Next week the world’s largest history organization is holding a congressional briefing in Washington to share the findings of a two-year study that examines, among other areas, the teaching methods of state educators.
It won’t be pretty.
Opinion columnist
LZ Granderson
LZ Granderson writes about culture, politics, sports and navigating life in America.
The American Historical Assn. called the report “the most comprehensive study of secondary US history education undertaken in the 21st century.” It identified events in 2020 as the impetus for this review, which it called a year of “controversial debates about history education” that “produced anger, wild claims, and a growing sense of alarm in homes and communities across the country.”
The pandemic that occurred in early 2020 was devastating, and the presidential election at the end of 2020 was unfathomable. But history may show that the events of the year that made America the most were the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.
Much of the country didn’t know about Juneteenth or the Tulsa massacre until the protests sparked by those three murders forced the nation to have a deeper conversation about race relations and our past. Collective stupidity has held us back. The reason we can’t have a serious conversation about reparations is because most Americans don’t know the history of this country. Real history. It’s not like the Baby Boomers gave us stories about “Christopher Columbus discovering America” ​​or George Washington who “couldn’t lie.”
From the legislative reaction to the 1619 Project to conservative efforts to play down slavery as a cause for the Civil War, far too often the lessons of history have been changed to protect white comfort, to the detriment of the progress of this nation. In many ways, that’s why we’re still talking about race. It’s not that racism will never die; that if we have the talent to maintain a lie, it means that the struggle to be honest must continue as well.
Of course, there are those who prefer to lie. They romanticize America’s past as “the good old days,” hence “again” etched on red baseball caps. For them, it’s all a game and history is written by the winners. But we are all in this together. He couldn’t see the flaws in rooting for his own teammates. Some on the right are so committed to their fantasy of America’s past that reality feels like a traitor.
We hope that the history association’s study – “Mapping the Landscape of Secondary US History Education” – and the next congressional briefing will be an important step in helping elected officials and educators determine how to change this restrictive way of thinking.
All 50 states are represented through legislative review, more than 200 teacher/administrator interviews and 3,000 peer-reviewed surveys of middle and high school teachers. It’s refreshing to see experts weigh in with data, as opposed to many unqualified book banners using (probably baseless) anecdotes to scare school boards.
The American Historical Assn. is a nonpartisan organization, so one hopes its work will not be rejected by conservatives who disagree with its findings. If the country can find a way to bridge the gap in thinking about how to teach history, then maybe the next generation who inherits this land won’t be fed up with our ignorance – willful and otherwise.
Earlier this week, during an interview with a member of the National Assn. of Black Journalists, Vice President Kamala Harris was asked about reparations for descendants of slaves and whether she would create a commission to study or support one in Congress. His friend, the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, the latter’s champion for decades, noted the call for reparations for the enslaved came after the Civil Liberties Act of 1987 provided reparations for Japanese Americans affected by World War II prison camps.
“We need to tell the truth about the impact of our history generations,” he said. “And we need to tell the truth about it in a way that drives solutions.”
That usually doesn’t happen. Consider this: Depending on the format, Plato’s “Republic” usually runs around 400 pages. Written around 380 BC, the text has survived many global catastrophes, but it can’t deal with boring reality – at least by today’s standards. Of course, “The Republic” was never intended to be a light fare, and it certainly exceeded initial expectations by becoming significant to Western philosophy and government for more than 2,000 years.
So imagine my surprise when I saw among the titles offered by the book summary app that the idea of ​​”The Republic” could be mine in 15 minutes or less. I used to listen to chapters from audio books while I was walking the dog. Now, I can “read” Plato in two poop bags or less. I imagine at the end of the year, I can “read” half of the Los Angeles Central Library if I don’t care about niceties such as details or context. If I don’t care about studying.
Apart from the culture wars, and perhaps because of them, this is what happens in most of history – compressed into bullet points, so we can get the gist of it. Like cramming for a quiz instead of learning the material. That’s why when race relations in America are put to the test, we keep failing.
@LZGranderson
