Monday, August 28, 2017

Dear High School History Teachers

I am watching a television series on the history channel that talks about the Roman Empire from the perspective of those who resisted it.  The series is called "Barbarians Rising". 

As I'm watching it, I'm having flashbacks to High School History classes.  What I guess I didn't realize at the time was that I was definitely being taught history - or at least this slice of history - from the perspective of the Romans.  The term "barbarians" was used to describe people who were "uncivilized", "disorganized" and generally inferior, with the Romans being painted as superior.

I don't know if its this program's intent, but I think I'm beginning to understand that I might have had that a bit backwards.  I'm wondering if my High School History Teachers also in the backs of their minds thought that they were doing history an injustice by teaching it mostly from the perspective of the strong.

In today's climate of the hyper-valuation of "facts" and the deprioritization of process and the resulting demise of critical thought, I wonder how this will play out in the future.  There have been a lot of "Romes" over time.  [For that matter, I am most certainly a citizen of my generation's Rome.]  Will we be able to discern the myth - even if its called "history" - from the actuality?  Will we even care to try?

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