Is this political correctness run amok?

[Laurie Verge]

This is strictly my own opinion (and I consider myself a centrist - neither liberal nor conservative), but I do not consider that remembering the past and its sore spots is being politically incorrect. I believe that learning about the past, recognizing that you had nothing to do with it, and moving forward in a positive manner is what education is all about.

A statue of Taney or Forrest or a no-named Confederate soldier (and I'm relating this only to the CW era) can be a teachable moment. Teach both sides of the story - good and bad (whether historic event or human) and encourage good reasoning to help understand all sides. Just wiping out our ancestors because their way of life and thought is different from that in 2013 is not the way to go.

I remember teaching Manifest Destiny to 8th graders and pointing out errors in that way of thinking and some bad events related to the theory. At first, my students (this was in the 60s and 70s) thought that I was Communist! The light bulb dawned after several significant assignments and discussions. You can't wipe out the bad parts of history, but you can try to understand why they happened and move the heck on. We are never going to progress until we do.