History on the move

The past never stays still. It changes, which is why the task of the historian changes with each generation.

A.N. Wilson, The Mystery of Charles Dickens

Perhaps there is a reason our history teachers seemed to focus so much on dates — 1066, 1492, 1776. Dec. 7, 1941, etc. Dates are just about the only bits of history that never change. All the rest is subject to different interpretations by different historians with vastly different points of view.

We say we can learn from history, yet one thing we learn is that history is as open to interpretation as a Charles Dickens novel.

A.N. Wilson is writing about a Charles Dickens novel, Oliver Twist, when he makes the comment quoted above. The novel was inspired by his own history, his own difficult boyhood, yet the author gives his life an interpretation from his own middle-aged and upper-middle-class point of view, his own twist, as it were.

In Florida, where I now make my home, controversy swirls over proposed standards for teaching slavery. Was there any silver lining at all about the black cloud of slavery? And even if there was, should students be taught about it? Did slaves learn anything at all that benefited them after they won their freedom? The slaves themselves seemed to think so, but some modern interpretations suggest they were wrong. Slavery was 100 percent bad and absolutely no good came out of it, they insist, apparently not even Louis Armstrong, Michael Jordan or Oprah Winfrey.

Another question, usually ignored, is that if Florida schools give so much attention to teaching about slavery, as both sides of the argument seem to agree they should, how much of the rest of American history is going to be ignored completely?

The past never stays still, especially in American schools.