Caspian: “I was wishing that I came of a more honorable lineage.”
Aslan: “You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve. And that is both honor enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth. Be content.”
How should we teach American history to America’s children?
We want our children to identify themselves as citizens of this country. Their country. We want them to appreciate, and even love, the aspects of this country that we appreciate and love. To give thanks for, and pray for, this country as their home.
We also want them to know the truth about our country’s history. They will not understand the country that they live in unless they face the facts of the events and actions that have led up to this present moment. And not all of these actions have been good.
There is no way to teach American history, as if “we” in America have done all things well over the course of our history. As if all the things that were NOT done well, just “happened,” or were done by . . . , I guess, by someone else. If we are going to identify ourselves as citizens of America – if that is our identity – then we need to face the fact that some things done in this country, in the name of America, were poorly done. Wrongly done.
Now. It is at this point that things become tricky. The leaders and rule-makers of America have, over the centuries, divided the people of this land into different groups. Native Americans and Europeans. The English and the Spanish. People from Great Britain and people from Africa. People in favor of independence and people loyal to the King. People who owned human beings as slaves and people held in slavery. Soldiers who fought for the Union and soldiers who fought for the Confederacy. English speakers and speakers of other languages.
Some of these divisions are with us to this very day.
For example. At one time, Black citizens of Webster Groves, Missouri, were not permitted into the Webster Groves Municipal Swimming Pool. Then, after some controversy, they were (and are) permitted/welcomed into the pool. Does it renew that controversy, if we teach those events to our children? Can Black students and White students alike, learn that history together? Will it mean something different to each of them?
Now multiply that example to all of the history of America. Native and colonist. Newer immigrant and still-newer immigrant. The history of slavery. The red-lining of the city of St. Louis. The treatment of German-speakers during World War One and the treatment of Spanish speakers today. [Add your own examples here.]
At what point can an American student (of European background, say) learn about the treatment of Americans of Japanese background during World War Two? I was in 7th grade, I think, when a fellow student made a report in class of what his parents’ generation went through in the internment camps of America. This was in 1961-1962. We were all 12 years old, or so. All of our parents had gone through the War. Most of us had parents who went into the service; for me, it was both parents and all of my uncles. But for one classmate, his parents had not been permitted that history. And his history was also American history. Our history.
To be frank, much of the resistance to teaching American history as it really is and as it really was, proceeds from the recognition that what I called “the leaders and rule-makers of America” have been mostly White people. Treating White people differently than others. If I had lived in Webster Groves when Black children were excluded from the swimming pool, that rule would not have affected me. I wish that the rule had never been in place, but there it is.
The question of honesty in history is not only a question about children. How should those of us – of any age – who consider ourselves America’s children, think about America’s history? Our history?
Listen to Aslan.
When Prince Caspian, at the point of becoming King Caspian, says that he wished that he came “of a more honorable lineage,” Aslan says:
“You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve. And that is both honor enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth. Be content.”
Aslan addressed all the children of Narnia as “Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve.” This is – following the Biblical example – a title of honor and a badge of shame. We can apply this title, as Aslan did, to the whole human race. We can apply it (as C. S. Lewis did), each of us, to our own nation’s history. We can apply it, each of us, to our own family history.* And each of us can apply it to ourselves. Honor enough; shame enough.
But also joy and hope enough. The history of our country is not completed. The history of our own day is not yet written. The history of our own actions and decisions will be written by those who follow us. We can’t rest with the past; we can’t magically imagine a new future. We deal with today. We live with our own nation, our own America today. Honor enough; shame enough.
Be content. And let’s get to work.
*[I can give a personal example of a family example of honor and shame, good and bad, acclaim and question, from material about my own family, found in the books on my own bookshelves. I intend to do this in a later article. For the sake of my children and grandchildren.]
** The quote at the beginning is from Prince Caspian, the final chapter.
Bruce The Cameron 