Every single country in the world has parts of its’ history that no citizen of that country is proud of; including America.
Even though that is the case, that does not mean that the shameful part(s) of our country’s history should not be taught. History repeats itself, and the only way to prevent that from happening is if that history is taught to each generation so that they know about it and know to not let it happen again.
When it is decided to ignore the parts of our country’s history that we are ashamed of and not teach it to the youth of America, then those youth will never know how those issues were resolved and how to prevent them from happening again. For example, if schools decided to no longer teach of the Civil War and of the horrible enslaved people and discrimination that went on during that time period, children would grow up never knowing about how far America has come since then and how we are still working towards getting away from that part of our history.
Tearing down and destroying these Confederate monuments is not doing the youth of America, and just Americans in general, any favors. By doing this we are taking away parts of our country’s history that we never, ever want to repeat. By taking that away, the youth of America will never learn about those parts of our history, and may, very possibly, one day repeat it. Which is the opposite of what we are going for.
U.S. History, as well as World History, should continue to be classes taught throughout grade school and offered in college. This way everyone learns the history of our country and other country’s but also has the choice to learn more in later schooling if one is really interested in doing so. If Americans do not grow up learning of their own history, it will only end up hurting many others farther down the road.
How can anyone be expected to keep history from repeating itself if they do not know that history to begin with? It is our responsibility to help teach others of our country’s, as well as other country’s, history. By doing so, we are doing a service for future generations. We are also teaching them to teach their children and grandchildren, etc. That way, all history is not forgotten, and will not end up being repeated.
All of our country’s history should be taught without bias to all of those growing up in America. If that history ends up not being taught, it will be repeated. Which would bring even more national shame to America.
