European Association of History Educators

Source: The Pine Log, 28th January 2010

Earlier this month the Texas State Board of Education agreed to postpone debate over what information will go in high school history textbooks until this March. These changes are grabbing the attention of the local and national media because the proposed ideas would rewrite history with a huge slant to the right, leaving out topics such as Sen. Edward Kennedy, Hispanic civil-rights groups and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Instead of learning about liberal and minority-rights groups, students will learn about primarily conservative groups from the late twentieth century including the National Rifle Association and the Moral Majority. Even more ridiculous was the proposal by one of the board members to remove hip-hop from the history books. However, according to the Dallas Morning News, the proposal was shot down and hip-hop, rock 'n' roll, the Beat Generation and the Chicano Mural Movement will be allowed to remain in the history books as examples of cultural movements in the United States.

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Source: al.com, february 1st 2010

February is Black History Month and teachers and homeschooling parents across the nation will be looking for new ways to incorporate it into their lesson plans.

Target and the Smithsonian Institution have developed a free and downloadable curriculum for every grade level.

Source:  Star Exponent, January 28th 2010

Yesterday marked the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by Soviet troops. Two-thirds of Europe’s Jews were killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

In some countries, it truly was the virtual “Final Solution” of eliminating all Jews.

Source: LA Times, January 27, 2010

Howard Zinn, an author, teacher and political activist whose leftist "A People's History of the United States" became a million-selling alternative to mainstream texts and a favorite of such celebrities as Bruce Springsteen and Ben Affleck, died Wednesday. He was 87.

Zinn died of a heart attack in Santa Monica, Calif., daughter Myla Kabat-Zinn said. The historian was a resident of Auburndale, Mass.

Published in 1980 with little promotion and a first printing of 5,000, "A People's History" was — fittingly — a people's best-seller, attracting a wide audience through word of mouth and reaching 1 million sales in 2003. Although Zinn was writing for a general readership, his book was taught in high schools and colleges throughout the country, and numerous companion editions were published, including "Voices of a People's History," a volume for young people and a graphic novel.

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Source: Russian Info Centre, 8th January 2010

History textbooks used by senior school students in Crimea claim that Russia is an occupant for Western Ukraine, Ukrainian rebel army fought successfully with the German troops, and Voronezh is situated on the ethnic territory of Ukraine.       
Moreover, the textbook New History of Ukraine for the 10th form asserts that World War I was “predatory” for Russia and the nature of its intentions “were covered by Russian propaganda as the striving to unite all the Russian lands”. “The Russians behaved as occupants…”       
The textbook’s map “Ukrainian lands in the early 20th century” alleges Voronezh, Kuban and Crimea to be among the ethnic territories of Ukraine.

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Source: The Jakarta Post, 4th January 2010

The Constitutional Court should revoke the authority of the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) to ban books within the country, as it limits intellectual freedom guaranteed by the Constitution, experts say.

They agreed here Monday the practice of banning authors from distributing their published books was a legacy from the New Order Era under then president Soeharto.

Source: My San Antonio News, 25th November 2009

AUSTIN — Throw religion into the dispute over which minority figures should be taught about in Texas and U.S. history classes, and you’ve got the makings of passionate debate over the next generation of public school textbooks.

Texans soon will get their say in how to handle it. And there will be plenty of subplots.

Source: Global Arab Network, 26th November 2009

Recently, I saw four boys sitting at lunch near Bliss Street in Beirut, named after Dr. Daniel Bliss, an American missionary and founder of the American University of Beirut which faces Bliss Street. They talked about politics and student elections before moving to civil war. Though only about 20 years of age, they discussed violence with a sense of normalcy, their debate echoing confessional odium and distrust.

The boys represented a sample of Le¬banon's younger generation, one with no collective memory of the 15-year civil war. That's because Lebanon's modern history is buried in a locked book with the key nowhere to be found.

But how can we build a common future when our youth ignore their past? How can we achieve reconciliation and civil peace when the history we know remains exclusive and when facts serve ideology, not truth?

Under the 1989 Taif Accord, which led to the end of the civil war, Lebanon was supposed to unify its history textbooks and civics curricula. Yet, two decades later, the state still gives schools the freedom to choose their own history books. These do not deal with post-1950 history, following the end of the Arab-Israeli War, and each presents a different perspective of historical events. For instance, some books demonise the French Mandate, which gave France control over Lebanon at the end of World War I, while others do the contrary. Schools usually select their textbook in line with their religious and political affiliation.

There have been many new calls in recent years for the adoption of a common textbook. For example, in 1997, a committee was formed to institute a unified history book and programme. This went nowhere.
The main explanation for the absence of a common history book is that communal differences have not been resolved and that there is no consensus between Lebanon's religious communities over the various interpretations of the past. Simply put, the Lebanese cannot agree on one story.

We need to change our approach in writing a common history book. However, seeking to impose a shared reading of history and using the conventional method of imposing a single interpretation of events that would represent "the truth" is unrealistic in the Lebanese context. Each of the different communities in Lebanon is attached to its own culture, memory and martyrs. Political parties have their own reading of history.

In fact, why should we look for one story in a country whose history has been crafted by the stories of different cultures and communities? Wouldn't that represent a negation of Lebanon's pluralistic identity?

What we can do instead is work on a non-political, non-ideological book compiling a chronology of facts, figures and events: "Get your facts first and then you can distort them as much as you please," Mark Twain once wrote.
The facts, their cause and their consequences could then be described using evidence and sources from the different communities or groups involved in any given episode. Such a history book would use a comparative approach, placing one view of an event next to others. The presentation of different narratives would shed light on similarities, differences and contradictions, providing room for student analysis and discussion.

Students would then be able to engage in a constructive learning process, distancing themselves from ideologies and emotions and building an independent sense of criticism toward what happened. The multiple perspectives ensuing would enable students to enrich their grasp of reality and encourage them to respect diversity and understand the distortions and stereotypes they were previously encouraged to adopt.

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Source: Itar-Tass, December 1 2009

MOSCOW, December 1 (Itar-Tass) - School textbooks in CIS countries miss or distort key events in common Soviet history. This conclusion is recorded in a report by a group of experts on the situation with teaching history in the former Soviet republics, which was presented on Tuesday at a news conference in Itar-Tass. "If this trend persists, a very negative image of Russia as a sinister colonial empire will be moulded in the minds of the rising generation in the post-Soviet countries," the document runs. "The research work on such a scale has been carried out in Russia for the first time: 187 school textbooks and educational aids in 12 former republics of the Soviet Union - Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Ukraine and Estonia - were collected, partially translated from national languages and examined during the report's preparation," said board chairwoman of the State Club Fund Ksenia Kostina. "The examined textbooks were printed in mass editions or are even the only ones at schools of an appropriate state," she noted. "At the same time, polls were conducted in the above countries, helping to understand what images of the past exist in public opinion of each of the states." For instance, according to the research, 50 percent of young people in Armenia, 45 percent in Uzbekistan, 30 percent in Azerbaijan and 24 percent of Georgian youth know nothing of the 1917 February revolution in Russia.

At the same time, 39 percent of young citizens in Estonia and 46 percent of Georgian young people replied that they had never heard of Marshal Georgy Zhukov or Felix Dzerzhinsky. One of the report's authors, Prof. Alexander Vdovin of Moscow State University said that "given the present trends persist, the basic events of the 20th century will be completely forgotten by population in former Soviet republics in 15-20 years". The report's authors stated with regret that "apart from Belarus and to a less extent Armenia, all other countries started teaching the rising generation history in nationalist interpretation, based on myths of ancient origin of their peoples, high cultural mission of their ancestors and 'the deadly enemy' - Russia. "A desire to present contacts with Russians and Russia as a source of calamities is the common feature of textbooks of the newly-formed states (apart from Belarus and Armenia)," Vdovin emphasised. Another author of the report, Associate Professor Andrei Shadrin of Moscow State University, noted that a logical conclusion is drawn on the basis of the above provision: national liberation struggle was the main content of the national history of these peoples during their existence in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. For instance, examples of this struggle include an event when volunteers of an All-Union Komsomol and youth construction site expressed a protest against bad every-day conditions of life. Textbooks in Georgia, Ukraine and the Baltic states contain interpretations, pointing to Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union as instigators of the Second World War. The report was prepared by a group of authors and co-edited by head of the history chair at the Moscow Teachers' Training University Alexander Danilov and historian Alexander Filippov. The research work was done with support from the national foreign policy laboratory and with the grant of the State Club Fund.

Source: The Hankyoreh, Monday 30th November

The three-day “Forum on Recognition of History and East Asian Peace” concluded on Monday in Tokyo. Civic groups, including South Korea’s Asia Peace & History Education Network, have held the annual forum alternately in South Korea, China and Japan. This was the eighth forum. The first was held in Nanjing, China, prompted by the 2002 appearance of a distorted history textbook compiled in Japan by the far-right group Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform. In 2005, researchers and professors from all three nations formed a joint history compilation committee and released a book on modern and contemporary East Asian history entitled, “History for the Future.” This was a case of private citizens guiding along an effort to support the formation of an East Asian community of peace and reconciliation.