smir5864

Well ...

i wouldnt say their is a conspiracy...as if they are doing it on purpose to alienate ...etc. in order to sell another war, anyhow. good for you lady. yes we have an embarassing education system problem all over the US, thank God our public district in Atlanta is relatively decent,although i think they dropped some band classes in order to send more highschool dropouts to the chaos in Afghanistan and Iraq...(by our by the way, i just mean the district my brothers go to school in, we got some real problems in atlanta not this petty nonesense, shookhi ) with that said it is the information age, make them enjoy learning it. 1 POINT i love to make is how so called great societies like Athens Rome Cairo were all built by slaves but in Persia good workers got good pay ;0) and tommorow children we our going to learn about the Persian Shah's Concubines...

mharrsch, as a regular participant on this web site, I...

would like to express my utmost appreciation for your input. Although the history of Ancient Persia and its civilization does not impact the lives of the US student population as much as the recent history of events between Iran and the US do, I still think the weak link is in the primary and high school education. College students in the US have all kinds of means to research and pursue matters related to Iran. As a person with a school-aged child, I'd rather see the more awareness at those levels, because the students at those levels do not have a pressing motivation to learn the history of Ancient Persian civilization, unlike the college level students who may be interested in the subject due to intellectual and/or career goals.

What I would like to do specificaly, is finding ways to campaign/lobby for more educational materials in the textbooks and the libraries of this nation's primary and high schools.

I really appreciate any input and assistance in that regards, since I don't know the "ropes" well enough to start that kind of campaign, yet.

Encouraging the production of new history content

There are a number of us in academia that are trying to bring more attention to Persian history and art.  My friend, Dr. Patrick Hunt of Stanford University has excavated Persian archaeological sites and promotes the history and achievements of Persia by participating in such broadcast programs as "Persia: Engineering An Empire" which was produced for the History Channel.  In fact he was recently awarded the "golden lioness" award by Iran for his efforts.  

I travel the world photographing historical art in museums and upload images to Flickr licensed with creative commons to enable teachers and students to use the images in the classroom.  I make a point of seeking out Persian art and antiquities from Mesopotamia to try to encourage the study of Persian culture.  

I also wrote to The Teaching Company, (//www.teach12.com) asking them to produce more college-level courses on Persia and the ancient Near East.  I would like to think in response to my request (at least in part) they released new titles on archaeology in the ancient Near East, ancient civilizations of Asia Minor, the lands between the two rivers, and religion of the ancient near east. 

It goes way back

Back in 1979, When I was in first year of college taking the World History class, I remember, she, the professor of history talked about Roman, Greek and other civilizations for days, only about 5 minutes (that was all) was dedicated to Persian Empire. And the way she talked about Persians was very disappointing to me. One thing I remember in particular for that whole 5 minutes was that the main Persian strategy in battle field was "Hit and Run" or in Farsi, "Jang o Goriz". I used to hear in detail, back in Iran that how great the Persian Empire was and expected to hear the same glorification of our mighty empire here in the US too. Well, too bad. Unfortunately, American did not know anything about Iranians and their culture. We became "known" through out the world right after hostage crisis, notoriously of course. 

Ostaad

If I were you, I wouldn't get so exited about US schools not teaching their children about the Persian Empire. Right at home in Iran, your own government has changed the curriculum as to have very little reference to the pre-Islamic Iran in history textbooks.

For your information, this was one of the many steps to further eliminate references to pre-Islamic Iran in Iranian textbooks.

Our own home is in shamble, let's not worry about others' homes until we fix our own.

ex...compairing to when I was growing up in Iran, zilch.

But, and there's a BIG but here, there is tremendous amount of knowledge about the US among Iranian youth, many of them students, as a superpower which looks great but not very friendly to them. So if you look at the textbooks, you'll not find too much about the US. But the educated class in general is pretty much "in tune" with the US. And because they are well wired, they read and talk about whatever the US does without being in awe of it the way my generation was.

The present Iranian youth may not be overwhelmingly US-educated, but they are certainly very US-literate. 

Dear Ostaad

We live in a country (U.S.) which at best, is at odds with the present regime in Iran.

I know that there are No "Perfect" Solutions regarding the subject at hand. What I am trying to convey to you is that there are other alternatives to a "Secular" Education regarding the Ancient History Of Our Beloved Iran.

By "Misinformed" Text Books, I was trying to point out to the "Deficiencies" That Exist Within These Educational Tools.

I Hope That Has Clarified Things For You ....

Best

Ostaad

Since you are getting so holier-than-thou about America on this, can I ask you how much of the history of the West is taught in Iran? And how accurate it is? Judging by a discussion I'm having with one of your compatriots in another thread right now, it doesn't amount to much!

Hey OmidK...check this out

Eduardo Esteban is making ringtones about the Persian Empire. How about that?

PT, I'm aware of thae "Judeo-Christian" teaching at...

the Sunday schools, although I personally don't know of anyone whose child attends Sunday School. I am well aware of the practice, my argument is although "teaching" Jewish folk stories to the children of some Christians, certainly not all Christians, may present itself as an alternative to the formal non-faith based education, that is not enough for a modern intensely diversified society like the US . Also the presence of huge religious diversity in the Silicon Valley, where I live, is a big factor. Therefore teaching the good Old Testament stories of Queen Esther and Daanyaal-e-Nabi to the kids, although interesting and entertaining, to me do not sound like a modern and effective general educational curriculum.

I really don't have the foggiest what you mean by a "misinformed" textbook.

Can you elaborate on that?

Late Dues!

This is what happens, when you do not pay your master what you owe. You should know  that by now , who has done that to you . If you have not figured that either , then you should feel sorry for yourself because

they do not give a damn about it.

......

Thank you for the very interesting blog. In California, 6th graders are expected to learn Judaism, Christianity, China, Egypt, India, Israel....7th graders are expected to learn Islam, more China, Japan, Europe, etc..... Here is the history standards regarding Islam, a 7th grader is supposed to learn, I copied from the Californian Dept of Education's website:

7.2 Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the civilizations of Islam in the Middle Ages.

I got the info from this link:

//www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/histsocscistnd.pdf

A history teacher friend of mine told me that California middle school and high school history curriculum barely touches on Persian Empire.... which is very sad 'cause I have seen so much amazing stuff from Persia, the Mathematicans especially, the list is long:

//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Persian_mathematicians

thanks for bringing up this topic!

Ironic

that couple of weeks ago my 11 yr old(one half Iranian) came home pissed that her teacher only mentioned Persia & Dariaas(the way she pronounce it :)) in passing reference to Alexander conquest. She said that she reminded her teacher that "Persian empire lasted way back before this dude came to ruin it so it,s not fair to ignore em like that and Cyrus was a great leader as good as alexander and  how come there is no mention of him"..The teacher responce went like this ; "We dont cover muslim, Arab or Asian history in this texts "..the teacher responce was so ignorant and dumb that made me write him an email  asking him as why there is an African studies or Africa week but not Asia week ...

& what do you expect from foreigners when in Iran itself thay have erased a whole history of Iran prior to Qadesiyeh from text books for the students. there is a new plan to even erase the minimum reference to those dynasties by names in next few yrs.

Good blog, cheers!!!

Path of Kiaan Resurrection of True Iran Hoisting Drafshe Kaviaan //iranianidentity.blogspot.com //www.youtube.com/user/samsamsia

Well they dont need to learn it at school

Frank miller is making comic books about the Persian empire, I think it was a movie as well. :D 

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Discuss, chat and post your opinions about Iran on my new forum: www.IranBebin.com

Dear Ostaad

What I would like to make you aware of, whether you may know this or not, is that a great many American Kids attend Church regularly with their parents.

If you attend any of the Sunday School classes on a typical Sunday Church Service, there are many stories, espeially for the Kids, regarding Dariush, Cyrus, Daniel The Prophet (Who Was The Prime Minister In The Court Of Dariush, And His Grave Is In Iran), and many others.

Again, a misinformed Text Book may not be as significant as you may think. There are indeed other ways that the Kids get their information from.

Tks

PS

If it makes you feel any better, the only mention of the Russians is when they got their asses kicked by Tamerlane :)

Passing Through, with due respect you seem to have missed...

the main point of this blog. The issue is not smir's child or mine being cheated. The main point is ALL American kids have been deprived of the chance to learn about the history of the Persian Civilization! They have been deprive of the knowledge about the history of Iranian ancient civilization due to what seems to me to be a purely political decision.

BTW, we are not talking about "Cheap Text Books"!!! We are talking about official history textbooks used to teach history in American primary, middle and even high schools!

Your solutions seems to be adequate for a few people. What I'd like to know is what we can do to restore teaching about the history of the Iranian civilization in the American school curriculum. 

smir5864

First, let me say that I graduated high school in 1982, so all my text books were written long before the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Most of them to the best of my recollection were first published in the 1960s. Just wanted to get that out there first so that it is clear that bias against IRI isn't involved :)

To the best of my recllection, we did spend a lot of time on Egypt, China, Greece, Rome, and Babylon. (when I say babylon I mean all the cultures of ancient Mesopotamia). Most of the references to Persia were in regards to the Greeks. There was no chapter on Persia itself as far as I can recall.

My own interpretation for how they make their selections is that they focus on things that affected the Western World. With China, for instance, the focus was on the times immediately before and after Ghengis Khan. I think that's because the Mongolian invasions did impact the west, and also because the first westerners to come into contact with China did so at about that time. I think with regards to Egypt, it's because of Egypt's connection to Rome and the fact that Egypt was a major part of the Eastern Roman Empire for so long (Persia never was). With ancient Mesopotamia, I think it's because we consider that to be the birth place of civilization.

I'm just speculating here. I could be wrong. I do agree with you that the importance of ancient Persia is vastly understated in western history books. Just because it didn't impact the western world much doesn't mean it's unimportant.

Dear smir5864

The history of the Persian Empire can never be deleted from the history of the Judeo-Christian Traditions.

Let me elaborate on this: In the Old Testament of the Bible, there are great references to the Great Persian Kings such as Dariush, Cyrus, and others; repeatedly, it makes references to the deliverance of the Jewish People by the Persian Kings from the hands of Babylonians, etc.

What I am trying to say is this: Even though the text books may have shortcomings regarding the coverage of the Persian Empire, nevertheless, the religious texts always talk very highly of it regarding its contributions. And, let's not forget that the Religious Texts of the Old Testament of the Bible are Everlasting .. unlike a Cheap Text Book.

Please encourage your daughter to study the Periods of the First Iranshar (During The Hakhamaneshi Dynasty), and the Second Iranshahr (During The Sassanian Dynasty) where the Persian Empire was at its Peak, both Culturally and Otherwise. Hopefully, one day, we can have our Third Iranshar to resurrect The Greatness Of Our  Heritage, And The Glory Of Its Past! 

Thank You

The absence of the history of the Persian Empire is pervasive...

and it continues in the middle and high school history textbooks. In fact all traces of the Persian Empire have been erased from the American history textbooks. My daughter attended a public middle school. I was looking at her history textbook and I could barely contain my bewilderment and sorrow when I noticed the Persian Empire was only mentioned on those timeline diagrams, but there was no narrative to be found while the Greek, Egyptian and other old timers were given pages and pages of narrative accompanied by nice graphics.

So this blatant cheating of the American students by not teaching them the history of the Persian Empire is wide-spread and continues even after the primary school.

Any ideas what to do about it?