Siamese parents always lament their children false history

History in basic education

09/05/2009
By Dr. Maria Serena Diokno
Philippine Daily Inquirer

(First of two parts)

In many parts of the world, social studies textbooks are hounded by questions regarding content, learning goals and methods—and politics. For example, Japanese textbook writers have long had to grapple with their country’s role in World War II.

A worried Thai parent laments that her daughter “feels Burma is fierce and heartless, Cambodia cannot be trusted, and Laos is inferior to Thailand—because the history textbooks teach her so.” More recently, the government of Israel announced that Israeli textbooks for Arab school children would no longer contain the sentence that says Arabs describe the period of the birth of Israel as al-Nakba (“the catastrophe”). The Jews call it the “Independence War.”

In our own case, Dr. Ambeth Ocampo, a fellow historian and head of the National Historical Institute, asks if there is room in our textbooks for such historical controversies as the execution of Andres Bonifacio.

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