Have you ever heard of the resistance war against America? The Can-Am war? The great patriotic war? We were all taught these in history class. But under different names they were Vietnam, the War of 1812, and World War II. You see as Obi-Wan Kenobi said “You’re going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on your own point of view.” The idea of what is called what then depends on where it is being taught. The Can-Am war that is taught in Canada, refers to what we call the war of 1812. In Canadian history the Canadians won, which by default means the Americans lost. But that’s not the way it’s taught in the United States. We have varying degrees of truth if you will. The Canadian history teaches that the Americans invaded Canada and the Canadians or should I say the British defeated the Americans in Canada. In American history we focus more on defeating the British in both Washington DC and along the Mississippi and very lightly discuss the intrusion into Canada. We have to go back to the articles of Confederation which was the American form of government from the end of the Revolutionary war to win the Constitution went into effect 1789. In the articles of Confederation the opportunity for the eastern provinces of Canada to join the United States was promulgated into the articles. So when James Madison decided to go to war against England it only made sense that we send an army to liberate Canada from England. The Canadians and the British had other ideas. But we were not taught that. We are not taught that the American army was the aggressor in Canada.

I became fascinated with history in the eighth grade. When I took history in both the 8^th &11th grades the only mention of the articles of Confederation was probably 5 min. of lecture and three lines in history combined. I was amazed post high school that during the articles of Confederation we had several people who had the title president of the United States in Congress assembled. These people were considered to be the president prior to George Washington. So when discussions at home with my children I mentioned that John Hansen was in fact the first President of the United States and a George Washington was the eighth but first under the current constitution. One of my children made this annunciation in class I believe in the third or fourth grade. The teacher then corrected him. He argued with her, to the point where in fact a parent conference was called. The teacher then explained that he had disrupted the class by presenting facts that were not true, and insisting that they were true. I asked did he say George Washington was the first president of the United States under the current constitution. She said yes. I said and what he said was the truth. She then started to argue the point that George Washington was the first president period. I then pointed out that for 11 years the United States was governed under the articles of Confederation and that in fact in that 11 years seven people had held the title president of the United States and that if we were to be historically accurate, that my son was right. Her response was “But that’s not the way we teach it.” I was annoyed with that response you see I knew the truth and she knew the truth but she was not going to alter the curricula simply to be accurate. So as Obi-Wan Kenobi said it all depends on your point of view.