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Presented by the Zinn Education Project
A Collaboration between Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change
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Lying to Children About the California Missions and the Indians
By Deborah A. Miranda
In California schools, students come up against the "Mission Unit" in 4th grade. Part of California's history curriculum, the unit is entrenched in the educational system and impossible to avoid, a powerfully authoritative indoctrination in Mission Mythology to which 4th graders have little if any resistance. Intense pressure is put upon students (and their parents) to create a "Mission Project" that glorifies the era and glosses over both Spanish and Mexican exploitation of Indians, as well as enslavement of those same Indians during U.S. rule. In other words, the Mission Unit is all too often a lesson in imperialism, racism, and Manifest Destiny rather than actually educational or a jumping-off point for critical thinking or accurate history. Continue reading.
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Related Resources
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Teaching Guide. Edited by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson. Readings and lessons for pre-K to 12 about the impact and legacy of the arrival of Columbus in the Americas. Continue reading.
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Book - Non-fiction and prose. By Deborah A. Miranda. A compilation of documents, photos, and memoir that recounts the establishment of missions in California and the impact on Indigenous people ----then and today. Continue reading.
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Brief description of the brutal, devastating treatment of California Indians in the Missions and their resistance. Continue reading.
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By Fred Glass. Overview of Indigenous people living in missions from a labor and economic viewpoint. Continue reading.
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Website. By Debbie Reese. Critical perspectives of Indigenous peoples in children's books, the school curriculum, popular culture, and society-at-large. Continue reading.
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Teaching Activity. By Julie Treick O'Neill and Tim Swinehart. A role play asks students to develop a list of demands to present to the rest of the world at a climate change meeting. Continue reading.
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The goal of the Zinn Education Project is to introduce students to a more accurate, complex, and engaging understanding of United States history.
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