in academic research: we were simply not allowed to ask, who. We were taught to lay the blame at the feet of the people— no smarter than us dumb seniors in 1981-82.)

The good thing is: there is more information about everything available today. With some earnest and skeptical digging, one can find more solutions than problems.


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