Comments on: Japan to scrutinize foreign textbooks

By: virtual wonderer

virtual wonderer — Thu, 05 May 2005 11:50:36 +0000

Well, I was somewhat surprised at all the attention they finally gave to the French in that dreadful movie.

By: John Thacker

John Thacker — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 11:53:33 +0000

In many (most? all?) US states, a large number of textbooks are officially approved as suitable by the state Department of Education (or similar such body) for meeting certain state standards. Then local school districts and townships select the particular textbooks used.

This can result in, say, left-wing college towns picking A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn, while right-wing towns pick something considerably more complimentary, to say the least.

You can note the obvious similarities to the Japanese system.

By: Simon World

Simon World — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 18:49:33 +0000

Daily Linklets (It’s Still Thursday for Me)

Modest South West Asians, the Great Game through time, Japanese irony, Korean revisionism, pandering pandas, the collapse of Nepal, America’s friend Vietnam, and more, on today’s Daily Linklets.

By: hardyandtiny

hardyandtiny — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 05:19:23 +0000

rah rah rah…..

By: R. Elgin

R. Elgin — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 01:04:11 +0000

The Canadian version talks about the abuses of the ?€œrebels?€? against the ?€œloyalists,?€? while the American texts explained the terrors of the ?€œredcoats,?€? and those traitors who sided with them.
This is interesting in that when I was coming up, the textbooks did not dwell on such, rather it was just about facts and what motivated the Americans at the time. Our books were rather impartial and did not demonize the British. This makes me wonder as to what passes as an “education” nowadays in the States and Canada. It seems that creative writing is more popular in too many countries (China included).

By: june

june — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 00:50:08 +0000

Funny! The NYT was the article at which Korean netizens were so angry last week, because the Korean media (Yonhap) took this part:

“Given the scrutiny and Japan’s comparatively long record of democracy, the textbooks here are perhaps more balanced than others in the region. China’s textbooks, for instance, teach that Chinese resistance, not the United States, defeated Japan in the war; they say nothing of the postwar Great Leap Forward, in which some 30 million Chinese died because of Mao Zedong’s misguided agrarian policies.”

By: Bluejeans

Bluejeans — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 00:28:21 +0000

When I was teaching history in Canada, I got to choose the textbook. Usually it’s the head of the department, but it was a small school and I was a department of 1.
There are a bunch of companies (about 5 at the time) that made textbooks for the courses and they tried to flog them to whoever they could. I would imagine there was some funny business at the top as ex and current teachers tried to make connections in the Ministry of Education and school boards, but they just sent me pamphlets and sample books. There was no official “approval” process as far as I know. They just had to match the course objectives laid out by the Ministry, and they all did.
I honestly thought most of them tried to be rather objective. Usually, there was too much in them to cover, so you could dwell upon sins or accomplishments; it was your choice.
I don’t recall them dwelling upon Canadians killing German POWs in Holland, the often racist reception many African Americans had at the end of the Undergroung Railroad, and, as said above, there was more sympathy with the “loyalist” point of view, the importance of the Proclamation of 1763 and all that, but they didn’t pull any punches about the Riel Rebellions, the rejection of Jewish refugees or the Japanese internment camps. There’s only so much time in the year.

By: Jing

Jing — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 23:59:42 +0000

As they say one man’s patriot is another man’s tax avoiding rebel colonial hick. Your comment reminds me of a not too popular Mel Gibson movie. I think it was released a few years back and in a daring stroke of artistic subtlety, titled “The Patriot”. My few English acquaintances had some quite choice words to say about it, and a considerable degree of eye-rolling for the climactic scene in which the villain (a redcoat, natch) was impaled by by nothing less than an American flag.

By: skindleshanks

skindleshanks — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 23:32:31 +0000

I was quite amused at the starkly different depictions of the Revolutionary War (US vs Britain) between our Canadian public school textbooks and the American textbooks we had at home (my father is American). The Canadian version talks about the abuses of the “rebels” against the “loyalists,” while the American texts explained the terrors of the “redcoats,” and those traitors who sided with them. Reading both accounts explains some of the roots of the differences between the revolutionary US and loyal Canada.

By: tangent Shenzhen

tangent Shenzhen — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 23:20:04 +0000

Meow,
Thanks, but, Unipeak ain’t workin’ here…and hasn’t been for a while.

Nora,
Correct, nothing you can do except change your blog provider. Even if you were inclined to do that, I wouldn’t want you to, because that would be penalizing Blogspot for whatever they did to piss the Chinese censors off. Whatever they did, must be fine by me.

Yes, Maybe someday the textbooks will change, someday…