Here’s a bit of trivia. Our Founding Fathers who wrote the Constitution had no consultants to consult. Astounding, I know.
There was no “Ye Olde Bill Mill.” No “Henry’s Tankards and Think Tankery.” Paul Revere never parlayed his fame into “Freedom Ride Consulting.”
And they did not have, for instance, the Civics Alliance. That’s the conservative outfit that provided Iowa Republican lawmakers with the language for Iowa’s new history and civics curriculum, including an emphasis on the brilliance of the founders.
Nowadays brilliance springs from think tanks and bill mills spitting out “model” conservative legislation. The only interest they have in Iowa is counting us as one more red state drone controlled by their good ideas.
Under the Golden of Wisdom, now redder than ever, GOP lawmakers who run the joint can’t get enough of this stuff.
The Civics Alliance is a good example. The “coalition of organizations and individuals” pitches a K-12 social studies curriculum called “American Birthright.” The group is a spinoff from the National Association of Scholars, which focuses on higher education, which applauded Iowa’s legislation.
“The Civics Alliance wants to improve every aspect of American social studies instruction by inspiring America’s state education departments to provide social studies standards that teach American students their birthright of liberty,” according to its website.
That doesn’t sound so bad.
“The teaching of American civics in our schools faces a grave new risk. Proponents of programs such as action civics seek to turn the traditional subject of civics into a recruitment tool of the progressive left,” the organization argues.
Uh oh.
Action civics is a curriculum that encourages students to take an active role in the democratic process. Instead of being simply fed the traditional menu of historical facts, events and people, students can also get involved in causes important to them.
“Action civics is taking over civics and history classrooms,” the Civics Alliance argues. And some of this curriculum, gasp, is connected to the 1619 project, which focuses on how racial discrimination has shaped our history. It makes white kids uncomfortable, apparently.
Kids getting involved in the political process is the last thing conservatives want. Instead, kids should simply take pride in America’s heritage of freedom. Just don’t use that freedom to become involved in how the nation is governed. Freedom is a museum piece. Don’t touch.
Iowa lawmakers introduced broad legislation dictating social studies curriculum. It failed to clear the legislative process. So, naturally, they condensed it and added it as an amendment to an education funding bill in the final days before adjournment. They passed it swiftly before any action civics could derail it. The governor signed it into law.
The legislation requires teaching the virtues of exemplary Americans and the nation’s political, diplomatic, and military history. The curriculum covers the period from the discovery of the Western Hemisphere to the present. Kids will learn about all the wars, the Founding Fathers and, of course, the accomplishments of “western civilization,” which gets four mentions.
Columbus, the Holocaust and the Emancipation Proclamation all make appearances. As does medieval Europe, Greek city states, ancient Israel and the crimes of communist regimes. The standards must be adopted by Dec. 31, 2025.
But the real news is what gets left out. Slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the Civil Rights movement are not mentioned. Neither is what happened to the people already living in the Western Hemisphere who we “discovered.” The Great Depression misses the cut. Women’s suffrage, immigration and the gains for workers thanks to organized labor aren’t on the required list.
The legislation does not prohibit teaching other stuff. But if you’re an educator caught in the culture war crossfire, will you take the risk of straying from the standards? The chilling effect of stuff like this is a feature, not a bug. Our public schools are becoming large freezers with all the chilling.
The National Council for the Social Studies isn’t a fan of “American Birthright.”
“W e view these suggested standards as an attempt to return to a time when United States social studies classrooms presented a single narrative of U.S. and Western history that glorified selected aspects of history while minimizing the experiences, contributions, and perspectives of Indigenous peoples, people of color, women, the LGBTQIA+ community, the working class, and countless others,” the council wrote.
“The writers of the suggested standards use outdated language, have a clear political motive, and promote content and approaches to social studies and history education that do not align with those recommended by experts in social studies content areas,” the council added.
And once these kids graduate, the National Alliance of Scholars will have banished the “radical left” from colleges and universities and replaced them with conservatives. You’ve got to love it when a plan comes together.
Iowa Republicans love casting this as a battle between wholesome America lovers and liberal America haters. Black and white, but mostly white. Love it or leave it. Move to Cuba, commies.
But I love my country. And one reason why is we’re not afraid to take a clear-eyed view of our past, warts and all. Asserting racism and white supremacy had no role in shaping this nation and have disappeared from the present is absurd and dishonest.
Strong nations are unafraid of learning about and learning from real history. It’s the authoritarian governments who spoon feed their people fluff patriotism with side of historical mythology. No coat of whitewash can hide the facts.
And the fact Iowa lawmakers were able to dictate social studies curriculum begs the question “Where will it end?”
Perhaps at the voting booths in November. That would be truly historic.
(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com
www.thegazette.com
There was no “Ye Olde Bill Mill.” No “Henry’s Tankards and Think Tankery.” Paul Revere never parlayed his fame into “Freedom Ride Consulting.”
And they did not have, for instance, the Civics Alliance. That’s the conservative outfit that provided Iowa Republican lawmakers with the language for Iowa’s new history and civics curriculum, including an emphasis on the brilliance of the founders.
Nowadays brilliance springs from think tanks and bill mills spitting out “model” conservative legislation. The only interest they have in Iowa is counting us as one more red state drone controlled by their good ideas.
Under the Golden of Wisdom, now redder than ever, GOP lawmakers who run the joint can’t get enough of this stuff.
The Civics Alliance is a good example. The “coalition of organizations and individuals” pitches a K-12 social studies curriculum called “American Birthright.” The group is a spinoff from the National Association of Scholars, which focuses on higher education, which applauded Iowa’s legislation.
“The Civics Alliance wants to improve every aspect of American social studies instruction by inspiring America’s state education departments to provide social studies standards that teach American students their birthright of liberty,” according to its website.
That doesn’t sound so bad.
“The teaching of American civics in our schools faces a grave new risk. Proponents of programs such as action civics seek to turn the traditional subject of civics into a recruitment tool of the progressive left,” the organization argues.
Uh oh.
Action civics is a curriculum that encourages students to take an active role in the democratic process. Instead of being simply fed the traditional menu of historical facts, events and people, students can also get involved in causes important to them.
“Action civics is taking over civics and history classrooms,” the Civics Alliance argues. And some of this curriculum, gasp, is connected to the 1619 project, which focuses on how racial discrimination has shaped our history. It makes white kids uncomfortable, apparently.
Kids getting involved in the political process is the last thing conservatives want. Instead, kids should simply take pride in America’s heritage of freedom. Just don’t use that freedom to become involved in how the nation is governed. Freedom is a museum piece. Don’t touch.
Iowa lawmakers introduced broad legislation dictating social studies curriculum. It failed to clear the legislative process. So, naturally, they condensed it and added it as an amendment to an education funding bill in the final days before adjournment. They passed it swiftly before any action civics could derail it. The governor signed it into law.
The legislation requires teaching the virtues of exemplary Americans and the nation’s political, diplomatic, and military history. The curriculum covers the period from the discovery of the Western Hemisphere to the present. Kids will learn about all the wars, the Founding Fathers and, of course, the accomplishments of “western civilization,” which gets four mentions.
Columbus, the Holocaust and the Emancipation Proclamation all make appearances. As does medieval Europe, Greek city states, ancient Israel and the crimes of communist regimes. The standards must be adopted by Dec. 31, 2025.
But the real news is what gets left out. Slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the Civil Rights movement are not mentioned. Neither is what happened to the people already living in the Western Hemisphere who we “discovered.” The Great Depression misses the cut. Women’s suffrage, immigration and the gains for workers thanks to organized labor aren’t on the required list.
The legislation does not prohibit teaching other stuff. But if you’re an educator caught in the culture war crossfire, will you take the risk of straying from the standards? The chilling effect of stuff like this is a feature, not a bug. Our public schools are becoming large freezers with all the chilling.
The National Council for the Social Studies isn’t a fan of “American Birthright.”
“W e view these suggested standards as an attempt to return to a time when United States social studies classrooms presented a single narrative of U.S. and Western history that glorified selected aspects of history while minimizing the experiences, contributions, and perspectives of Indigenous peoples, people of color, women, the LGBTQIA+ community, the working class, and countless others,” the council wrote.
“The writers of the suggested standards use outdated language, have a clear political motive, and promote content and approaches to social studies and history education that do not align with those recommended by experts in social studies content areas,” the council added.
And once these kids graduate, the National Alliance of Scholars will have banished the “radical left” from colleges and universities and replaced them with conservatives. You’ve got to love it when a plan comes together.
Iowa Republicans love casting this as a battle between wholesome America lovers and liberal America haters. Black and white, but mostly white. Love it or leave it. Move to Cuba, commies.
But I love my country. And one reason why is we’re not afraid to take a clear-eyed view of our past, warts and all. Asserting racism and white supremacy had no role in shaping this nation and have disappeared from the present is absurd and dishonest.
Strong nations are unafraid of learning about and learning from real history. It’s the authoritarian governments who spoon feed their people fluff patriotism with side of historical mythology. No coat of whitewash can hide the facts.
And the fact Iowa lawmakers were able to dictate social studies curriculum begs the question “Where will it end?”
Perhaps at the voting booths in November. That would be truly historic.
(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com
Think tanks replace thinking at the Iowa Statehouse
FILE – Snow falls at the Iowa State Capitol Building in Des Moines, Iowa, Jan. 9, 2024, as a winter …
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