Hey it's Jenn
I hope y'all remember the story Lottery.
In Debate class, we were discussing whether a course on America's dark past should be adopted in every school in the United States.
The curriculum of the course will include discussions on the nation's darkest times such as forced relocation of Natives, Japanese internment during WWII, etc.
Of course I started zoning out and realized that this topic is related to the discussions in AP ENG and the chapter America's Dreams and Nightmares
One of America's "Nightmares" came to my mind immediately when I began to think about the Lottery.
Lynching had been used in the past to torture and kill innocent people.
Lynching was not limited to Blacks in the South but used to kill people of various ethnicities in different parts of America.
Various grotesque mechanisms of torture were performed and lynching would be publicly advertised to gather crowds at the scene.
From many published historical records, these mobs considered lynching as a festive and would proudly admit that they took part in it. Very similar to the townspeople who did not feel guilty or morally wrong about stoning someone to death.
Would you agree that we need to educate young people about America's Nightmares?
What do you think about the connection between the Lottery and lynching?
(Jennifer Park)
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7 comments:
Oops, I put the unedited version by accident...The content is the same but sorry for the grammatical errors and sentence fragments.
(Jennifer Park)
Hey, Jenn! Yeah, I think it would be a good idea to have a course on America's dark past (I don't know how many people would take it, but maybe some students would like to learn about that kind of stuff).
One difference that I see between "The Lottery" and lynching is that lynching is done illegally most of the time, right? So, wouldn't "illegal" imply that it is not accepted by society as a whole (minus the mob committing the crime)?
Emily T.
I think that it really is important to teach younger people about America's Nightmares. Some people may think that it's a sore subject to touch on, but I think it's important that it's part of the curriculum.
I think that lynching is different than the stoning the Lottery. The stoning done in the lottery was done as a tradition. The lynching is definitely not a tradition. It was merely a common device used to torture and kill others.
However, the intentions and feelings involved with lynching can be interpreted as being similar or different than the stoning in the Lottery. In the lottery, the people went along with the stoning because they thought it was for the good of the town. Now there can be two interpretations of the feelings and intentions involved in the lynching. One can say that those people are selfish and don't think about the people affected by lynching. However, one can also say that the intentions and feelings are similar to those involved with the white man's burden. It can be interpreted that those people believe that they are helping humankind by getting rid of people that are 'inferior.'
I agree with Emily and Mary that it would be a good idea to have a course on America's "dark past" (historical nightmares). I do think that the young need to learn history in its entirety, which includes both dreams AND nightmares, no matter how much we wish to disregard the negatives.
To some extent, I think that a few history courses already encompass this nation's dark past. Didn't we learn about Japanese internment during WWII last year in AP US History? Yet at the same time, we clearly didn't dwell on the details of internment. Therefore, I think a course focusing on such events from America's "dark past" that are not typically discussed in history classes would be a useful addition to the curriculum.
This brings me to a quick question: if such a course were to be introduced in American high schools, should it be a requirement for every single student prior to graduation? Should it be included in a school's core curriculum?
(Janet Lee)
To answer Janet's question, I think it should be included in the core curriculum. After all, American History is included and these events are a part of American history.
I think a course on "America's Nightmares" would be an interesting one to include in the cirriculum. We must, however, consider the possible consequences. I'm not sure if any of what I'm about to say will be plausible, yet it's worth consideration.
Many of us take pride in this nation because of its past. Afterall, didn't our poorly-equipped militias succeed in gaining independence from Britain, the nation with the leading navy at the time? How would a course on "America's Nightmares" (its downfalls, misgivings, and failures) make American students feel? Would their opinion change?
I think that Mary made an excellent point of distinguishing between the stoning and the lynching (one a tradition, one plainly out of cruelty). This somehow brings me to a question since Shirley Jackson ended her short story at the commencement of Mrs. Hutchinson's stoning. Did the citizens of the town (the Hutchinson family atleast) have any sympathy after the sacrifice had been done?
In 1918, Congress introduced a Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill. It was passed in 1922. This occurred before "The Lottery" was published in 1948. The American town which served as the setting for Shirley Jackson's story must have found lynching and stoning to be quite different, for they continued to offer sacrifices of human life despite the law passed.
(Sam Maliha)
Hi it's Jenn again
I think we can consider lynching as a traditional method for torturing people. Lynching was practiced even before America came to be. The same mechanisms for killing people, although not yet called 'lynching', existed way before.
To argue Emily's point, although the United States as a nation banned lynching, to those sub-societies that performed and enjoyed lynching, it was a norm. The event was advertised weeks before and crowds gathered to watch the scene. They even made postcards with the pictures of the victims.
I do not think that we should have a separate course for America's Nightmares but rather include a unit in current American History classes. It is true that we touched on some issues in APUS, but rest of American History classes tend to avoid the topic. Therefore, making America's Nightmares a mandatory unit to be taught in history classes would be most realistic and fair.
(Jennifer Park)
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