The resident history teacher, Mr Reese, asked me to speak about the Mormon religion in his class as part of the early pilgrimage section of his curriculum. I was eager to agree and have been looking forward to this for some weeks. Today, however, was the first time I got to look at the text book that the students have based all knowledge of Mormons off of. I was FURIOUS!!!! I have included the text, in its entirety, which ALL US kids in grades 8 and 10 are learning.
"One group that migrated westward along the Oregon Trail consisted of the Mormons, a religious community that would play a major role in the settling of the West. Mormon history began in western New York in 1827 when Joseph Smith and five associates established the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Fayette, New York, in 1830.
Smith and a growing band of followers decided to move west. They settled in Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1839. Within five years, the community numbered 20,000. When Smith's angry neighbors printed protests against polygamy, the Mormons' practice of having more than one wife, Smith destroyed their printing press. As a result, in 1844 he was jailed for treason. An anti-Mormon mob broke into the jail and murdered Smith and his brother.
smith's successor, Brigham Young, decided to move his followers beyond the boundaries of the United States. Thousands of Mormons traveled by wagon north to Nebraska, across Wyoming to the Rockies, and then southwest. In 1847, the Mormons stopped at the edge of the lonely desert near the Great Salt Lake.
The Mormons awarded plots of land to each family according to its size but held common ownership of two critical resources--water and timberland. Soon they had coaxed settlements and farms from the bleak landscape by irrigating their fields. Salt Lake City blossomed out of the land the Mormons called Deseret."
This was the entirety of the information given about the LDS migration, Faith and People. I obviously dont need to detail what is wrong with this section...there is barely anything true. Its even written poorly, neither defining what impact the LDS members had, nor the historical impact that we had on political and social aspects of the US.
If any of you have any ideas of how to combat this, please let me know. It is going to take a bit of time for me to calm down after this one.
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5 comments:
Oh my goodness!!!!!!!!!! I'm sooooooooooooooooo mad right now. How does that even happen!??!?!? ahhhhhhhhhhhh... what to do?!?! WOW.
That's actually not one of the more venomous or hostile treatments of Mormon history that I've read. It certainly skips things and oversimplifies, but except for the mistake about non-Mormon neighbors complaining about polygamy, there's very little that's outright wrong and/or anti. But I agree, the account needs some help. A little fleshing out, if you will. I'll think and maybe send something in an e-mail.
Or in an additional comment...send them to the lds.org website, where under "About the Church" there is a section on Church History. It has links to various history topics, including a link to a site completely about Joseph Smith.
http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/0,15478,3900-1,00.html
This is another one that appears to have a pretty good historical recap, from the Utah History Encyclopedia published by the University of Utah:
http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/c/CHURCHJESUSLATTER.html
Don't get mad about it in class. Just tell them that there's a lot of misinformation and misunderstandings around about our church, but give them some correct information and reliable resources to find out more.
yeah, it's very poorly written... and over simplifies way too much. non-mormons are usually guilty of this when recounting mormon history. but i also think the LDS church isn't completely truthful when it comes to our history either.
Really simple and makes things non-contiversial (Spelling)At least it is not negative! How did the class go?
Mom
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