Revisionist history about the founding of this country is bound to be controversial at any level of education, but nowhere more so than as part of the curriculum in grades 7 through 12 (“The Philosophical Force Driving the Fight to Rewrite History,” the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, Feb. 21).
I say that because students of that age are extremely impressionable due to their immaturity. As a result, they take as gospel whatever their teachers and textbooks say. When prominent historians charge that the 1619 Project is fundamentally flawed, I believe them. Yet school boards in Buffalo, New York and Washington D.C. quickly voted to incorporate the 1610 Project in their schools’ curriculum.
Why they have done so in light of their responsibility to present a balanced view of history is unclear. Unlike in higher education where activist faculty members make decisions about what is to be taught, local school boards of education are supposed to take into account the views of all stakeholders. But when race is involved, apparently it’s a different story. I think students are being shortchanged when they are taught that the 1610 Project is gospel.
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