Situations like these, with the right teacher, are great eye-opening moments for children. I still remember a unit in US history, in which we were asked to wri

Situations like these, with the right teacher, are great eye-opening moments for children. I still remember a unit in US history, in which we were asked to write an essay expounding on the evolving nature of woman's role in American society from the antebellum period through reconstruction (1820s-1890s). I think just about everybody in the class interpreted the question as being one about "white" women, and wrote their essays accordingly. The next lecture opened with this meta-fact, and rather than shame us about it, she used it as a wedge to open a discussion on how the overwhelming majority of writing on American history is authored from a male, generally Western European lens. Most of our essays told of monotonically expanding rights and freedom (Seneca Falls was in 1848, the various feminist movements were gaining steam at the state level around property rights and suffrage). But this time period saw Indigenous women undergo the Trail of Tears and the institutionalization of reservations and forced relocation. It also saw enslaved women experience Emancipation only to be followed with the failure of reconstruction and the installment of Jim Crow. --- This was over 10 years ago, and I still remember the lesson in so much detail! And find it useful when reading history today. Every time we uncover a blind spot and cure some ignorance, we're making progress.