“The song itself is a record of history.” That’s true. Everything is a record of history. (Which is one reason there are so many hoarders – some people can’t bear to throw away any records of history.) It would be interesting to examine it to contribute to the understanding of history. Take a look: that’s what we did in this post.

But I doubt there’s room in the fourth-grade curriculum to do that on a regular basis. And teaching the song without doing that hurts some kids and teaches others unquestioned stereotypes. To say the song “displeases some cultural sensitivities” dismisses the feelings of an actual person who was going to be forced to sing that song misrepresenting and condescending to his family’s experiences.

If you’re on the hunt for examples of knee-jerk political correctness, this is not a good case for you. It’s a matter of historical correctness.

No I do not appreciate the erasing of a song just because it displeases some cultural sensitivities. The apology as far as this report is concerned does not include any context for the creation of the song only regret that political correctness was violated.

The lesson, be equally fair to the understanding of history.

That’s a lot of reason for pride. Thank you for posting.

(Darlene Franco is Wukchumni Tribal Chair and one of the founders of California’s Master/Apprentice Language Learning Program.)

Oh, privilege, thy name is “I did not think.” Sheesh. Great find on this little story! I certainly hadn’t heard about it.