Sunday, November 29, 2020

Bill Crawford: Should State Take Over History Curriculum?

Gov. Tate Reeves has proposed spending $3 million on a Patriotic Education Fund to educate “the next generation in the incredible accomplishments of the American Way.”

At first glance this reminded me of a column I wrote in 2003 entitled, “Do our children know what patriot’s hold dear?” Here are some excerpts:

“Kids Get Abysmal Grade in History,” read the USA Today headline just a few weeks ago.  “Most U. S. high school seniors have a poor grasp of the nation’s history,” read the first line of the story. It got my attention. Just like earlier this year it got my attention when dozens of 8th graders didn’t know the words to the national anthem.

Diane Ravitch, an historian, NYU professor and a member of the Department of Education testing board said, “Our ability to defend – intelligently and thoughtfully – what we as a nation hold dear depends on our knowledge and understanding of what we hold dear…Clearly, far too many high school seniors have not learned even a modest part of it.”

The USA Today story included an Internet link to the National Center for Education Statistics web site with the history test questions for 4th, 8th, and 12th graders. 

I expected to see a number of questions about “what we as a nation hold dear” – Ms. Ravitch’s comment.

I was disappointed.

Students doing better on these tests will not result in their knowing and understanding the words to the national anthem, the preamble to the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, Washington’s farewell address, or, even, the Bill of Rights.  Nor will they learn the Constitutional roots for the emancipation of women, African-Americans, and Native Americans. 

That was 17 years ago. My argument was that educators should include more patriotic education in history and civic education courses. That lines up, in part, with what Reeves said.

The part that doesn’t comes from Reeves seeking to control what is taught in schools. The notion of state and federal politicians taking control away from local school boards and choosing which historical facts get included in school curricula smacks of third world and communist chicanery.

Fortunately, a number of Republican legislators voiced concerns about the Governor’s approach. For example, Y’all Politics reported that House Education Chairman Rep. Richard Bennett and Sen. Bryce Wiggins favor local school boards having control.

This issue was stirred up by President Donald Trump claiming that some versions of history taught in schools “paint America as a systemically racist country.” What’s happening is that more history books include factual accounts of the often brutal impact on Native Americans from European colonization and the role and toll of slavery through the years.

As a Mayflower descendant, I cringed last week from a USA Today story presenting stark findings that challenged the traditional first Thanksgiving story.

Still, not all is good and exceptional in our history.

But, as the Bible wraps both dark and light episodes of history within its holy doctrine, America’s historical dark and light episodes can be taught in context with the values we hold dear.

That’s what Reeves should champion, not state control of history curriculum.

“Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men” – Proverbs 2:12.

Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson.

 

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tater trying to get to that next level of the swamp...

Anonymous said...

"poor grasp of history". I think that if you look you will discover that many, if not most (most being at least 51%), seniors have a poor grasp of many things not just history. Seniors of 20-30 years ago who had a poor grasp of many things now have their own seniors who are in worse shape than their parents. It is what it is and, like the murders in Jackson, it ain't gonna get any better any time soon.

Anonymous said...

The governor's concern like many American's today is that our youth have not been effectively indoctrinated, so that they will reject certain unacceptable social/political policies. In actuality it would require less history, not more. Those who study history go beyond the superficial or the popular interpretations to get to the truth. Whether the truth be good or bad.
We do need a greater emphasis on real history and civics in our curriculum so that young people will be an informed citizenry. Patriotism is their decision not a brainwashing course.

Anonymous said...

Common core has been the left’s best kept secret. If you take a child and expose them to critical thinking in 3rd grade and show them the horrors of the Holocaust, then teach them to add and subtract with Asian bubble math you create a creature that a parent cannot teach or understand. It’s a lot like growing up Catholic and learning to be guilty and fearful of damnation, gonna last you a lifetime.

Good for Tate. It is high tone we teach a little American pride and kick the commie atheists out of the education system.

Anonymous said...

10:16, put down the drugs and call a counselor.

Anonymous said...

!0:16 -- This is just the reason I do not want you, Tate, McDaniel, or Cindy Hyde Smith "teaching" my children your version of history which is "Oh, I wish I was in the land of cotton."

Anonymous said...

Two wrongs don't make a right. Howard Zinn's biased book substituted one fiction for another. His sources have been found to be inaccurate, especially for the era from the 1930s. Its blanket acceptance among the Leftie sociologists is chilling.

It's like reading polls results or the political parties pitting us against each other. History is interpretation only, and, the tragedy is that we are not talking about adults. Instead, we've subjected our youth to the anti American propaganda, when "we are talking about how we educate the young, those who do not yet get the interpretive game."

Don't like Tater, much. But, he's right on this. I've seen it on the campus. Kids who can't name the Mayflower but can tell you all about PETA's pet propaganda item of the month.

But, on the other hand, why try? Let the Left continue to rant, destroy, and threaten. They lost 14 seats in the House, and destroy, as always, themselves.

Folks are fed up with Leftie think tank propaganda, world wide.

Anonymous said...

Gigantic waste of Taxpayers money. Shad, you watching this?

Anonymous said...

This is what needs to be taught in school.
America is the most magnanimous of all imperial powers that have ever existed. After leveling Japan and Germany during World War II, the United States rebuilt those countries. For the most part, America is an abstaining superpower: it shows no real interest in conquering and subjugating the rest of the world, even though it can.

Jeane Kirkpatrick once said that “Americans need to face the truth about themselves, no matter how pleasant it is.” The reason that many Americans don’t feel this way is that they judge themselves by a higher standard than they judge anyone else. Thus if the Chinese, the Arabs, or the sub-Saharan Africans slaughter ten thousand of their own people, the world utters a collective sigh and resumes its normal business.
By contrast, if America, in the middle of a war, accidentally bombs a school or a hospital and kills 200 civilians, there is an immediate uproar and an investigation is launched. What all this demonstrates, of course, is America’s evident moral superiority. If this be the workings of empire, let us have more of it.

Anonymous said...

Teaching history in order to create patriots. Think about it. If the truth will not make you patriotic what will lies do? They tried that in Germany a few years ago to create supermen.

When talking about history only talk about facts, not the kind of people you hope to create. Didn't we learn that from history?

Anonymous said...

The last thing we need is for Tate Reeves to re-write our history books, they are bad enough as they are.

Anonymous said...

Regardless of what anyone think of Tate’s thoughts on this issue....
if he or anyone thinks $3MM would be enough to fund this project
in all our statewide public schools...needs their head examined.
That would be just a large drop in a bucket to get it funded unless
I’m totally missing something.

Anonymous said...

Doesn't Russia have a program like this? And China? etc.

I think 8:58 nailed it. I fully expect this program to surface in other states, if it hasn't already. No way this was Tate's brainchild.

Anonymous said...

The left wants to paint this country in the worst light possible. Yesterday, today and tomorrow. The country has had a rough a tumble history no doubt but across the board has still been head and shoulders above the rest of the world in the defense of human rights and the preservation of freedom. The core of the democratic party is made up of people who can't succeed in a capitalistic society and have to blame it on someone else (in this case America) so they can reach their promised land known as victimhood. They are basically uneducated, lost and vulnerable to socialists' hollow promises.

Anonymous said...

I have a radical idea. But hear me out.

Why don't we just tell the truth?

As in, just teach facts about what happened, as opposed to trying to indoctrinate children with one view or another.

To the extent a narrative summary is required, again tell the truth: The United States was found on XYZ ideals, we fell short of them in some really important ways, we nonetheless achieved some great things, we're still working on fixing some of our problems.

I'm tired of leftist narratives, but it's not because I want a hip-hip-hooray for the grand old flag right wing narrative. It's because I want my kids taught HOW to think, not WHAT to think.

Anonymous said...

1:56....regarding U.S history, yes I agree. But state history? We've never come close to telling children the truth. Or adults. And that's part of the problem with learning the rest of it.

Anonymous said...

The state should ABSOMOLUTELY take over the entire curriculum. There are reports of some students having never heard of The Holocaust that was invented in 1968! Oy vey!

Anonymous said...

10:15 why don’t we want to teach our children about what made this country the greatest country in the world? Maybe we should teach them about Cuba and Venezuela? Sure, the US has some dark spots, but by God we are a great nation if we don’t let the free everything everyone should be in equal financial levels crowd doesn’t ruin it. A wise man once told me that not everyone can be a CEO, the garbage man is important too because if we didn’t have them, the country would be a nasty place.

Anonymous said...

@1.44, YES! Russian schools teach children how to field strip, clean and reassemble an AK-47, while your schools teach little boys it’s okay to wear dresses and “we don’t hit!” Good job, lefty!

Anonymous said...

You mean we need to rewrite the Mississippi history books written in the 1950s and 1960s? And let a dude from Rankin County write it? Yeah, that’s Mississippi.

Anonymous said...

There is nothing patriotic about killing people and taking their land, slavery until the 1860s, segregation until the 1960s, and so on. We definitely do not need Tate, QAnon, and others to take over the teaching of history.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I’m sure that 400 history teachers all named “Coach” are spreading leftism in our public schools.

Anonymous said...

6:13, thank you. You just named every history teacher I had prior to college. And most of them majored in PE. And yes, I went to a private school that was not Prep or JA. That's just how those schools survive.

Anonymous said...

Bill's dislike of Tate shows through again- as he tries to change what Tater proposed into a different concept that he can attack. And the same is true for many of the JJ commentors above.

The Governor's proposal didn't include him, or the "politicians" as many here like to group together those they hate, write a history book, a study program, or the facts to be included in this concept. As I read it, he was proposing pretty much exactly what Crawford admit he was suggesting and hoping for back in his 80's column. But of course it would be sacreligious for Crawford and his "we hate Tate" group think to admit to that so he has to suggest that Tater would be directing from the Governor's Mansion what words would go into the textbooks - a ridiculous belief but yet he tries to sell it.

As Bill well knows, as do the dozen or so folks bitching here, the state has always directed the cirriculum of the public (government) schools and what was required to be taught. And in none of those directives did any Governor, Lt Governor or Speaker compose the textbooks for that cirriculum. The State DOE - which much to the state's loss is not contolled by the Governor -- does get involved in 'which' textbookos can be used but that final decision is still left up to the local school districts. Why Bill would suggest that this $3 million expenditure would be different than what is done with all the other course material only goes to show that it was the only way he could attack another of Reeves' programs, something he has been doing for a few years now. Previously it was at the behest of the Hospital Association who wants more of our state's tax dollars spent for their benefit; now it appears that although he has left that connection behind in Meridian he just does it because he was indoctrinated for so long that he can't let it go.

Thanks Bill. Looking forware to reading your comments next week after the Governor wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and safe holiday season to see what you can find to complain about that move on his part.

Kingfish said...

I suspect the Governor's actions are in response to the bogus 1619 project finding its way into school curricula around the country. Of course, let's see if Mr. Crawford will tackle that subject.

Anonymous said...

King - the 1619 project would be a good subject for its own thread. Didn't the C-L do a special insert about it a few months ago?

Anonymous said...

The government should not be in charge of anything other than building and maintaining necessary infrastructure. The government has shown nothing to inspire confidence in their handling of much of anything.

Now, having said that, something needs to change about what and how things are taught in the schools BEFORE the kids get to college and hear history taught through the eyes of someone who wants to revise history to their belief system. The children of today need to be taught history in a way that inspires patriotism (not brainwashing thought) and a love of this country to counter the idiot liberals on the left coast and their socialist ideologies that is infesting this country.

Anonymous said...

It's not HISTORY that needs to be taught differently - it's ECONOMICS. That's what led to the historical atrocities that led to the murder of a hundred million people in the last century alone....and that could topple the U.S.A.

Governments that attempt collectivist policies find out that they never had enough money in the first place to take care of everyone, then they run out of money completely - guess what? Millions then have to go because they simply can't be housed and fed so the corrupt elite can have their goodies. Capitalism is the only moral economic system that exists. It promotes self-reliance, and ultimately leads to prosperity for all. Unless you prematurely start have babies you can't afford.

Anonymous said...

2:07 FOR THE WIN!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

I have no problems with directing funds to teach history as long as that lesson includes, the reason Mississippi decided to leave the Union was to preserve Slavery. In addition their should be a full account of the civil rights movement and the fight for equality for all Mississippians.

Anonymous said...

@6:52

Your post is so true for the most part. We need more economics co and so that kids have an idea how things really work, and civics courses to know how our government should be working.

It would be nice if history was more accurately reflected - the good and the bad.

Anonymous said...

We do not need Tate developing history for our children. We just need to teach the facts and lead students to research as they develop their own historical view. Such as the Holocaust (fact) occurred; the Middle Passage (fact) occurred. The beauty of our democracy is folks don’t all have to think alike. I don’t have to hate someone who views history differently than I do. What a radical thought.

Anonymous said...

I have no problems with directing funds to teach history as long as that lesson includes ...

You'll feel better but it won't change a damn thing. It won't improve outcomes and it won't do a thing to lift the state's economic boat.

Anonymous said...

Actually, it's bad enough that we are talking about " history" without saying " American history".

In what was considered one of the best high schools, rarely did the school year make it to more than a week of WWII.

We need to start in 6th grade and divide our history into decades and spend less time learning battle statistics and specific dates and more time understanding what history can teach us.

Anonymous said...

"We do not need Tate developing history for our children."

Nope !

We don't need that at all.

But we also don't need Ladd, Stauffer, and the rest of that mindset publishing scholastic history books either.
(Or publishing any other basic history books).

BTW, I doubt Tate has any interest in writing a history book.
But the "1619 Project" is one of most goofy things I've seen in a while.

It's along the same lines of the "progressive left's" narrative about how cow farts are destroying the ozone layer and causing stronger hurricanes.




Anonymous said...

Yeah you right 1:18, I bet you think it was about states rights and that Trump won. Your offsprings will need it more than most.


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