"I'm sure there will be plenty of time... we're not expected at the Tysons till five PM at the earliest and we aren't even at lunch time right now," Melissa gave shrug, "in that we have plenty of time for you and dad to focus on what you're wanting get done with these textbooks."
Virginia nodded and was actually rather hopeful at that, as going over the two textbooks that she had to choose from had been something she'd wanted to discuss with Harold for quite awhile. It was that sort of thing that she'd actually come to talk about when Alice Decrux had started the fight that lead to Harold becoming the weretiger that Virginia was now happily engaged to. But so far, things had always come up to interrupt that, be it some of Harold's past mourning, Decrux's games, the police investigation over the fight, and then the Halloween Dance and the situation that lead to Melissa's entry into were-society. Melissa might have gotten to make the choice, but the situation was still one that came from outside distractions that had helped cause the problems that had delayed Virginia from being able to go over those textbooks.
"So... I'll let you and dad get to discussing those books," Melissa commented as she stood up and looked over her shoulder to Virginia.
"You're more than free to help, if you want," Virginia offered.
"I've never done bad in school..." Melissa gave a chuckle, "Dad would never let me do that... but he's more of the history nut than I am."
Melissa then quietly made her way out from the living room and then walked past the stairs and turned right before knocking on the door to her father's study area. It made do as a computer room as well, and often Melissa found she had to share time with her father, often because he'd either be working on lectures or research to publish actual historical articles on. Some of that had suffered a little in the last few years in Michigan, but she half expected that to pick up again, particularly during the summer, now that Harold had found his smile again. She didn't have to long to wait until her father appeared in the doorway.
"Things go okay?" Harold asked as he looked down to her.
"Yeah," Melissa nodded, "got all the questions that I had answered... and in general, I'm pleased with the answers."
"That's good," Harold managed a small smile to his daughter.
"So... now that my interrupting your book discussion is over... I'll let you and Virginia get back to it, and thank you for letting me have the time," Melissa said to him.
"Anything for my little girl," Harold answered and gave her a brief hug before moving on to walk into the living room while Melissa went into the study and soon sat down at the computer.
Harold found Virginia seated down calmly and arranging the two textbooks so that they sat next to each other. One was titled "the American Dream" written in gold letters with the American flag looking like it was draped across the side of the cover near the binding with then artist's renditions of Washington, Lincoln, Taft, a steam engine locomotive, Eisenhower during World War II, Nixon, Reagan, and the burning ruins of the Twin Towers in a sort of mural where they overlapped one another. The other was titled "On the Trail of Freedom: American History" in white letters on a blue background. Below the title area were a series of blocks that depicted various moments in American history. One was of the signing Declaration of Independence, one was a group of people in wagons going across the west, one was of Lincoln at the Gettysburg Address, one was of what looked like workmen operating a blast furnace in a steal plant, one was a mural with images of people in breadlines and soldiers charging from the sea framing a photo of FDR, and the last was an image of Neil Armstrong on the moon.
"So... you did get a look at them?" Virginia asked, remembering that she'd loaned to Harold briefly before the fight with Alice Decrux.
"Briefly..." Harold said slowly, though knowing that this would mean a potentially tough discussion. History as a subject was a constantly expanding subject, but the school year generally remained the same. This made detailed teaching of all American or "World" history rather limited, even at the college level. Colleges tended to fix this by having a set of elective courses that would focus on specific issues, but high schools, like Moon Lake High wouldn't have that capability. Harold had figured that the best way to get detail into high school and middle school situations was to provide questions of why and thus lead students into looking into things beyond the textbooks in their own time, but the textbook was still going to be at least a starting point.
"So... what do you think?" Virginia asked, "I'd like to know what you think first..."
"Well... to a certain extent, you're going to have many of the same problems that all American History textbooks will have," Harold said slowly, "with both books. Lack of detail and rather simplistic material, issues with potential biases with the author/editors or the company that published the textbook..." Harold paused and pointed to the first book, "the publisher for "the American Dream" comes out of Texas and has actually made some "headlines" when a state critiqued the textbooks sent to schools in their state for pushing an overly Conservative assessment of history." Harold than pointed to the other, "the publisher for "On the Trail of Freedom: American History" has been known posting accounts of history that tend to get more of a romanticized view of things and concepts. Which in some cases has been especially vague with regard to specific actions and events... even by the standards of a high school textbook."
"Yeah... I've seen that," Virginia nodded, "though not that that is necessarily a bad thing in every case. No President or political party has ever had everything go their way or had everything be quite as good as their supporters would like to think. In that, sometimes some of that sort of thing helps. It at least lets students think about the topic. If they disagree... they'd then have to check other sources and compare notes as it were. And on the whole, because this is high school... I really can't get too picky as to which one is too vague in order to present an idealistic story and the other is openly Conservative politically. Both the messages are going to be about the same and even the textbooks at the high school level that get criticized for being "too Liberal" have many of the same issues... and the same issues in the same direction as the textbooks that are "too Conservative." So... those things aren't going to be that much of a problem."
"Just making sure you're aware," Harold answered, "because some of my opinions on these two are based on my own point of view."
Virginia nodded as she looked between the two books and was glad to be finally getting some input on the two books. She'd gotten some advice from the other history/social science teachers and had some opinions on her own, but after learning that Harold Jenkins had been hired as a professor at the college to teach history she'd been interested in his opinion. She watched as he picked up "the American Dream" first.
"This one is actually the more detailed of the two," Harold spoke, "and it will provide more details on things like the Native American tribes coming to America and where they settled... not to mention the debates over things like the Constitution, slavery, and so on. It won't be super detailed when compared to histories presented at colleges or in bookstores... but it's still more detailed than "On the Trail of Freedom: American History," which would mean if you're looking for in class discussion... "the American Dream" will have more factual material to work with. And that will be critical if you're going to have students debate issues. As without access to an iPad or computers... you'll need some source of information to use. I may have some issues with how they treat FDR, JFK, and LBJ... but "the American Dream" has the information to work with."
Virginia nodded and then asked, "and what did you think on the other?"
"Well... "On the Trail of Freedom: American History" is better in that it doesn't try to make any sort of message in the way that "the American Dream" does," Harold says slowly, "the former's message is generally aimed at the general themes that America has had... that people have come here to freedom from tyranny and so on. Which is generally true, and with things like the immigration stories in the 1800s... it does a good job of covering that... but a lot of this is pretty limited and it doesn't get into even the sort of detail that "the American Dream" puts in with groups like the Know Nothings. Students may know that problems existed in America's past... but they won't see it as much of a problem because of the effort "On the Trail of Freedom: American History" tries to put into talk about the progress America has made... readers will have some trouble understanding how these problems come about. For the book doesn't do much to differ between the general desire and the level of the problems that general desire has had to overcome."
"But that could be something to inspire others to have interest in... and thus research for more," Virginia commented.
"Potentially," Harold nodded, "but that would still depend on high school students having a college student history major's interest in history. It's where I would actually favor "the American Dream" between the two. It's attention to detail is better, and that detail can be used to set up the debate and provide something they can compare to. And that will work with those that generally decide not to major in history. "On the Trail of Freedom: American History" doesn't have that... It isn't necessarily bad... but it's simply not going to have the detail to be informative and is idealistic presentation could be confusing to those that don't want to go deeper into history..."
"So... I take it you'd think "the American Dream" would be the better option?" Virginia asked.
Harold slowly nodded, "based on the facts presented in it... and the details provided... yes. I wouldn't necessarily pick it for a college class on the same scale, because I feel it does have real bias issues... but much of that will be my personal preference."
Virginia slowly nodded and glanced down to the two books for the moment. She'd personally felt she could work more with "On the Trail of Freedom: American History," as it could give her more room to open up curiosity into history and thus use that to encourage research into topics that went beyond the textbook. And while Moon Lake High might not be the most technical high school in America, it was not as though her students couldn't get access to materials other than the text book to build on things. However, she could see some Harold's reasoning. Researching during class hours was one thing, but some of the potential vagueness might not inspire curiosity in those that were uninterested in history. That would be something to keep in mind, and Virginia was actually glad to have been able to get this conversation in.