1 week into school and I'm already drawing a lot of hope from my students. Asked the students to break down @ProfJeffries Ted Talk on Hard History to think about WHY they're required to take a year of American History. A thread of some dope responses:

"Americans love the *idea* of history, but they just can't really face the truth of history. So because they can't face the truth of history Americans make up their own history in a way. In other words, American tend to have *selective memory* when it comes to history."

"Americans hate knowing the past that America has been through. They hate hearing how poorly certain ethnic group were treated. Most importantly they hate knowing that they couldve been one of the people to drive america into the dirt."

"We overlook the things that upset us or begin to dirty the good memories. When faced with the past we pick and choose the things that happened while disregarding the uglier parts"

"we are too afraid for confront the truth about how our country is built on exploitation... I think that can be difficult for some people to accept."

"I think we study history because as humans we need somehthing to link or existence and pretty much our "story" as Humans too. History seems to kind of keep us sane because we can associate oursleves to something and say that we have purpose. "

"In my opinion, we study history to see the building blocks on which our society sits on. Even if it's hard history, it's good to have that knowledge."