Sometimes the World is Overwhelming

[Mental Fairy]

Hi SD
As you may have read I am procrastinating left right and centre today.

I don’t even want to think about the news currently as it seems to make me feel so much worse about things, however it also makes me feel somewhat lucky in many other ways.

Last night, being unable to sleep as I was so worried about worming the cat again, I watched a documentary on our local Maori channel. They have some really good informative documentaries on both NZ and USA history. The documentary was based on the history of the underground railway routes during the civil war time in USA. Gosh it had me sitting upright taking notes, it was fascinating and informative. Can I ask, did you do all your education in USA? MM I’m also interested to know about the curriculum in schools over there. What history do you get taught in history classes? Do you get to pick? Or is it one size fits all type classes. The reason I ask is here in NZ the history we only got taught is WW1 and WW2, a little on Europeans coming to NZ and a little bit on Maori wars. And the natural disasters of NZ. I really wished we learnt about the US civil war, for some reason this really is a topic I find so interesting. Plus the slavery side of things. More so because I have read many books and one that stands out to me is Sugar Money by Jane Harris and The Cage by Lloyd Jones. That book was not an easy read and our book group refused to talk about it. Many slept with the book face down or not in their room it was that powerful.

So really what I would love to know is if the American school curriculum covers more world events or focuses on their own country and the history within?

Here in NZ the system is changing so all school children from 5-18 must learn Māori language, must learn Māori history and must sit exams. I don’t believe this would be the same in the USA in the ways of teaching native Indian history or language?

If the world wasn’t overwhelming enough, learning where we have come from and how we ended up here in such a shocking state really makes the world look like a dark horrible place to set up camp really.

In the documentary I noted there was a grave site for some local slavery persons whom managed to cross the border to Canada. In this gravesite there was 15 headstones, yet the land topography said otherwise. With ground penetrating radar they found there to be over 250plus bodies buried on this one small site. If that was found here in NZ that would be such a political problem that some serious problems would happen. When we build highways here, which we are currently north of our town, there has to be a blessing, a clearing of the land in such a way, that if there was even one item such as a ancient cooking oven or tools used by ancestors found the entire site would be stopped effective immediately. Archaeologists come in and all the roads will be diverted. Is that also the case in USA?

There is a rare native lizard here that is found in flax bush areas. They employ a specific person to come into bush land and move lizards, and rare species out of the are before building. It’s rather insane when you think about it but we do it! For such a young country we see other countries situations and become fascinated! Well I do anyway.

[manuel_moe_g]

SnoringDog, it is not the Pain Olympics, your pain wherever it is born, is valid

Mental Fairy, my US history education, like many others, was mainly an dismissal of the horrors of slavery, such embarrassing crap

[snoringdog]

Thanks Manny, you're right.

Mental Fairy - this is a bit long

Gosh it had me sitting upright taking notes, it was fascinating and informative. Can I ask, did you do all your education in USA?

Yes. It would be interesting to see how other countries tell their own stories. Always distortions. “History is written by the winners”, right?

I’m also interested to know about the curriculum in schools over there. What history do you get taught in history classes? Do you get to pick? Or is it one size fits all type classes.

In grade school and in high school it was pretty standard.
Things were glossed over rather than ignored, I think.
(Most children do know a little of the Civil War, and can name Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and will surely say that “he freed the slaves”).

And there’s plenty of information and narrative in higher-ed settings, in museums, thru books, on public television.

In recent years, I think there’ve been AP courses for Black History in greater detail in the high schools, but these have recently come under attack.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2023/08/23/black-history-censorship-getting-worse/70348173007/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/09/08/desantis-banned-some-black-history-classes-these-churches-fought-back/70783000007/

The reason I ask is here in NZ the history we only got taught is WW1 and WW2, a little on Europeans coming to NZ and a little bit on Maori wars. And the natural disasters of NZ.

I really wished we learnt about the US civil war, for some reason this really is a topic I find so interesting. Plus the slavery side of things.

So really what I would love to know is if the American school curriculum covers more world events or focuses on their own country and the history within?

Here in NZ the system is changing so all school children from 5-18 must learn Māori language, must learn Māori history and must sit exams. I don’t believe this would be the same in the USA in the ways of teaching native Indian history or language?

No... But in a much smaller country with a more recent history like NZ, it seems a lot easier to implement.

In the documentary I noted there was a grave site for some local slavery persons whom managed to cross the border to Canada. In this gravesite there was 15 headstones, yet the land topography said otherwise. With ground penetrating radar they found there to be over 250plus bodies buried on this one small site.

If that was found here in NZ that would be such a political problem that some serious problems would happen. When we build highways here, which we are currently north of our town, there has to be a blessing, a clearing of the land in such a way, that if there was even one item such as a ancient cooking oven or tools used by ancestors found the entire site would be stopped effective immediately. Archaeologists come in and all the roads will be diverted. Is that also the case in USA?

Basically yes. Native tribes in the West are active in this kind of thing, and also in repatriating some of the items found in museums. Especially skeletons and artifacts with spiritual or ceremonial significance.

They’ve also uncovered a number of African / slave burial grounds such as this one in Manhattan-

https://www.nps.gov/afbg/index.htme) (nps.gov)

There is a rare native lizard here that is found in flax bush areas. They employ a specific person to come into bush land and move lizards, and rare species out of the area before building. It’s rather insane when you think about it but we do it!

Not insane at all. We’re crowding everything out which is depressing. Individually we can be quite wonderful and charming. As a large group, not so much…

For such a young country we see other countries situations and become fascinated! Well I do anyway.

Yes. NZ seems wonderful and exotic to us too!

[snoringdog]

Just picked up a little book from the library the other day-

Surviving Our Catastrophes by Robert Jay Lifton

https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/09/02/covid-climate-survival-lifton-book-review/

Maybe because I recently saw "Oppenheimer", skimming thru the book the chapters on Hiroshima caught my attention...

I also stood under the "Atom Bomb Dome" many years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima_Peace_Memorial

A quote from the preface -

People often ask me how I can be “courageous” are “strong” enough to take in the collective horrors I describe. My answer is that it is more a question of finding a balance in my work about how much I am able to feel. I need to take in some of the pain the work uncovers but at the same time create a measure of professional distance, something on the order of a surgeon performing a delicate operation or a clinical psychiatrist carrying out an interview with a depressed patient.
-----------------------

I have required a certain amount of self-protection, of what is sometimes called care of the self. This has entailed limiting my daily exposure to the painful details of the work and spending considerable time in a separate world of reading books and seeing films of a different order. That separate world must include considerable love. For me it has also included passionate rooting for my favorite baseball team.....

I have frequently told friends and students that I have a policy of “not reading or working on that [catastrophic] stuff after 9:00 PM” advising them to do the same should they embark on such studies.

Setting emotional boundaries....

[Mental Fairy]

This moved me somewhat, thank you.

[snoringdog]

A little snapshot from last week. I can't think about this stuff, but it's in my face...

On the bus to NYC, saw a young man across the aisle scrolling thru a weapons website on his phone. Video demos of switchblades, stilettos and other lethal blades, presumably for sale. Thought at first it was for some kind of video game, but no....

My wife came home from her 6th-grade teaching job and reported that they'd spent the day with the local police department, learning how to apply tourniquets so victims don't bleed out while the police are running around trying to locate an active shooter...

Damn it! We're such ugly aggressive monkeys

WTF

[snoringdog]

But there *are* some beautiful people in this world...

A fellow helping little Hermit Crabs on the beach in Okinawa -

https://www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/comments/1an672r/hermit_crabs_who_were_living_in_plastic_on_the/

I love that!

[troebia]

I agree. Without these unconventional people, humanity wouldn't have even the slightest glimmer of hope.