#ethical teaching

[trc-magazine]

The Ethical Teaching of History: Why It Matters

Musings Shadows

History is meant to teach us about the past, to help us understand the world we live in today. But what happens when history is told in a way that robs us of our dignity, manipulates our identity, and leaves us feeling cheated?

Growing up in Mozambique, I always loved reading history books. I wanted to learn, to understand. But instead of feeling enlightened, I often found myself feeling wounded, betrayed, and manipulated by what I read. It felt like history was being told in a way that was not just incomplete—but harmful.

Take a simple example: a family dinner. Imagine four people at the table—two grandparents from the Gaza tribe and two granddaughters, who are of mixed tribal heritage, including Inhambane. The conversation turns to history, and suddenly, old tensions surface. The Gaza elders recall how a man from Inhambane once betrayed the people, revealing a secret that led to Ngungunhane’s capture and exile in Lisbon. As a result, the Portuguese labeled Inhambane "terra de boa gente" (land of good people), a title that still sticks today. But was that really a compliment? Or was it a manipulation tactic—one designed to divide, to make one group feel superior while isolating another?

This is the kind of history we inherit, not just in books but in the way people talk, in the way identities are shaped. But the problem isn’t just how history is remembered—it’s how it’s taught.

The Flaws in Our History Education

I grew up learning nothing about the fight for freedom.

Nothing about what existed before Vasco da Gama.

Nothing about the events that led to FRELIMO’s formation.

It was always just a short paragraph, as if it didn’t really matter. But what did matter? The lessons we were constantly given:

We were slaves.

We were oppressed.

The colonizer assimilated us to become “proper” laborers.

That was the narrative. Not the resilience, not the resistance, not the power we had before colonization. And when that is the only story we tell, what does that do to young black children? What does that tell them about who they are?

I remember learning this in the fourth grade, sitting in a classroom where black children and white children shared space. And I wondered—what was I supposed to feel? Were we being pushed to see each other as enemies? Were we supposed to feel like descendants of a failed nation?

If history is taught without care, it creates division, resentment, and self-hatred. And I saw this firsthand in my own family.

"Colonialism Didn’t Just Steal Land—It Stole Identity "

My grandfather is a fully black man, yet he often refers to himself as white. Not because he’s confused about his heritage, but because, to him, white means educated, emotionally stable, financially secure, well-cultured—all the good things. And black? Well, you can imagine the adjectives that come with that.

This mindset didn’t come from nowhere. It came from a history that was told in a way that erased our greatness and glorified our oppressors. It came from decades of psychological conditioning that made blackness something to escape, rather than something to embrace.

That is why ethical history education is urgent. Because this damage doesn’t just exist in the past—it’s alive today.

What Ethical History Teaching Should Look Like

If we want to break these cycles, we need to change the way history is taught. Ethical history is not about romanticizing the past or avoiding painful truths, but about presenting them in a way that is honest, empowering, and constructive.

Imagine if Mozambican children learned about:

Pre-colonial civilizations – The great kingdoms and trading networks that thrived before the Portuguese arrived. The fact that Vasco da Gama discovered nothing—he encountered societies that already existed.

The resistance movements – The people who fought for freedom, the strategies they used, the victories they won. Not just a dry paragraph about FRELIMO, but real stories that show the power of the people.

How colonialism manipulated identity – Understanding that labels like "boa gente" were not innocent but were tactics used to divide and control.

Post-colonial realities and the way forward – Teaching young people how to heal, how to reclaim their identity, and how to build something better.

This is the kind of history that builds people instead of breaking them.

A Call for Change

Right now, this kind of history isn’t widely taught in Mozambican schools. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be. If the education system won’t change overnight, then maybe the conversation needs to start elsewhere—in books, in community initiatives, in online spaces like this.

We have to reclaim our stories.

We have to tell history in a way that does justice to those who came before us.

We have to teach history in a way that empowers those who come after us.

Because if we don’t, we risk repeating the same psychological chains that were placed on our ancestors.

History should not just tell us where we’ve been—it should help us decide where we’re going.

[massy2ly]

*Any other BL character, writing the perfect letter, pouring out all the words his heart can’t quite say aloud, all in a bid to win back his lover*

Meanwhile, Style 🔧🎀:

[leadingincontext]

Light Bulb Moments

By Linda Fisher Thornton This week I’m sharing some thoughts about teaching and learning that have been on my mind. It is hard for me to hear about students who are struggling with teachers or professors who try to trick them with impossible tests and quizzes – where students really do know the material, but everyone still does poorly and class grades have to be rounded up. This kind of behavior…

[sniffanimal]

god I could be so wealthy if I had no ethics. that's so fucking frustrating. I'm living paycheck to paycheck because I'm not grifting vulnerable idiots on TikTok. I feel like I have the ability to very easily scam people. I could make a killing with AI. but god. I have morals and ethics and so I get to be poor as shit. I hate this fucking world

this post got too much attention so I sniffered it

[3liza]

I'm keeping reblogs off but we need to start an early education outreach that just takes every identified autistic child out of class for 45 minutes a day and explains in simple, forceful language, with extensive real-life examples, how the entire world starting with basic schooling runs on a totally unacknowledged foundation of various kinds of fraud. and how you're just supposed to pick this up osmotically and then never speak of it to anyone or ever admit to it. and how opting out of this system will make you a social outcast as well as physically and mentally incapable of actually getting anything done.

[on-a-lucky-tide]

I saw your text about pulling an all-nighter, so I decided to ring up an old friend for a favor again!

remember to stay hydrated and nap when you can!!

Gomz I adore this, omg. He's so big, so furry, I would nestle there and purr like a damn engine. Thank you. 🥺

[arseniccattails]

I suppose people seething about atheists, who claim that we only know how to criticize Christianity, want us to. What. Air our specific grievances with minority religions on a mostly Western platform, on main? Seriously? When you see us dancing around those details, it's often on purpose.

[dn38416]

The idea of a furious Cooper being force-fed ethics in S2 is my new Roman Empire.

[evilphrog]

No one is doing moral philosophy like her

[rukafais]

a no-beef-to-anyone-who-does-this-it-just-bothers-me thing:

dear people making dating sims or romance stories and whatnot, i get why you do this and why this is an attractive plot device, but if you have a character where the premise is "they come to life and sapience suddenly/have a burgeoning consciousness, and the MC is the first person they see, and they are going to be a/the MC's Major Romantic Interest pretty much immediately, I am going to be questioning the ethics of this whole shebang all of a sudden and I will not be paying attention to the romance plot at all, sorry"

with an additional "this is even weirder and worse if the MC has an implicit position of power or authority over them, usually represented by the MC being more worldly and responsible for teaching them about the nuances of life, it feels really bizarre"

[un-pearable]

people in the archaeology subreddit digging up the corpse of indiana jones again for the annual discourse. somehow seem to have forget the most important scene in the film if you’re critiquing his status as an academic

[philosophybits]

What is a good man? A teacher of a bad man. What is a bad man? A good man’s charge. If the teacher is not respected, and the student not cared for, confusion will arise, however clever one is.

Laozi, Daodejing, Feng & English tr. (Ch 27)

[frogaroundandfindout]

You remember when dick was in space (for the first time with the new teen titans) because komand’r took Kory back and they needed to save her? And you remember how he understood it was a war they were fighting and that they needed to do what they had to in order to survive it? And how when Gar told him he needed to control Kory, dick wondered if he even should try to stop her from killing her sister? And how he literally killed to save her (there’s some deniability but he’s literally hitting them with lasers described as deadly right in the head)? I do.

[irhabiya]

something needs to fundamentally change about the way medical schools select their cohorts im so serious too many doctors could not give a single shit less about their patients and practice

[faaun]

my research partner and i are huddled in a blanket in paddington waiting for a too-late train i already miss you and you and you

[squeakadeeks]

moodboard for this past week ❤️