Trump's Threat to Pull Funding From Schools Over How They Teach Slavery Is Part of a Long History of
Trump's Threat to Pull Funding From Schools Over How They Teach Slavery Is Part of a Long History of Politicizing American History Class
With the nation divided along political lines, amid ever-mounting suspicion of supposed outside influences undermining American security, a group of powerful people decided to go right to the root of what they saw as the problem: American students, they believed, were being taught a skewed version of their own history that was designed to weaken patriotism. To stop the corrosion, someone would have to intervene.
This scenario may sound familiar, but it didnt take place just last week, when President Trump threatened the funding of California schools that teach the New York Times 1619 Project, which reframes the countrys origins around the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in Virginia. (Material from the project has been used to supplement curricula in schools nationwide, though the extent of its implementation in California is not clear.)
But in fact, that scenario could have taken place in the aftermath of the Civil War. Or in 1917. Or in 1948.
So its no surprise that historians collective reaction to Trumps tweetand a similar sentiment expressed earlier this summer by Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cottons introduction of the Saving American History Act of 2020was one of déjà vu. The teaching of U.S. History in public schools has always been political, and such concerns about whether curricula are anti-American are par for the course in moments of turmoil.
https://time.com/5889051/history-curriculum-politics/?amp=true