Native American History

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Nearly every year of a student’s primary school career is spent in part in a history class. These history classes mostly cover U.S. History, though the name may be seen as contradictive due to it only covering certain parts of this country’s history. This class often overlooks the history of the people of color and the minorities that make up this country. The history taught in elementary, middle and high schools lack chronological order, a balance in representing different cultures and in providing perspective on them, and the teachers who teach these courses may lack cultural sensitivity. Students are taught throughout their many years of education to keep things in chronological order; it helps to show the order of events and how they may …show more content…
Millennials are the most diverse generation and more than 44 percent are of a minority race or ethnicity (Al Jazeera America). This generation has taken a stand in reclaiming their lost heritages in a country that has taught them nothing other than the accomplishments of this land’s “founding fathers”, many of these kids lack the privilege of being taught their ancestors histories without some sort of sugarcoating of it, especially those students of Native American, African American, Asian, and of Hispanic or of Latino heritage. The maximum coverage of Hawaiian history taught on the mainland is one page throughout those 12 years of school and none of the textbooks explain how America came to have claims to its territories of American Samoa, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Mariana Islands. There have been questions raised as to how to go about teaching students about oppression and exploitation and who gets to choose what information is taught (The Atlantic). This has issue came to light to a New York Education commissioner, Thomas Sobol, in 1989. Sobol took a public outcry into great consideration when appointing a new commission to once again review the social studies curriculum; the commission recommended that the new curriculum be revised once more to put in place greater emphasis on the role of nonwhite cultures (americanheritage.com). History should not be sugarcoated; students deserve to learn about the truth so that they are able to recognize that although America is a relatively great nation, it has its flaws. These history classes lack in providing that representation for students who have been effected by history. They are not shown the truth by their own people, rather they are taught through the perspective of an outsider. Learning through an outside
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