August 2020
What happened to Civics 101?
As Americans have watched the now out-of-control rioting and destruction of statues, monuments, and even entire areas of some cities, many are questioning who these protesters are and why they are so intent on destroying key symbols of American history. The crowds are predominantly young people, presumably educated, but with a rage against the country that is not in keeping with what we would think they should have learned in school about America’s history and heroes. Or are they acting out exactly what they have been taught, unbeknownst to parents and other concerned citizens?
At first the rallying cry of the protests was to abolish any perceived symbols of the Confederacy and Southern slaveholding. General Robert E. Lee, who led the Confederate army in the Civil War, and Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, immediately came to mind, with other Confederate officers’ and politicians’ being quickly added to the list. It did not take long, however, for the widespread ignorance of history to be demonstrated in vivid, manic colors.
They do not seem to understand their targets.
Many prominent historians acknowledge that American history has been taught from a leftist ideological perspective for the past few decades. Students do not know the true stories of our country’s founding and growth, and as a result they have graduated from high schools and colleges distressingly ill-informed about their history. The statue attacks are a perfect illustration.
In San Francisco, for example, those who affiliate themselves with Black Lives Matter targeted a number of statues that had nothing to do with the Confederacy, including one of General Ulysses S. Grant. Students of history know that Grant was the general who led the Union army against the Confederacy in the Civil War and who went on to become President of the United States.
In other parts of the country, monuments to Abraham Lincoln (who signed the “Emancipation Proclamation” to free the slaves), George Washington, Francis Scott Key, and Christopher Columbus were beheaded, drenched in red paint, and even thrown into rivers. Calls to “decolonize your bookshelf” ramped up, and teachers are now being pressured to embrace the Marxist narrative in even more overt ways in their classrooms. Critical Race Theory (CRT) is the new lens through which every subject must be viewed, and a new school policy in Virginia is even mandating that the history of slavery be taught in kindergarten.
We are not imagining the dearth of knowledge.
There are other indications of how historically illiterate Americans have become. As the Heritage Foundation’s Lindsey Burke and Angela Sailor describe, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores this past year showed that only 18 percent of eighth-graders were proficient in U.S. history, and only 23% were proficient in basic civics. Even among adults, recent surveys show that only two out of five can name all three branches of government, while one in five cannot name even one branch. Graduate students pursuing Master’s degrees in public policy have often not read The U.S. Constitution.
We hear falsehoods cited as historical truth all the time. For example, many leftists deride The U.S. Constitution as asserting that blacks were considered only 3/5 of a person in the early years of our founding. Those who understand history, however, know that during the 1787 Constitutional Convention debates about Congressional seat apportionment, the Northern states did not want the Southern states to be able to count black slaves in their total populations because it would allow the Southern states to have more representatives in Congress. The 3/5 compromise was offered by the North to keep slaveholding states from having an unfair boost in their allocation of congressional seats. This simple fact is not taught in most government schools.
How have we gotten here?
Perhaps the most egregious catalyst for the dumbing down of American history instruction has been Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, published in 1980. An avowed Communist, Zinn presents America as a dark, evil nation founded by white supremacists who were dedicated to slavery and oppression. It is fake history, as Professor Mary Grabar brilliantly explains in her 2019 book, Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing the Fake History that Turned a Generation Against America, but it has been used as a primary history textbook in schools across the country for the past forty years.
Another revisionist history that is tragically already making its way into American history curricula is the recently released “1619 Project” from The New York Times. Filled with historical inaccuracies, this project asserts that the true founding of this country happened in 1619, when settlers arrived supposedly to create a slave nation, not to escape British tyranny. Former Vice-Presidential candidate and current Virginia Senator Tim Caine even declared in a recent speech that America “created” slavery. Ancient Egypt, Babylon, Rome, Greece, Persia, Carthage, and India, among many others, must have slipped his mind. Fortunately, a new effort called the “1776 Project” has emerged from the Woodson Center to counter “1619.”
This is a cultural revolution.
What we are seeing every day on our television and computer screens is a cultural revolution. It is not about race but rather is focused on upending American values and institutions with a mob mentality. Unfortunately, our ignorance of history and civics is allowing it to go unchecked. Victor Davis Hanson, a brilliant and tempered world historian, recently talked at length about this with Eric Metaxas. Another important description by Hanson is included in this article.
There is potentially good news.
United States Parents Involved in Education (USPIE) has publicly lauded President Trump’s very pro-American address at the Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration on July 3, especially his acknowledgement that “[O]ur children are taught in school to hate their own country, and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes, but that they were villains.” Since then, President Trump and other conservative leaders are continuing their quest to expose the anti-American biases that Zinn and others have perpetrated in government-run public schools.
What can parents do?
- ASK QUESTIONS: Do not be afraid to ask questions about the curriculum at your children’s schools. People often worry about being viewed as “that parent,” but we must get past the fear. Every parent has the right to understand exactly what is being taught and from where.
- GET INVOLVED: Become involved with local boards of education’s decision-making processes when they are considering policies and textbooks. Kathy Wilmot, a long-time Eagle and active Board of Education member in Nebraska, has several helpful tips for interacting with your local and state boards.
- EDUCATE YOURSELF to EDUCATE OTHERS: Read, listen to podcasts, and read some more. Even if you are not officially homeschooling, be prepared to do some teaching at home. It is important to correct inaccuracies that your students are learning.
- “Grow Your Bookshelf” – there are too many to list, but here are a few suggestions:
- Jarrett Stepman’s War on History: The Conspiracy to Rewrite America’s Past
- Eric Metaxas’ If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty
- Mary Grabar’s Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing the Fake History that Turned a Generation Against America
- Wilfred M. McClay’s Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story
- Stanley Kurtz’s The Lost History of Western Civilization
- “Grow Your Bookshelf” – there are too many to list, but here are a few suggestions:
- ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO JOIN YOU: Ask your friends, fellow parents, and other concerned citizens to become educated along with you. Most people have no idea that the radical National Education Association (NEA)’s leftist educational philosophies and directives are primary contributors to the ignorance and violence we are seeing every day. It is not too late, however, for active citizens to reintroduce the basic foundations of civics and American history into public education.
Jarrett Stepman – The War on History
Jarrett Stepman is a contributor to The Daily Signal and co-host of The Right Side of History podcast. He joined us in January 2020 to talk about what is happening in schools and how mis-education of history is effecting America today and in the future as articulated in his new book, The War on History: The Conspiracy to Rewrite America’s Past.
Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing the Fake History that Turned a Generation Against America, by Mary Grabar, 2018.
Most people probably do not know that high school and college students over the past forty years have learned about American history from an avowed Communist who actually hated America. Unfortunately, no one dared to challenge the narrative – that is, until now. Mary Grabar deserves our gratitude for her intricately researched Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing the Fake History that Turned a Generation Against America. It has been a long time coming.
Zinn’s book is called A People’s History of the United States and has been celebrated by Hollywood celebrities and education elites for decades. It even made it into Matt Damon’s dialog in the hit movie Good Will Hunting. Professor Grabar, however, knows that A People’s History is not history at all but is instead a compendium of assertions that are inaccurate, incomplete, or fabricated out of thin air. Why do today’s young people believe Christopher Columbus was a renegade murderer of American Indians? They learned it from Howard Zinn. Why do they view the United States as an oppressor of non-whites and the poor? They learned it from Howard Zinn. And the list goes on and on.
Debunking Howard Zinn is a must-read for anyone who wants to learn true American history instead of Zinn’s outrageously fabricated version. It might be an eye-opening experience. It is available most everywhere books are sold.