An educational war is raging in Jefferson County, Colorado over the proposed changes to the framework of the AP curriculum. Led by Julie Williams, Jefferson County’s school board began to redesign a curriculum for AP US History. Their version of history? One which will “promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free-market system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights”. The board believes that the current AP History course shows “a radically revisionist view of American history that emphasizes negative aspects of our nation’s history while omitting or minimizing positive aspects.” One supporter, a conservative Ben Carson, claims, “I think most people, when they finish that course, they’d be ready to go sign up for ISIS.” The Jefferson Board of Ed wants to remedy this by effectively removing many of the “negative events” in the country’s history from the curriculum. It also plans to assure that the new curriculum will not “condone civil disorder, social strike or disregard of the law,” which, ironically, is exactly what the county immediately fell into.
Students furious with the blatant censorship of the curriculum flocked to the streets during school hours to protest the changes. Teachers from the county also followed, staging “sickouts” that have closed 2 schools. A community protest was held along the main area of the county as well. Hundreds attended the Board of Ed meeting, bringing with them angry words and forty thousand signatures to a petition against the reworking. Contrary to the limitations being imposed on the history curriculum, the students are managing to learn about the forbidden information in a much more hands-on way. “Thank you for your lesson in civil disobedience,” says Eric Temple. “Civil disorder is much of what founded this country,” another student, Ashlyn Maher asserts. And she’s right. Disregard of the law, government, and social order has been the main catalyst for change in our country’s past. Limiting student’s understanding of this comes with very disturbing ramifications. Will there be no more change if we are taught that it is a bad thing?
Similar movements against the history curriculum are being supported in Texas and elsewhere. It’s a somewhat disturbingly clear movement towards a specific agenda, one that demands respect and nationalism and looks down on critical thinking. Does this have any risk of carrying over to New Jersey and into our own classrooms? I don’t know. I would hope that we would be able to recognize such clearly biased proposals, however, and act against them if the time ever came. Being taught our nation’s past, in all its uncensored mix of horrible and admirable actions, is the right of all students.
Censoring history is a critically dangerous move by the ignorant. The truth is, no, we shouldn’t be proud of some of the things our country has done. We should recognize them, and their flaws, and work towards never falling into them again, because history repeats itself. If we never knew of how horrible and disgusting the slave trade had been, what would stop it from beginning again? Would the future leaders of our country hesitate to press the button to release a nuclear weapon if they had no concept of the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Sometimes the truth hurts. It’s not all nice and easy, and being told to be proud of your country while being knowledgeable about how deep its flaws run can cause unease and internal conflict. Good. That’s what we need to make new decisions based off the pitfalls of our past. Nationalism is a dangerous mindset to be raised in. It can cause people to do unspeakable things without question for the good of their great, infallible country. Look at the Holocaust or North Korea’s isolation. There are a lot of situations in the past where radical nationalism has caused major problems. And the only reason I know about them, of course, is because I’ve been able to learn about them in a fair history class.
Sources:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2014/10/05/fa6136a2-4b12-11e4-b72e-d60a9229cc10_story.html
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-09/colorado-students-protest-moves-to-change-ap-history-classes