So I’ve been thinking about America’s supreme difficulty with truth-telling. And, seemingly, the lack of capacity as a society for truth-telling. Especially about this society’s history. And how this is coming up with books about racism in the United States being banned from schools and curriculums, and things like that. Just all of this erasure, just all of this combating against truth-telling about United States history that’s going on in education right now.
For some context, I spent part of my childhood in England. I went to school there when I was eight years old. And I was reflecting on a series of books that I remember reading as a school-child in England…which again, doesn’t have the greatest reputation for truth-telling either. But this series that I remember reading as a schoolchild in England was called Horrible Histories, with the tagline “History with the nasty bits left in!” I read it when I was eight years old.
And I was thinking about how much reading that series impacted me as a child and how much truth-telling there was. And how, even as a children’s book, this series makes Ibram X. Kendi’s “Anti-Racist Baby” book look like a cakewalk. Alright, they really do mean history with the nasty bits left in!
But I wanted to share with you some of this book. Because it just feels like something that I never encountered in America as a child. Now, I think there’s criticisms to be had of this series. And obviously the bar is set so low. I’m not saying in broad strokes that England has this better figured out than America, necessarily, but this is clearly something that I never got in America.
And clearly we’re still struggling with this.
So I just wanted to give you an example of this book. And I’m reflecting on how much it must have shaped me at the age of eight being exposed to stuff like this. How it probably set me on the right path.
So, this is Horrible Histories “The Barmy British Empire” by Terry Deary.
Is it really that hard to tell children the truth?
(Originally posted on Instagram, March 2024, @lyn_rye_music)
