Rise of the Apologists

This bothers me.  It's one of Damon's school worksheets describing tragedies from American History where the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were denied.  I flipped the sheet over, hoping to find examples of other Americans proudly exercising their rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Nope.  That side is blank.  I asked Damon if the school teaches about good things in American history.  No, he said, mostly bad things.  Okay, I said, do they tell you about Afghanistan, where women can either marry the man their families choose for them, or commit suicide?  Or that girls there are sometimes beaten if they try to go to school?  

Really? he asked.  That's too bad.

All right.  It's good to learn about the mistakes so we don't repeat them.  But it makes me angry kids aren't being taught about the successes and the triumphs, or at least that the tragedies are a result of human failings, not American failings.  American kids need to be taught to hold their heads high, not to be ashamed of the mistakes of their dead countrymen.  All countries have sad stories to tell, and many of them are a lot sadder than ours.  Shame on a curriculum that teaches we have a past to apologize for while ignoring the many triumphs of those who have gone before.  I've probably said this 100 times now, but no wonder people home school.