Teaching our children the wrong history...

When large networks decide that they want to "teach" our children history and then they do it any old way they please we have an obligation to make sure they know about their errors. Nickelodeon would be one of those networks, and worse is that they are specifically geared towards children.

I saw the segment in question and thankfully was able to educate my son to the truth. The piece alluded to the Texas war for independence was fought over only slavery. That the people who died at the Alamo did so only to keep Texas a slave territory of Mexico. While slavery may have been in issue during the Texas war for independence, it was not at all a primary issue as the spot would have us believe. If you want to teach our children history then teach them all of it. How difficult would it have been to add something to the spot telling the children that while slavery was an issue, it was not the only one?

When are we going to put our feet down and make sure that we do not allow companies to teach revisionist history, in any manner. Our children need to know the truth about our history, not the sugar coated version and not versions that only give half truths.

Story here

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - The latest shots in the Battle of the Alamo are being aimed at an unlikely target -- the children's cable TV network Nickelodeon.
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Keepers of the Texas independence shrine in downtown San Antonio are outraged by a Nickelodeon short that said the 1836 battle there was fought so "white farmers could keep their slaves."

"I think it's a shame that anybody would take that approach," said David Stewart, director of the Alamo. "I think it's an insult to the Mexicans, the Tejanos, who fought for freedom and liberty in the Alamo as part of the defenders. It kind of slaps them in the face to claim that was the reason the battle took place."

The 50-second-long piece, part of a running series of Nickelodeon shorts called "My Back Yard," says the dispute over slavery between white settlers and the Mexican government "led up" to the battle.

Despite being warned by respected historian R. Bruce Winders that the description was simplistic and inaccurate, the network ran the piece.

"We recognize that there were several key issues in the Battle of the Alamo and one of them was slavery," said Mark Lyons, a senior producer for Nick News at Lucky Duck Productions in New York, which contracts for the Viacom Inc.-owned network.

Texas declared independence in 1836 when Mexico's leader, Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, revoked the existing constitution that allowed white settlement of the nation's northernmost province.

"The slavery issue was a factor but not the main one," Winders wrote Nickelodeon prior to the piece airing. "The revolt in Texas started as an effort to restore the Federal Republic under the (Mexican) constitution of 1824, but quickly evolved into a separatist movement."

About 200 Texan fighters held off thousands of Mexico troops for 13 days until Santa Anna finally crushed them on March 6, 1836. However, the siege gave other Texas units a chance to move east and gather for an ultimately pivotal battle near Houston in April 1836 that secured Texas independence.

Now the Alamo is Texas' top tourist attraction and one of the most recognizable U.S. landmarks.

The piece ran for about two weeks on Nickelodeon and is not expected to be aired again, Lyons said.