On the Road to Cultural Bias: A Critique of The Oregon Trail CD-ROM

The Oregon Trail CD-ROM has been acclaimed as an educational simulation that effectively blends reading, writing, history, geography, math, and science content. This CD-ROM has been said by many to serve as a good educational tool. The author or this article, Bill Bigelow, points out the many ways in which the  the Oregon Trail is culturally biased and insensitive. The children using this simulation will encounter many biases that are sexist, racist, and contemptuous of the environment, and portray an inaccurate historical explanation of the western expansion of European Americans.


 The author points out that the player can only choose to be a white male settler, which ignores the roles that women and people of other races experiences during the historical time period. Slavery is almost completely ignored. There is only one experience in the simulation, that the author describes, which eludes to slavery's existence and the experiences of African Americans during the time period. Although African Americans are present in The Oregon Trail, descriptions what their lives would have been like are left out. Bigelow also discusses the fact that Oregon had passes laws restricting African Americans from having residency in Oregon during the time period. This is because of fears that their interactions with Native Americans would create substantial anti-white sentiment, this fact is ignored completely in the simulation though. The Oregon Trail also depicts European settlers relations with Native Americans in a very biased way. The simulation handbook tells players that Indians are fearful of white settlers because of diseases and because of their dislike of the settlers wastefulness of natural resources. This is a huge understatement of the state of relations between western settlers and the Indian tribes living here the author point out. The simulation mentions nothing about the violence towards Native Americans or the devastation the western expansion had on the Indian cultures and the environments in which they lived. The author discusses how teachers need to be aware of the content of CD-ROM educational tools and the biases that they may contain before using them as educational tools. The  author especially cautions being critical of educational simulations depicting people, places, and certain time periods. This is part of developing critical computer literacy, and is a skill that all teachers should build when using educational CD-ROM and digital technology.

Reflection:
I highly agreed with all of the points that the author made, but I would argue that Bigelow should extend his argument beyond CD-ROM simulations to the history curriculum. While The Oregon Trail portrays many blatant biases, I think that these biases are due to cultural perceptions of the history of the western expansion. The fact that the Oregon Trail CD-ROM was acclaimed at one point would support the argument that cultural biases are not uncommon in our culture. The history books that are used to educate elementary and middle school children discuss some important cultural events and phenomenons that were happening during this time period (such as slavery and the injustices committed toward Native Americans), but there is no emphasis placed on these topic by any means. In my own experiences in history and social studies, I can remember covering the topic of slavery very well. However, one of the largest inaccuracies in my early education was the claim that slavery and it's effects are a thing of our nations past. I would say that the same view point was emphasized when covering the history of the Native Americans and the travesties that occurred because of the western expansion. We would cover the topics quickly and then move on without considering the effects that the events have had on the day and age we live in. I would argue that the U.S. public education curriculum adheres to a view that these events are history, and that we should move on. The same could be said for the history of Women's rights and the history that has surrounded those events. All of these subjects are taught to some degree in public school, but the modern day effects of these historical events are largely ignored. Biases that existed during those time periods are accepted as a thing of the past when they are not; and these biases continue to promote injustices towards different ethnicities and genders. I could write more on the subject but I think my opinion come's across pretty clearly. I feel strongly about the subject and the way the public education system goes about addressing it. I think these events are not a thing of the past, and all of the groups discussed in this article still suffer injustices because of the biases that are perpetuated and ignored.