Columnist correct about context in teaching

I enjoyed Bill White’s recent column explaining why teaching context is crucial and how sanitized versions of history prevent students from understanding a complicated world. Earlier this year in Texas educators proposed teaching slavery as “involuntary relocation” in social studies, a year after lawmakers passed a law to keep topics that make students “feel discomfort” out of Texas classrooms. And conservatives have the nerve to call liberals “snowflakes.”

Understanding history was also emphasized in Jane Cohen’s recent letter to the editor about abortion. A grandmother who remembers the world before Roe as a “nightmare,” Jane argued that banning abortion without exceptions “horrifies her” when she thinks about her grandchildren and future generations of women.

Social and cultural issues are more important than the smoke and mirrors we’ve been getting from conservative media about the economy, as historians understand presidents have little control over inflation and gas prices. President Biden’s Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, was a Trump appointee, remember. I laughed at Anthony O’Brien’s article faulting the student loan forgiveness program for benefiting wealthy white Americans more than Black, Hispanic, and working-class Americans — just remember that argument the next time Republicans roll out a tax cut. Chris Lang

Bethlehem