Education “Insurrection”
Apart from the obvious unintentional damage being done to the normal education of our children by the prolonged virus-imposed lack of in-person classroom learning in public schools, predominantly, (and whether our youngest students, especially, can ever really make-up for that priceless instruction time lost), yet another key issue has arisen during this unsettling time, within at least some states & municipalities. And that is the caliber and desirability of the content of their instruction, with regard, especially, to American history, today often now tucked within something called “Social Studies” (too often, more social than studies).
The school systems most likely to be caught up in this new, non-traditional, non-America-First, significantly-modified U.S. history curriculum are those governed by Progressive-Socialist (formally known as Democrat) states, cities, and school boards.
In an article entitled, “How the Left is Destroying Public Education,” John Hinderaker (Powerlineblog.com) stated that across the country, “leftists in charge of public education are substituting indoctrination for learning.” Referring to the first draft of a proposed statewide Minnesota Social Studies curriculum revision, Hinderaker continues: “This draft drops almost everything normally regarded as history – the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Holocaust, and any reference to figures like George Washington – in favor of political indoctrination, such as ‘systemic racism in the United States is rooted in our founding’; ‘the Reconstruction period, specifically successful efforts to disenfranchise newly freed Black Americans and connecting their history to persistent discrimination and inequity in the present, etc.’” Hinderaker concludes his assessment: “Essentially, liberals want our schools to be hotbeds of anti-Americanism. Unfortunately, just about all of our public-school systems are in their hands. Unless voters wake-up and demand change, the results for our young people and our country promise to be disastrous.” Hinderaker is based in Minneapolis, and the above proposed instructional reality and assessment initially speaks specifically about the state system in Minnesota.
Writer Stanley Kurtz has come upon another aspect of Social Studies being imposed on students known as ‘Action Civics.’ This version of traditional civics instruction claims that “students best acquire civic know-how through direct political action; for example, by protesting in favor of gun control or lobbying for legislation to address climate change.” Which leads writer Paul Mirengoff to conclude: “Action Civics thus aims to turn students into the shock troops of the left.” You have to wonder if ‘peaceful protests’ (or, even, riots) as we’re seen carried out in Portland, Seattle, and other Democrat-controlled cities may actually be including in their crowds some ‘action civics’-instructed high school students?
One high school teacher, Lisa Hunter, was interviewed while attending rallies in D.C. and had the following to say about the negative turn that high school history instruction has taken, veering away from the positives about America toward even embracing socialism. Said she: “I know what’s happening anymore in today’s textbooks. In fact, they’re teaching how America was bad in our history, which is sad because it’s not. It’s been a very good country. Why does everybody want to come here? Because they want freedom, and that freedom is being lost right now. Textbooks are teaching children that America has done bad things, and we need to change, and that socialism is good.” Let that sink in. Children, from who-knows what age, are being taught that “socialism is good.” And it appears that the textbooks (and their publishers, following market demands, most certainly) are the culprits. You get the feeling that all of this has long ago left the station, and that we’re just now beginning to discover the truth about what students are learning, at least in some school districts.
Former Vanderbilt University professor, political scientist, Dr. Carol Swain, a respected Black educator of long standing, has expressed displeasure with a Black Lives Matter curriculum that apparently some D.C. public schools are “embracing” for a “week of action” during February. Said Dr. Swain, referring to the substituted curriculum: “It doesn’t help Black people. It doesn’t help White people. It doesn’t help America. And I would strongly encourage everyone who cares about education to go to the Black Lives Matter website and learn more about them and their principles, because there’s nothing there that advances our society in a way that’s beneficial.” Dr. Swain continued: “And the one thing that really disturbs me is – this is not a principal, but one of their goals – is zero tolerance for discipline. The last thing the Black community needs in schools is a situation where there is no discipline. Part of the problem that affects the community is the disrespect for authority. That is why there’s so much turmoil in the Black community.”
And on the subject of academic turmoil, now on an even larger scale, that brings us to President Trump’s 1776 Commission, the mission of which was “to defend the legacy of America’s founding, the virtue of America’s heroes, and the nobility of the American character.” In short, our nation, founded on the lasting principals of liberty and sovereignty, is not only a good, but a great country, a shining example of freedom, courage, innovation, and economic success for all the world.
Meant to, instead, embarrass, tear-down, and shame Americans, enter the left-wing Progressive vision of our nation’s founding, something called the “1619 Project.” This total misrepresentation of both America’s founding date, and our founding principles, is meant only to distort the truth, so that young people can be indoctrinated with a jaded, inaccurate view of the history, values, and achievements of our great country.
Writer Eileen F. Toplansky details this fictional version and vision of America: “The 1619 Project rewrites American history to teach children that we were founded on the principle of oppression, not freedom. Nothing could be further from the truth. America’s founding set in motion the unstoppable chain of events that abolished slavery, secured civil rights, defeated communism and fascism, and built the most fair, equal, and prosperous nation in human history.” She concludes: “If we do not ‘instill the beauty and glory of American identity,’ as President Trump explained, we are, indeed, in dire danger of losing who we are to the poisonous ideology that rules the leftist mind.”
On his first day in office, among his many seeming anti-benefit-to-America orders and pronouncements, Mr. Biden chose to remove from the White House website the newly released Report from the 1776 Commission (January 18, 2021). Among his remarks at the time, in obvious reference to the Commission’s work, he said that “Unity and healing must begin with understanding and truth, not ignorance and lies.” Now that’s an interesting, although errant, observation. For the past, 245-years, America’s young children and all citizens have been taught the truth, that being America’s intended, and treasured, sovereignty and freedom was declared by our courageous Founders on July 4, 1776. Yet we are now told by Mr. Biden that such is apparently simply yet another example of “ignorance and lies”?
Responding to the opposition, outstanding American scholar, author and historian, Victor Davis Hanson, a member of the 1776 Commission, describes this present era of denigrating America’s history and achievements as follows: “At any other age than the divisive present, the Report would not have been seen as controversial.” ‘But because it promotes the belief that being an American “means something noble and good,” and that “America is the most just and glorious country in all of human history,” and because it rightfully condemns Progressivism, communism, racism, and identity politics as challenges to American principles, angry leftists swiftly rose to de-legitimize it.’
Wrote Mark Tapson: “The 1776 Report affirms the centrality of the family, which the left has worked hard to undermine per Karl Marx’s call for its abolition (Government becomes the parent!). It underscores the importance of faith and religious liberty. It calls for us “to stand up against the petty tyrants in every sphere who demand that we speak only of America’s sins, while denying her greatness.” He concludes: “Cancel culture will not rest until the truth about American greatness – flawed as it has been – is silenced.”
Fortunately for American patriots, that is the vast majority of rational, clear-thinking U.S. citizens, the 1776 Commission’s efforts to preserve the actual, factual, true history of our great nation and the foresight of our brilliant Founders will continue as a private citizen enterprise, out from under the now-seeming disinterest or discouragement of the Administration. As writer Angela Sailor put it: “Biden didn’t cancel the 1776 Commission because its Report, which critics said used no historians (false) and was plagiarized (false). He cancelled it because he didn’t want it. The American people can bring it back, and we don’t need government approval to do so. There is no better source of American unity than the principles we share as codified in the Constitution. Let’s rededicate ourselves to understanding them and sharing them.”
Proclaimed Mr. Biden in a recent tweet: “We’ve never fully lived up to the founding principles of this nation.” Well, looking only at World War II for commitment and courage, and the great strides we’ve made among all of our citizens for equality and opportunity, tough to say that our matured nation has been seriously lacking in observance of our founding principles. One might say, in fairness, that we’ve done a pretty darn good job of it. And, as earlier discussed, it’s those founding values, and others developed since, that we must see that are maintained within the instructional curricula among our educational institutions, from elementary school all the way up through college and university instruction.
Leftist projects like “1619” are meant to delude and divide us, not strengthen. With this simple statement, Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) has perhaps summarized and said it best: “Education is the closest thing we have to magic in America.” In-school instruction of our younger students, especially, must continue to emphasis the clear positives represented by and within our great nation. The facts of our founding, the facts of our incredible innovations and achievements, the importance (to the world, as well) of America’s commitment and courage, and the personal value of individual and collective steadfast patriotism, as we routinely acknowledge our flag, our anthem, and the countless blessings and opportunities made available to us by this One magnificent Nation, under God, with its profound and equitable liberty and justice for all citizens, who share our heartfelt belief in the fundamentals of American faith and freedom.
(Indoctrination vs. learning quotes via powerlineblog.com, John Hinderaker, 1-27-21; “Shock troops” quote via powerlineblog.com, 1-27-21; “Socialism is good” quote via theepochtimes.com, NTD Television, 12-12-20; BLM curriculum quotes via foxnews.com, Sam Dorman, 2-2-21; Mission of 1776 Commission, and errant 1619 Project quotes via americanthinker.com, Eileeen F. Toplansky, 1-28-21; Biden comment & Hanson quote via frontpagemag.com, Mark Tapson, 2-3-21; “Cancelled because he didn’t want it” quote via dailysignal.com, Angela Sailor, 2-8-21; Mr. Biden “we’ve never lived up” quote via breitbart.com, Joel B. Pollak, 2-2-21; Sen. Scott quote via americanthinker.com, Eileen F. Toplansky, 1-28-21).