Our kids are being taught that the founders fled England

[onecaliberal]

Because they were being taken advantage of. My kid had a rigorous debate with her freshman history teacher when he started a discussion with that nonsense.
It's not surprising a large percentage of Americans have no idea it was because of religious zealots.
What are they teaching in your area of the country?

[gordianot]

1. In 2007 my daughter was kicked out of a High School History class because she got upset.

It seems several students said that the reason for the Iraq war was that Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden attacked the World Trade Center. I had a personal conversation with the Principal and the classroom teacher. The next day the History Teacher apologized to my daughter and never brought up the subject again in class due to a change of lesson plans. Since I had my discussion behind closed doors in a quiet controlled voice with out profanity she was not embarrassed. We did write separate letters to the school board which I am sure ware ignored.

[malokvale77]

2. Texas here

Not my children, but my grandchildren are being taught that this nation was meant to be a Christian "only" nation.

It is sickening. Thankfully my daughter has steered them to the historical truth.

It is a damned shame (or sham) that Texas has so much say in the text books that other states purchase.

Wake up America to the election fraud brought to you by "The Great State OF Texas".

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Who count as 'the founders' in this case?

The generation that declared independence, fought the war and wrote the constitution? My understanding was that most of them were born in America anyway. Or do they mean their ancestors, who came over for a variety of reasons?

[LuvNewcastle]

8. Good question.

I've found that a lot of people are under the impression that the founders were the pilgrims, or at least they are confused about the timing and the events between Plymouth Rock and the Declaration of Independence. The founders were not the Puritans, they were the children of the Enlightenment. Too many people these days don't know the difference.

[Recursion]

11. The founders were a lot of things. Some were Puritans

The earliest colonists in Massacusetts fled to avoid religious oppression (but be free to practice it themselves).

But, yeah, 150 years passed between Plymouth and the Declaration, and that gets glossed over way too much. That's the time between us and the civil war.

[gollygee]

4. My daughter was taugh a heap of lies about Thanksgiving

The older one was taught a heap of lies in sex ed (or whatever they call it these days.)

Yes, there are lies taught in the schools.

[leftynyc]

10. That's not new

I'm 54 and when my mom saw what they were teaching me in 5th grade about the Native Americans, she not only called the social studies teacher (who would surely be a teabilly today) and gave him an ear full, she gave me Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee to read. It's the first time I remember what having a social conscience was like.

[oberliner]

5. Can you elaborate on your point?

Specifically:

"It's not surprising a large percentage of Americans have no idea it was because of religious zealots."

[yardwork]

6. That's what I was taught in Ohio in the 1960s

Schools taught that the Pilgrims fled religious persecution and God led them to the New World where they could worship in peace. The Indians were friendly and welcomed their new white masters. It was all part of God's plan.

Inconvenient facts were ignored. School books didn't mention the earlier settlements in Virginia or the much earlier Spanish settlements in Florida, etc., because that would sound like imperialism and conquest, not righteous freedom from religious persecution. Anyway the settlers in Jamestown didn't make it so that was lame. Our God is not lame. Pilgrims!

Much later - like recently - I learned that what is now New England was almost deserted when the ships landed at Plymouth Rock. Diseases brought by earlier immigrants had wiped out the native people, leaving a fertile, planted region ripe for the "pilgrims."

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Jamestown made it, until another town was chosen as the new Virginia capital

Jamestown served as the capital of the colony for 83 years, from 1616 until 1699.
...
In 1676, the town was deliberately burned during Bacon's Rebellion, though it was quickly rebuilt. In 1699, the capital was relocated from Jamestown to what is today Williamsburg, after which Jamestown ceased to exist as a settlement, existing today only as an archaeological site.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamestown,_Virginia

Roanoke didn't make it.

[yellowcanine]

9. People left for different reasons.

Many did come for religious reasons or to escape European wars (Puritans, Quakers, French Huguenots, Moravians, Mennonites, etc.). But many came for economic reasons - Dutch, French, Spanish, English traders/looters, etc. Often religion went hand in hand with the trading and looting. Hard to separate them. And many of the "religious" refugees were quite willing to impose THEIR religion on everyone else around them, including native Americans. It is impossible to separate all of the reasons people came to North America, just as it is today, and it is safe to say that few came for completely altruistic reasons.