Dear Dr. Rhinehart,
I have recently learned that high schools across the nation “deny” certain history to high school students. There is always something to be learned from history. So how are we supposed to learn about history if certain aspects of it are left out of our curriculum? That’s where Mr. Meechin comes in. At the beginning of the school year, he promised us, his students, that he would not leave anything out.
I’m sure you’ve never heard of an event called the Rape of Nanking. I definitely never learned or even heard about it until Mr. Meechin introduced us to it. The Rape of Nanking was a mass murder and war rape that occurred in 1937 following the Japanese capture of the city of Nanjing (Nanking) in China. There are probably so many other acts of genocide that I haven’t learned about such as DR Congo where 5.4 million people were killed.
Yes, I know that these topics included cruel, heinous, and gruesome actions, but no matter what the topics involve history matters a great deal. History explains why certain events occurred that made our world the way it is today. Robert Penn Warren said, “History cannot give us a program for the future, but it can give us a fuller understanding of ourselves, and of our common humanity, so that we can better face the future.” We, as high school students, have the right to learn history. And when I say history, I mean all of it.
