HISTORY AS IT WAS TAUGHT IN

THE NINETEEN FIFTIES

A Memoir by

Gary Ray Branscome

Before the nineteen fifties and even into the sixties, elementary schools typically included the seventh and eighth grades. And, starting with the fourth grade, it was customary for elementary school students to receive five years of history and five years of geography. In the school that I attended, most of the textbooks had been published in the nineteen thirties or early forties. As I remember, the eighth grade textbook was the newest, being published in 1945, and the only one with an account of the Second World War.

While I am not sure which textbooks were used, I believe that at least some of them were published by Macmillan. Be that as it may, our fourth grade textbook dealt with American History. Beginning with a brief mention of Leif Erikson, and the possibility that some Vikings had made their way to America [ruins of Viking settlements had not yet been found], we were told about Christopher Columbus, the events leading up to his voyage, and the many voyages of exploration that his discovery of America initiated.

After describing various Spanish, French and English explorations, and the territory claims made by those countries, the textbook went on to describe the founding and growth of each of the thirteen English colonies that later became the United States. We learned about the French and Indian wars, how that the Iroquois were our allies in that war, and about the war of independence. I am not sure where the book ended, but I am fairly certain that it described Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin, the westward expansion of the United States, the controversy over slavery, and the Civil War. I do know that it did not include the Second World War because it was published in the late thirties. However, one specific thing that I remember is its description of how the early settlers made soap, by saving wood ash from their fires, pouring water through that ash to get lye, and boiling that lye with grease.

There was nothing racist about that textbook! In fact, it championed equality and portrayed slavery as a great evil. Furthermore, it explained that many of the Indian tribes were our allies. The purpose of the book was to give every student (no matter where his ancestors were from) an understanding of the origin and history of the country they were now a part of.

Although the fifth grade history textbook was called “World History,” it began in the Middle East, in the area extending from Mesopotamia to Egypt, known as the Fertile Crescent. Since that was the area of the tower of Babel, it fit in well with what I was learning at church. And, while it made little mention of Israel (except during the period of David and Solomon), it was interesting to learn about some of the other Middle Eastern countries mentioned in the Bible.

From the Middle East it moved to Greece and then Rome. And, after the capitol of the Roman Empire was moved to Constantinople, it described the barbarian invasions of Italy, and the crowning of Charlemagne. It also described the influx of the Angles and Saxons into England. While there is no record of any pitched battles resulting from the Saxon influx [I am not saying that no battles took place] two centuries later the Saxon language (now known as Old English) was the language of England, and there were three Saxon kingdoms in what is now England. I remember that outside of Wales and Cornwall, much of what is now England and Scotland was being fought over by the Angles, Saxon, Jutes, Picts, Scots, and Danes. The Danes were the Vikings and they invaded and controlled much of what is now northern England and Scotland. The book then described the Norman conquest of England (which is what united England) and the events that followed that conquest, and the book ended about where the fourth grade history textbook began. What that book could have mentioned, but did not, is that both the Vikings and the Saxons had slaves [I am not talking about serfs], and the Normans put an end to slavery in England.

The purpose of that textbook was to help students (from a variety of backgrounds) understand the cultural history of the country they were now a part of.

The sixth grade history textbook began with the Norman King John being forced to sign the Magna Carta. My first reaction was to wonder why the book had gone back to a part of history that we had already covered the year before. However, the book took a different track by recounting the events that led the Barons to band together to enforce the Magna Charta, and how, over time, that led to the formation of the House of Lords. The book then went on to describe the events that led up to the formation of the House of Commons, and other restrictions on the power of the King.

What students should have learned from that history is that freedom is the result of a long hard process of restricting and limiting the power of rulers, not of overthrowing a government along with all restrictions on government. And, that unlike the French revolution, our American War of Independence was fought to preserve the restrictions on the power of the king.

The seventh and eighth grade history books gave us a more detailed look at European and American history. We learned about the Holy Roman Empire, The Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Hapsburgs, The invasion of Eastern Europe by Attila and the Huns, and later by Genghis Kahn, and much more. Regarding American history we learned about the difficulties involved in reconstruction (after the civil war) and the events that followed, including a chapter on the Second World War.

When it came to geography, the textbooks for different years focused on different things. I remember that one year the focus was on Africa. And, I was surprised to learn that much of sub-Saharan African was savanna, not jungle. Movies had given me the impression that it was all jungle. When we studied the geography of North America we learned about the different soil types in different parts of the country, the amount of rainfall, the climate, and what crops predominated. Crop-wise, I remember learning that Ohio was in the corn belt, and that the soil of Minnesota and Iowa was considered richest, being a black soil known as chernozem (a Russian word meaning black earth). I also remember learning about contour farming, and the importance of windbreaks on the Great Plains. I also remember being told that the best way to plant a wind break was to plant a row of pines around a house or building, and then plant a row of poplars in front of the pines. The purpose of the fast-growing poplars was to protect the pines from the wind while they were small.

Three years after I completed elementary school all of that instruction was taken away. While a certain amount of history and geography is still included as “Social Studies” much of the information that we received is no longer being taught in public schools.