The Conservative Attempt to Re-Write Our Progressive History
By Thom Hartmann A...
Oklahoma isn’t the only state where Republicans are waging war on high school history class.
Conservatives in a handful of other states, including Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and - no surprise here - Texas are now pushing bills that would ban the College Board’s AP U.S. history curriculum.
The main issue that conservatives have with the current AP history curriculum is that it’s “too liberal” and supposedly focuses too much on the “negative” parts of American history, whatever that means. So Conservatives want to replace it with a curriculum that focuses on topics conservatives like - topics like, you know, Reagan, Reagan, and, just for good measure, more Reagan.
In all seriousness, though, there’s a really good reason that conservatives are freaking out about what kind of history curriculum is going to be taught in our classrooms. And that’s the simple fact that the history of America is the history of the continuous progressive transformation of this country.
All the great accomplishments of American democracy, from the revolution itself to healthcare reform, have been progressive accomplishments and they’ve come about because progressives rallied for change and said “no” to the old order. It was progressives who in the 1760s and 1770s took the streets and then the battlefields of America to fight against British tyranny.
It was progressives who, because they believed that all men are created equal, rallied against slavery and pushed President Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. And it was progressives who, because they believed that all people are created equal, started the push for women’s rights.
It was progressives, who, because they believed, as Thomas Jefferson once said, that a well-informed citizenry is essential to democracy, created the first public schools. It was progressives who, because they believed in democracy in the workplace, fought for the right to unionize. And it was progressives, who, because they believed in the inherent dignity of all work, passed the first workplace safety laws and banned child labor.
It was also progressives who, during the New Deal and then the Great Society, created Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, the programs that are the bedrock of our social safety net. And who do you think it was that fought to end Jim Crow and lead the fight for gay rights? That’s right, you guessed it, it was progressives.
Literally every great turning point in American history happened because progressives made it happen. Name it and progressives were behind it. Conservatives, of course, fought these changes at every step of the line.
Conservatives opposed the revolution.
Conservatives opposed freeing the slaves.
Conservatives opposed women’s rights.
Conservatives opposed - and continue to oppose - public education.
Conservatives opposed - and continue to oppose - democracy in the workplace.
Conservatives opposed child labor laws.
Conservatives opposed the New Deal.
Conservatives opposed Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Conservatives also opposed the Civil Rights Movement and continue to oppose the Gay Rights Movement.
Name a great achievement in American history and conservatives were against it. This isn't opinion, it’s just fact, and it’s the real reason why conservatives are going absolutely bonkers about the AP U.S. History curriculum.
They’re worried that if young people study real history, not the Reaganized fluff Republicans are pushing, they’ll realize that conservatives have been on the wrong side of history for the past 200 plus years.
From a conservative perspective, banning AP history makes perfect sense. Not only would doing so keep the public in the dark about what it really means to be conservative, it would also - and this is really important - make it harder for young Americans to discover the truth about this country’s progressive past.
So go call your local representative today to tell them that you support AP U.S. history and the right of all high scholars to learn about the progressive values that make this country great.
Comments
#2
Resistance to progressive ideas began well before independence was won from Britain. The one true progressive of that era was Thomas Paine. He called for an end to hereditary political power. He called for an end to privilege in all its forms. He called for an end to the enslavement of some people by others. He called for women to enjoy equal rights with men. In "Agrarian Justice" he embraced the most progressive reform of all: he called for the public collection of "ground rents" to pay for public goods and services and to provide a fund from which a dividend would be paid to each person upon reaching adulthood. And, as if this were not enough, he also called for the complete separation of church and state by calling for freedom from religion in addition to freedom of religion. Progressives need look no further than to Thomas Paine for inspiration and the path to the just society.
#3
One thing progressives never have to worry about is students not getting enough liberal thoughts pounded in their heads. 90% of teachers are progressives. They fund the Democrats. No wonder they fight so hard to stop the privatization of schools they don't want to loose control of our childrens thoughts. They might vote Republican.
#4
"The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out the conservative adopts them."
In other words......." Conservatism is the blind and fear-filled worship of dead radicals."
Mark Twain 1898....LOL
#5
Kend: Are you trying to tell me that algebra, geometry, biology, chemistry, physics, geography, history, economics, literature, grammar, foreign languages, arts , physical education, computer applications...etc.... are all liberal thoughts being pounded into students heads?
#6
The list of states Thom puts down are of no surprise. Only in these reddest of the red states have people already been dumbed down enough to accept further sabotage to the school curriculum. It's no wonder that Conservatives want to attack American history. Not only did they oppose every progressive improvement that was made to make this country strong, they were also directly responsible for all the greatest crimes ever committed. Ever since the middle of the 19th century, Republican Conservatives in office have committed every crime under the sun for their Corporate benefactors. The greatest of these crimes was committed on behalf of the Railroad. It was the deliberate and planned genocide of the native American Plain Indian tribes. It is no wonder the Republican party wants to black out our history. What innocent young person would want anything to do with them after learning about that travesty alone.
Quote Consortium News:Editor’s Note: The genocide against Native Americans remains one of the most shameful chapters of U.S. history (and indeed one that continued through Ronald Reagan’s presidency with U.S.-backed slaughters in Central America).
However, from the Civil War through the end of the 19th Century, the extermination campaigns also merged the dangerous forces of a standing army with the business/political interests of the Republican Party, as the Independent Institute’s Thomas J. DiLorenzo writes in the following excerpted guest essay:
#7
Quote Kend:One thing progressives never have to worry about is students not getting enough liberal thoughts pounded in their heads. 90% of teachers are progressives. They fund the Democrats. No wonder they fight so hard to stop the privatization of schools they don't want to loose control of our childrens thoughts. They might vote Republican.
Kend ~ Don't be angry with all teachers just because you didn't graduate from High School. It's not their fault you know. After all, Progressive or Conservative, teachers are only human; and, can only do so much with what they have to work with. It's not their fault; and, it's not the curriculums fault. It's your fault.
#8
10k. I wish that all the above is what our students are learn. But they don't. They can barely read. I am a perfect example as you can tell by the mean thing other readers on this blog say about me.
#9
Marc, for the record I did graduate from high school, I also take full responsibility for everything I have done I my life. I would never blame any of my teachers for anything. They where all very good to me.
#10
First, Thom, thank you very much for featuring this story today. I heard it this morning on N.P.R.'s "Morning Edition," and I hoped the story would not get lost in the day's other news. I'd like to gently shift the focus away from "Progressive" versus "Conservative." Instead, to me this is an issue of people who are too timid (scared ?) to have a calm, thoughtful discussion about the darker aspects of American history. How in the world can we expect our children and grandchildren to become better citizens if they are "shielded" from knowing about....discussing...and learning from our American experience--whether good or bad ? Are we so afraid of TRUTH ?
#11
Did you know Thom that our government was supposed to be a republic, not a democracy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bqsIjnpZGA
Ben Franklin said, "A democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner, and a republic is when the sheep has a gun".
This illusion that a democracy is 'fair' for all people is just that, an illusion. As long as we can commit to the axiom to treat others as we would like to be treated, then there is no need for a democracy. For the most part people are good-hearted, and want world peace, harmony, and justice for all. That should be the basis for living together in a society.
Your points about what the conservatives have done and been against throughout our country's history is spot on Thom, but the progressives don't have the whole story either because they have bought into this idea of a democracy.
Our country and it's citizens haven't been free since the Act of 1871. That's when our government sold us down the road. The government was bankrupt after the Civil War, and the banksters of that time offered to bail the government out and in so doing, made our government a CORPORATION! Look up the pdf files from Judge Dale, or dozens of other documents. It's all there in black and white. Time to wake up folks!
#12
Off Topic @ DAnneMarc and Kend. I was dismayed to see DAnneMarc's snipe at Kend with it's erronious assumption and put-down to Kend's intelligence. I wish blogging commenters would refrain from needless insults, sometimes devolving into offensive/scatological language (Marc, I'm not implying that to you here, but this happens way too much in blog comment sections). These take the direction of the topic off-course and do not lead to any intelligent exchange of ideas - just a whole bunch of nastiness. I appreciate those who respectfully contribute to the topic under consideration, no matter what their political persuasion. In fact, I very much appreciate conservative ideas in what otherwise could become a liberal-minded "chior."
On Topic. Since I knew nothing about this AP History controversy, I followed Thom's link above (beginnig with "So Conservative's...") to a sample AP History test to see what might be 'the problem.' I only spent about 20 minutes (obviously not finishing), going along question by question and found, in my opinion, that it was not an easy test. It required a rather high level of reading comprehension just to be able to answer the questions. Could this be the real problem? - that someone (even like me, who thinks she has been well educated) might feel too challenged, maybe even threatened, by how much harder it was than the tests we took in years past?
Americans have not been pleased to learn that our high school students do not compare well on the international educational scales. Tests like these challenge students to strengthen their intellectual muscles in ways that some threatened politicians "fear to tread." Wonder how many of our politicians could pass our current high school exams??? NO POLITICIAN LEFT BEHIND!!!
#13
The Democratic policies and programs implementated from FDR to Reagan -- including, dare I say, our former welfare aid programs -- took the US to its height of wealth and productivity. From Reagan to Obama, those programs and policies were reversed, and liberal media became a tool for promoting middle class elitism, deeply pitting the "masses" against each other. The overall quality of life in the US was rated at #1 when Reagan was first elected, launching the long campaign against our poor. By the time Obama was elected, this had already fallen to #43. Reversing the progress that had been achieved via our former poverty relief programs played a very important role in causing the US to steadily fall behind 42 other nations, in roughly 30 years.
Interesting bit of history: What came to be called AFDC was actually first included in FDR's Social Security Act. At its highest, back in the 1970s, AFDC used a mere 6% of the federal budget, yet enabled some 80% of recipients to quit welfare for jobs by the time their children started school, with the majority of these being able to work their way out of poverty. They worked their way up, earning wages, paying taxes, ultimately repaying all the aid they had received via their own taxes.
Clinton got rid of that, of course, and Dems and libs have erased the success of those anti-poverty programs from the discussion, prefering to maintain a long pep rally for the better off alone, the middle class. Rewriting our history.
#14
Quote Kend:One thing progressives never have to worry about is students not getting enough liberal thoughts pounded in their heads. 90% of teachers are progressives. [emphasis added] They fund the Democrats. No wonder they fight so hard to stop the privatization of schools they don't want to loose control of our childrens thoughts. They might vote Republican.
Yeah Kend, education and enlightenment will do that to ya. That's why they wanna keep kids ignorant.
It's not that we wanna take away your, or those lawmakers', comfortable ignorance and superstition but we think it'd be good if somebody knew what they were talking about sometimes instead of knowing "just enough to be dangerous" about everything.
This is really irresponsibly screwing the kids, condemning them to perhaps a life of ignorance - which is not always blissful, Kend not withstanding. Eucation isn't keeping "control of chilren's thoughts" , Kend, it's freeing their minds. You wouldn't know about that, of course, but take my word.
It's criminal. A lawsuit theoretically should fix that like in New York when a guy sued the school board. There had to be two suits, though, 10-15 years apart, the verdict of the second reversing that of the first that ruled against the guy saying that he was only entitled to basic literacy so he could get a job as a janitor.
Also, the judiciary is stacked too from so many years of Republican rule and Republicans blocking judicial appointments even when Democrats were in the majority. Why does one get the impression that Republicans are only trying to see how quickly and easily they could undermine and destroy the great founding principles of America and its constitution and way if life, as if on a dare or a game out of boredom..
#15
Kend--
thanks for your thoughts too. We can all learn from each others experience. No ONE person is always right, no matter how hard they try.
#16
ezwriter--right on the money
DHBranski--ex. info.
#17
As Thom has mentioned many times, Conservative in the States is not Conservative in the rest of the world. It was a social Conservative, Count Otto von Bismarck that thought the state, in his case what was the German Empire, to ensure the basic economic and social rights of its citizens in a rational, economic fashion with a means of funding, and rules of entitlement. That system was copied throughout Western Europe, and in other parts of the world, except Great Britain aka the United Kingdom and the States.
From the little I have read President Theodore Roosevelt , a Republican, no less, thought it was a good idea, but for some reason so-called Conservatives forget to mention him among thier heroes.
In that regard, what do these anti-Liberal Conservatives do with another Republican, for I, personally long, in spite of my Democratic past. When he was president, we would joke about how he played golf, recieved vicuna coats, and other curiiousities. Looking back, though, considering all the conflicts where American soldiers are being sent, what we know about, and likely the covert actions we we will never know about.
That Republican president looks more and more attractive to me. There was peace, and the nation enjoyed a peacetime prosperity. There was even progress on social issues, yeah, the schools in the South were desegregated, and that Republican president promoted racial equality. Indeed, he succeeded, in his own way to remove McCarthy, perhaps not as "actively" as some might have wished, but . . . he did it.
Right, I wonder what the Conservatives would do with those eight years of genuine peace and prosperity. It wasn't without its "issues", but the bottom line was an America that was stable, where a person earned his living honestly, and even the "rich folks" knew to pitch in their share. Yeah, when he left office he, a military man, warned us of the Military Industrial Complex that would lead us into conflicts that would cost the lives of Americans. Yes, I must admit it--I am beginning to like Ike, General Dwight D. Eisenhower was a good president, and I wish some of his wisdom was present among the leaders in Washington these days.
#18
Conservatives are authoritarian, we are egalitarian. They believe in governance by and privilege for elites, in hierarchies of privilege and entitlement.
Essentially, they commonly don't believe in anything but, as Bob Dylan said, just want to be on the side that's winning. They support the more powerful, the dominant group. They simply suck up to the ones they most fear and hope to profit by brown nosing to the dominant of society. They suck the ass of power,
Or they are the dominant and powerful and simply want to maintain their dominance and power.
#19
Eisenhouer was less conservative than Obama.
#20
History tends to be written by people who want the children to see the world from a particular point of view .Not telling the truth about the past hides who and what you are !
The emperor is wearing new clothes for we can see right through you ,children taught to critically think and look at history see how the parents ,government and elders have deluded themselves .So you have to drum it out of them and take your view on the facts .
Education men's to bring out not to put in ....you do not want the children coming to there own conclusions but only to your own conclusions so the mistakes of the past are repeated.
The thing that would work is if we intensely scrutinised the so-called justifiable actions of the past because in societies where critical thinking and problem solving and life skills are taught ,rather than facts simply memorised the mistakes of the past would not be repeated as the behaviour is clearly self destructive .
What you memorize ,you memorialize .
#21
Kend knows we think he doesn't know what he's talking about or is full of beans. He plays dumb a lot.
#22
Humans are struggling to evolve ,we must all see this ,so what would work here's a start .Base the carriculum around three Core Concepts.
Awareness
Honesty
Responsibility
The entire educational model would be based around them why because your parents only pass on what has been passed onto them so the sins of the father have been visited upon the son .Have you looked the world lately ? It's not even a question of blame but choice but someone has to take responsibility for the choices humankind has been making ,and keeps making .
"We have met the enemy ,and they are us ".
#23
Kend - You state:
"No wonder they (meaning teachers, I assume) fight so hard to stop the privatization of schools they don't want to loose control of our childrens thoughts."
It is not the role of teachers to control our students thoughts. It is the role of teachers to give students the ability to critically think for themselves. Students should be exposed to all ideas and then use their critical thinking skills to form their own opinion. This is what conservatives do not like. Why else do Texas legislators want to ban critical thinking in Public Schools
Here is the actual language from a position statement in the 2012 Texas Republican Party Platform:
Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.
What are conservatives afraid of? Is it knowledge? Free thinkers? Progress?
The answer is written into the platform. Conservatives do not like or want change that goes against their fixed beliefs. In their minds change is bad, status quo is good. If conservatives had their way we would all still be lighting fire with sticks and stones.
#24
rofo47, I agree that students should be exposed to all ideas but they are only get exposed to one side as almost all teachers are right of center. Do you think there has ever been any debate about global warming in any school at any level. Do you think any teacher in the public school system has had any debate for tax dollars being used for private schools if the parents choose that route. Of course not. So with all do respect how can they "use their critical thinking skills to form their own option" when they are only exposed to a left of center view.
I am a conservative and I am not afraid of change at all. I would love to see a voucher system so parents could choose the type of educaton they would like their children to have. I think the teachers are doing their best but the public school system is so top heavy it is failing our kids. In our city not even 60% of the public school system employees are in the classroom what the hell do the other 40% do? that ratio in the private schools here is about 85% in the classroom.
#25
Revisionist History is essential to maintaining an alternate reality ! But even the Left Progressives are being viciously attacked by the far Left Liberals who are frantically attempting to maintain their questionable doctrine in a country that has relinquished all control to the international corporate Gods and oligarchs that fully embrace a one world government where only they have access to any real rights and privileges !
#26
Kend ~ You graduated? Wonderful news! Congratulations! From a Canadian High School I surly hope? I hope you realize that when you don't proof read or spell check what you write publically, it really reflects poorly on you previous teachers. If they really were good and kind to you, the least you can do is to be good and kind to them.
That being said, I couldn't disagree more about vouchers. They might work fine in Canada; but, in the USA we have separation of church and state. I suppose you could get around that by banning the teaching of religion in all schools; or, by requiring that private schools adhere strictly to a public curriculum.
There are, of course, inherited problems with this compromise. A) Parents who specifically want to pay for a religious education might not go along with the proposal. B) Even if the private schools did agree to the compromise, it would cost our society greatly in the educational diversity offered by the private school system the way it is. I don't think it would be a good idea for society as a whole.
#27
Greenthumb: ``I only spent about 20 minutes (obviously not finishing), going along question by question and found, in my opinion, that it was not an easy test. It required a rather high level of reading comprehension just to be able to answer the questions. Could this be the real problem? - that someone (even like me, who thinks she has been well educated) might feel too challenged, maybe even threatened, by how much harder it was than the tests we took in years past?''
It is, after all, called Advanced Placement. Not all HS students are going to take these classes. (They were around back when I was in HS but our school didn't, to my knowledge, offer them. We did have `advanced' classes, though, and I was in that level for many classes.) My daughters took a lot of the AP classes and they had to work their tails off to do well. Those of us who only took the standard level history classes would probably find some of the topics covered, um, a bit over our heads. At least at first.
#28
Did you know, ezwriter, that the senses of "republic" and "democracy" have evolved in the last 200 years? In modern parlance, a republic has an elected executive, and a democracy has an elected legislature. Acting as if the prototypes are the only legitimate uses of the terms annoys me.
The people in the Roman Republic elected exactly 2 officials--the consuls. The legislature worked the same as it had under the Roman Kingdom (in which one person--the king--was elected for life by the senate and the curiae). The Senate was unelected, and the people (only those within the city itself) were represented by 30 curiae, each of which had one vote. By the way, the USSR was a republic (that's what the 'R' stands for), but it didn't have anything like representation of the popular will. Nor did Saddam's Republic of Iraq or Kaddafi's Republic of Libya.
The Athenian form of democracy can be fitted into the definition I gave above. Due to the small scale of that nation, a citizen with certain qualifications could elected himself as one of 6,000 representatives of the entire populace in something like a proportional representation system (each qualified citizen being a different party).
Would you mind giving the name of the law you cite, instead of just calling it "the Act"?
#29
Alfred wasn't king of England until 871, so he was not "before" the Heptarchy that Jefferson talked about, as Judge Moore claims.
#30
"Conservatives" like to claim that they "believe in God", "believe in the Ten Commandments", etc. But their actions speak louder than than words: they clearly have "no god but money." Nearly every position that they promote violates the love-your-neighbor-as-yourself principle which was the basis for ALL of the teachings of Jesus Christ (Matt 22:37-40). They also place very narrow limits on their definition of "neighbor"--a sin which Jesus Christ ridiculed in his Good Samaritan parabel.
#31
ezwriter, Franklin's definition of "democracy" is what socialists call "bourgeouis democracy", i.e., a not very democratic form of democracy that ignores or glosses over the power imbalances between rich and poor.
#32
Economic powers, e.g., business, are really political powers that are not really separable or distinguishable from government as they would have no efficacy or influence without the backing of government. Government is indispensible to the control of society by business. Government's definition and enforcement of property rights and economic propriety makes business the authority controlling society. Their collaboration makes them one.
#33
Conservatives try to "serve two masters" and try to get the "camel to pass through the needle's eye" but the way is too narrow for both them and all their worldly enticements. That's what happens when authority and big, mighty institutions try to coopt religion.
Most religions started out as and are most fittingly left to remain underground insurgencies of the mind and heart, quite opposie from being established authority or externally dominating power in society.
#34
Here's a real good article on school vouchers http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/05/20/whats-wro...
#35
Kend, if teachers did have a debate in class about taxpayer money used for private school tuition you'd accuse them of rigging the debate and trying to brainwash the kids. And there is no debate on global warming - just like there's no debate on evolution, in science, anyway. Why do you always demonstrate the need for some authoritative standards for education? ;^)
#36
Greenthumb, you're new here. I used to talk like you. You'll find out why we do what we do.
I used to be convinced Kend was a paid PR shill for big business. He is a shill but for himself. He is big business and has a lot personally invested in things like tar sands oil and Keystone XL.
I used to think he only played dumb as subterfuge - so I played along with him - now I'm not so sure. In any case, I think you'll find him willfully obtuse.
#37
Having said all that, Kend's not the worst guy in the world nor is he stupid if not very formally educated - and that shouldn't bother us, elitism should be antithetical to proressiveness (even if progressives are often guilty of it) - and I don't hate him. I actually feel kinda friendly toward him. He's just fulla shit.
#38
Thom - I think you're indirectly making the Conservative argument against the Department of Education, Common Core, and any sort of nation-wide educational system. The reason other states buy Texas' textbooks is because all states have similar curriculums. But with no connection between school districts at the federal level, as far as curriculum goes (and funding too, while we're at it), there would be little need for one state to use the textbooks printed by and for another state. Particularly at the high school level, where the trend now is to not even have physical textbooks, but e-readers. With those, pages can be added or taken out with ease, based on the desires of a particular school district.
That way, if Texas wants its textbooks to, say, us the term "forced integration" rather than "desegregation", both of which are factual descriptions of the same thing, other states wouldn't have to go along with it.
If the good citizens of Washington State wanted an entire unit on the benefits of hemp and marijuana, they should be able to do that too. Local control is good.
#39
rnturn: I agree with you about AP courses in high school. My point is that we should not elect representatives, who have power over our educational systems, who cannot even pass non-AP high school curricula.
Mark J. Saulis: I am not really new here; I am just not a "regular," but I do participate in several on-line forums like Thom's if the topics interest me. My complaint against personal attacks and foul language is the same for all - that resorting to them detracts from any arguement or comment.
DAnneMark: You might want to check your spelling in the first paragraph of your most recent comment.
Personally, I am much more tolerant of typos and spelling errors than personal attacks.
#40
Greenthumb, you're clearly tolerant of typos - or else kinda a hypocrtite. The problem with appointing oneself the monitor is that not everyone shares your priorities and concerns (and definitions - of what constitutes a "personal attack", for example).
What if they, of whom you disapprove, appointed themselves the authority? You would have to conduct yourself by their values and intolerances. Wouldn't that be awful?
BTW, Kend's spelling is atrocious - further proof he's a scoundrel. ;^)
#41
ChicagoMatt, local control is good on somethings and maybe sometimes on educational standards but there is also reason for at least some universal standards. Like with math and science, even in history and social science not everything is controvertible in any genuine sense.
#42
uppernaz12348 -- RE#18 Are you aware that Daddy Koch called Ike a commie?
#43
You are correct. Over 90% of Ivy League college professors are progressives. Over 97% of all scientists who won a Nobel prize are (were) progressives. Over 99% of our countries founding fathers (and mothers) were progressives. In this case, I am so glad to be in the 90-99%.
But least ye dispare, there is hope-- 99% of the people who voted against the 14th, 15th, and 19th ammendments were conservatives. I wirte this so you can be happy being in the 99%. Yup, ya got's lots to be proud of.
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