Trump has been on a rant about teaching history, despite the fact that his own knowledge of American and world history is limited, possibly non-existent. He wants history to remain as it was taught in textbooks sixty years ago, when he was a student. This would be a white-centered, triumphal story of the American past, where the only blacks ever mentioned were George Washington Carver and (maybe) Booker T. Washington. White men did everything important, and everyone else was subservient and missing.
Like Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, Trump is outraged by the New York Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning 1619 Project, which begins with the arrival of the first African slaves on the shores of what was eventually to become the United States. Senator Cotton has proposed withdrawing federal funds for the teaching of this revisionist view of American history.
Trump wants to go farther and threatens to withdraw federal funding from any school or district that teaches the history described in the 1619 Project. Trump and Attorney General Barr insist that there is no systemic racism in the United States.
Trump read a tweet warning that the schools of California were using the 1619 Project and he said the Department of Education would investigate and suspend federal funding if it were true. He undoubtedly doesn’t know that the State Board of Education in Texas approved an African-American studies course last April
Trump is abysmally ignorant and hopelessly racist. We already knew that. In addition, he is threatening to break the law. There is a federal law specifically prohibiting any interference by any federal official in curriculum or instruction in any school. As we know, Trump believes he is above the law and can do “whatever he wants.”But 20 USC 1232a prohibits “any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system…”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Not sure what Diane means by teaching the history different…History is history and you cannot change history. You can try to bend the truth but the fact of the matter is history is history and it speaks for itself…Why does everyone have an issue with history and the contents of it. Plain and simple. Black and white. Zero and One. Simple and straight forward but some people are hinting to change history for the sake of diversity….
Mike Trembly,
History is not simply “history.” There are many interpretations of history and many ways to teach it. If you teach “just the facts,” the 1619 Project is a valuable addition. You can start by teaching the history of the land, the history of the people who lived here (starting with the native Americans), the history of white settlement, the history of the institutions, etc. Teaching history always involves choices about where to begin and whom to include. Our population has always been diverse. There was never a time when our nation consisted only of White people. Inslusion of all kinds of people is not political correctness. It’s honest.
Mike Trembly There are such things as omissions, distortions, and over-emphasizing. Ever heard of those?
CBK
“some people are hinting to change history for the sake of diversity”
“to change history”: google “we respond here to the historians who critiqued the 1619 project.” (Sorry, the link would not post). It’s a good exchange exploring differences among historians on key points raised in the 1619 project. It helps the layman understand the process of writing history. The differences explored here were not over facts but over which ones to include and why.
“for the sake of diversity”: the cite explains the aims of the project. It’s not “for the sake of diversity,” which sounds like meaningless PC sentimentality.
Trump has been ignorant all his life about anything that effect humanity in a positive way. Demanding that schools do not teach the truth about slavery clearly demonstrates his racism and what he truly feels about all minorities. Trump is a racist in the purist sense of the word. How anyone can think any differently is totally beyond me.
I might add in the word “willfully” right in front of the word “ignorant”
He is a disgusting excuse for a man
Who will be the inspectors to enforce the silly UNLAWFUL mandate.
Diane “Trump is abysmally ignorant and hopelessly racist. We already knew that.”
The more I have a horribly-strained dialogue with the pro-Trumpers in my family, the more I realize how central is their fear that, to put it bluntly, black people (other than white people) are taking over the country.
The fear is long-term–from childhood–and, apparently, they’ve never questioned themselves about it. I’ve never called them “white supremacists,” and I’m not sure that applies; but it seems a logical outcome of their situation.
“. . . ignorant and hopelessly racist.” I can only think that the washing out of racism, Jim Crow, and slavery has generations to go. CBK
CBK,
I know it’s hopeless to change the minds of Trumpers. But you might at least point out that we had a black president for eight years, and the economy grew.
Diane I’ve learned that, to assume they are reasonable is to indulge in a twisted kind of fantasy.
Just say “black president” and it’s all over. BTW I sent them that you-tube movie you posted. Here’s their response: “. . . it is by an unknown person which alone turns me off for how can I know if he is of good character. It is a standard with us when anything comes our way.” (I responded later that all you have to do is listen to Trump himself–but that doesn’t matter to them either.)
They have also swallowed the idea that Biden is mentally unfit because he sometimes slurs his words. I explained that Biden has struggled all his life to overcome stuttering and told them that’s why he loves the movie “The King’s Speech,” but that those who oppose Biden won’t tell them that. No response.
Then I wrote about Woodward’s disclosures, and here’s what they said: “Woodward hates Trump, so what do you expect?” I said it didn’t matter whether Woodward hates Trump or not. What matters is what we can understand by both the film and the on-tape conversation with Trump.
No matter to them. They are going to block my communications. I feel like I’m talking to those pod people in that old film anyway. Thanks for all you do. CBK
Say what you will about Woodward: he got Trump to admit on tape that he knowingly about the severity of COVID. He—who fans the flames of chaos—wanted to avoid alarming people.
Trump lied, 200,000 people died.
diane yes, yes, and yes. My point is that it’s gone beyond all “say what you will” as anything resembling reasonable. I keep saying, but it just doesn’t matter to them. CBK
Political discussions among relatives, for those who dare, can be very heated. My mother’s clan used to gather at the same beach every August; cocktail hour was infamous for the stentorian voices that carried across the cottages on the landing. The great-uncles & their offspring all highly educated prided themselves on their reasonableness. One [irrational, highly emotional] in-law was good at spawning feuds.
A few of us still live close enough to visit briefly in August. I sat distanced on that beach with a couple of cousins this year. One admitted asking his ancient mother sotto voce whether his dad would have been a Trumper. She had rolled her eyes & said maybe. The other warned us off election conversation with her sister, to our surprise [the soul of reasonableness one would have thought]. Seems she’s a one-issue voter, all about supporting the military. Which doesn’t even make sense!
The best way to support the military is to vote for Biden, whose son served.
No member of the Trump family has ever worn our country’s uniform. Trump himself is a draft dodger. Bone spurs!
Anyone here ever take a look at the current history textbooks in MS and HS? They probably have less content in them than the books of 60 yrs ago! They are absolutely devoid of actual history. This has been going on for years and it’s no wonder that we (as a nation) are having these racial problems. I’m not defending trump, because he’s a racist thru and thru, but everyone is now trying to make up for “lost time” on the destruction of history and it’s enraging a bunch of white, privileged business men who have made a lot of money off the backs of poor black/brown folks. And can we honestly look the other way about Arne Duncan bribing the states to accept CC curriculum for their funding (is there a difference?) so that less history would be taught in classrooms. I support the 1619 Project….I’m just saying that I’m not surprised that this is going on.
“This has been going on for years and it’s no wonder that we (as a nation) are having these racial problems.” I think our racial problems are mostly a matter of lived history and family/ regional attitudes handed down, less what we are taught in school. But pithy history in school can at least open some eyes and spark curiosity to read further on one’s own in adult years. It certainly would be a good start.
I know this is not on the subject of the “1619 Project” but is again something Trump is done/doing to that raise you temperature.
Millions of people in the United States are receiving boxes of food through the Farmers to Families Food Box Program. In the box the family receiving the box will find a signed letter from Donald J. Trump on White House stationary telling the people how much is has done during the COVID-19 crisis. This has to be in violation of the Hatch Act.
I received the article through “NM Political Report”. The article originally came out through “ProPublic”. URL below:
https://nmpoliticalreport.com/2020/09/10/now-in-government-food-aid-boxes-a-letter-from-donald-trump/?mc_cid=fd001260b0&mc_eid=8a09ef9cfe
Trump is disgusting.
“Donald J. Trump
Democrats, OPEN THE SCHOOLS ( SAFELY), NOW! When schools are closed, let the money follow the child (FAMILY). Why should schools be paid when they are closed? They shouldn’t!”
No one in ed reform would ever admit it, but this is the ed reform position on the pandemic.
I love the insanity of pulling all the funding out of public schools WHILE demanding they open. Completely incoherent. If you’re wondering how public schools re-open after ed reformers pull all the funding out of them and distribute it, you’re doing a lot more thinking than ed reformers.
Hopefully schools reopen before these people succeed in destroying them completely, but it’ll be close. Helping them reopen? Not even considered. That’s unimagineable, that people who work full time on “public education” would actually assist a public school.
Their definition of millions of teachers and kids doing schoolwork online = “the schools are closed!”
I know no one in the Trump Administration attended a public school or even has entered one in several generations, if at all, but lots and lots and lots of public schools DID reopen and they did it without any of the professional public school critics or the Trump Administration lifting a finger to help.
I’m hoping we all now realize we don’t actually need people who don’t support public schools directing our schools. You-all did it without them. They didn’t show up.
None of the “key points” in the ed reform agenda for the pandemic involve public schools:
https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/eight-school-choice-reforms-for-the-coronavirus-era/
The plan seems to be we pull all the funding out of public schools and then announce they failed and must be replaced with a universal, low value voucher.
Which is just amazingly convenient, since it is the same ed reform agenda as before the pandemic, which also didn’t involve public schools.
Chiara It’s the general method of neo-liberals–drain public institutions of their resources (the Post office, education, etc.) so they cannot do their work, replace their leader with party hack; then say “SEE, they don’t work.” Then bring on the bells and whistles . . . “see how wonderful WE are!” CBK
Oh ya just gotta laugh. I can’t even find indignation anymore. I laugh every morning at the poor bozos who call in to CSPAN Wash Jnl from their outposts across Trumplandia, from E Slobbovia to W Upstarch to expel their cultural flatus. His Mereness keeps one ear tuned to the frequencies bounced off their tinfoil hats, and regularly coughs up a hearty “Hear, hear!”
Very concerned at the moment [as I’m re-reading it]: is Cather’s “Death comes to the Archbishop” really… OK? There’s some pretty dicy treatment of natives by Americans and Spaniards described: no footnotes. Anonymous sources. This could be a more burning question than whether to wear a mask.
bethree5 I used to be a regular viewer and sometimes-contributor of C-SPAN’s Journal. I quit after the call-ins became less and less coherent, to the point of being regularly ridiculous. I don’t know how the moderators do it. CBK
The moderators are wonderful. I especially value Pedro, whose questions seem a bit abrupt, but help every commenter stay on track and articulate his/ her point. And Steve, who has a way of making everyone understand the value in contributing your viewpoint whatever it may be.
The show makes me feel like I have my finger on the pulse of commonfolk—a corrective to my local liberal bubble. You can tell what Fox is broadcasting by noting those callers who repeat the Memes of the Week verbatim. And you get something similar from shallow left thinkers, all they can say is “Trump lies.” I’m always struck that both left & right super-partisans feel like the underdog. The segments featuring topical experts in science/ epidemiology & specific economic trends elicit intelligent comments & questions.
bethree5 I ran out of steam with it . . . maybe I’ll revisit. I always did admire their moderators. CBK
Another day goes by where they work exclusively on vouchers and get nothing done on public schools:
https://www.the74million.org/article/with-senate-voting-on-relief-bill-today-school-choice-and-the-help-of-an-unlikely-democrat-may-play-a-pivotal-role/
They simply don’t care what happens to students in public schools. There’s no urgency at all.
We’re not getting any help. The entire DC focus in on vouchers for private schools.
8 months into this and no one has lifted a finger for the schools that serve 90% of students and families. Even I thought they might turn their attention to public schools after Labor Day, but no dice. None of these tens of thousands of public employees we’re all paying can bothered with our schools.
This is too bad:
“Carmel Martin is one of the most powerful education experts in Washington, a top Democratic policy adviser likely headed for a high-level job in the White House if Joe Biden is elected president. So why haven’t you heard of her?”
Biden’s top education adviser comes out of the same ed reform echo chamber as all the rest of them.
NCLB, RttT, the entire agenda.
Another 4 years where no one invests in public schools or public school students. Depressing.
Time to start musical chairs! Bring in the Democratic ed reformers who are identical to the Republican ed reformers, and they can all continue the Bush-Obama-Trump agenda in a bipartisan fashion. Nothing for public schools or public school students other than elaborate measurement schemes and consultants. Ed reformers must be thrilled. Another 4 year extension on their employment contracts. 25 years of this.
https://www.the74million.org/article/education-policy-ghost-carmel-martin-is-bidens-most-important-staffer-youve-never-heard-of/
In my Black elementary school, I know I learned about more Blacks than just the wonderful Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver. 🤓
At Austin High School (predominately Black High School since about 1972, on Chicago’s Far West Side), Blacks (me too) and two White Male students took courses on US History, Black History and Hispanic History. 🤓
In Black controlled cities and suburbs, where all of the officials are Black, who is choosing the history books? Afrocentric bookstores exist and would love the business. 😐
The first true residents of America were the Indigenous Peoples of Mainland USA, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, etc. 🤓
There’s evidence of African Forced Enslavement by the Spanish (1500s), in Mainland USA and Puerto Rico, much earlier than 1619 that should be addressed. ☹️
US History began much earlier with Indigenous People, the Spanish (1500s), Jamestown (1607, by the English or British), certainly not 1776, which was only a Declaration of Independence. It took the Revolutionary War (1776-1783) and The Treaty of Paris (1783) to achieve independence from Great Britain. 🤓
While White Males (Spanish, French, English, American) were the majority owners of African Forced Enslavement, there’s evidence of Native Americans, Free Blacks, Jews, White Women, Pagans and LGBT owners of African Forced Enslavement. ☹️
Also, African Slavery itself should be discussed, because it preceded the Arab and European Enslavement of Africans. Even worse, there’s slavery in Mauritania, Sudan and Libya (Obama overthrew Gaddafi in 2011) right now. ☹️
,
Yes I would like to see slavery and other forced servitude/ manipulation of natives covered in the normal course of school history courses 1500’s on in the Americas. One could start immediately by leapfrogging the tendentious history textbooks and working w/ELA fiction & nonfiction selections instead [“could” but can’t due to asinine standards & their aligned assessments which hog the curriculum & encourage reading snippets instead of full works).
Ditto on ancient slavery of Africans. I learned of Egyptians enslaving Nubians through my own childhood reading, not from school.
Those that refuse to learn from history are bound to repeat the mistakes of the past. The GOP adheres to the ‘ostrich’ perspective of history.
Trump is threatening to break another law after he has trampled many. The only reason the Democratic Party hasn’t impeached him again is that they know it would be useless because Moscow Mitch KKK McConnel would protect Trump in the Senate every time an impeachment trial reached it.
Even if the Democrats took the majority of seats in the Senate in November, they still wouldn’t have enough votes to find Trump guilty (66) in another impeachment trial without several Republican Senators joining them.
I think the 1619 Project is deeply flawed and in any event is a polemical work of journalism rather than history, so I hope schools don’t just “teach the 1619 Project” as “history,” although I expect many will. But on the specific issue, I don’t think the feds should be meddling in curriculum like this.
It’s against the law for the feds to meddle in curriculum. I believe the CCSS was an illegal federal intervention although Duncan pretended to have nothing to do with it. It was all Gates.
“I think the 1619 Project is deeply flawed and in any event is a polemical work of journalism rather than history…”
Sure, because when the Declaration of Independence said “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that ALL men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness ” that definitely meant exactly what it said. And if it didn’t mean what it said, then only approved white male historians and those who acknowledge their superior view of history can tell us the correct amount of skepticism to give it and not one iota more.
Why would anyone question the founders’ devotion to the abolition of slavery just because the US Constitution they approved of enshrined slavery?! How dare anyone question the founders’ devotion to the abolitionist cause — they gave plenty of lip service to that cause even as they fought hard to make sure that white men with property got their rights. And of course, when the right of slaves come up against the needs and desires of white men of property who might not approve of slavery but will happily condone it if they get what they want, well, the rest of us must still acknowledge that those white men of property really were committed to abolition as long as they could have abolition without having to sacrifice one iota of what they knew was due to them as white males. Turns out that they couldn’t, but white historians insist that we all understand just how inconvenient it would have been for those founders to fight for abolition when the future of white males and what they believe was owed them might be at stake.
Of course, the irony is that the critics of the 1619 Project are perfectly fine with historians who underrepresent the centrality of slavery and African Americans to America’s history! Underrepresenting the contributions of women is fine, too. Just don’t overrepresent the important of any group except white males, and you will meet the approval of historians who believe they know best.
My impression is that you don’t understand the 1619 Project’s thesis or the thrust of the critiques of its central premise, which were made by the leading scholars of Early American and American Revolutionary history. I don’t have anything to add to that debate, but you can learn about it by googling.
Nonetheless, I don’t think the federal government should be threatening to withhold funding from schools that use this stuff in their curriculum.
I repeat: the federal government is prohibited from attempting to influence curriculum or instruction. Whether the materials are sound or unsound, the federal government has no say.
I agree.
The federal government is not allowed to interfere in curriculum or instruction. By federal law.
Are you talking about the small group of 5 old white historians led by Sean Wilentz, or are you talking about the Wall Street Journal right wingers’ critiques?
Because those two groups that have two different critiques and I wonder which of their very different critiques you believe is the gospel truth and which one is deeply flawed and polemical?
In their critique, Sean Wilentz and his group of 5 white historians write:
“On the American Revolution, pivotal to any account of our history, the project asserts that the founders declared the colonies’ independence of Britain “in order to ensure slavery would continue.”
Wow, who knew that the 1619 project is teaching kids that the ONLY reason that the colonies rebelled was to preserve slavery? That is what the letter from the 5 white historians says, so it must be true According to the letter those 5 historians wrote — which I quoted — the 1619 project is specifically teaching readers that there was absolutely no reason for the American Revolution except to preserve slavery.
Only it turns out that those white historians were wrong. The 1619 Project never said that the ONLY reason that the American Revolution happened was to preserve slavery. The 1619 project said that was one of the primary reasons, which is certainly arguable. But the white historian critics of the 1619 project either intentionally or unintentionally tried to mislead readers by writing a sentence that was absolutely false — they wanted the public to wrongly doubt the 1619 project b because the 1619 project said the ONLY reason for the American Revolution was to preserve slavery. Does that make their entire letter “deeply flawed” or “polemical” or do they get the benefit of the doubt from you despite their wrongheaded and false statement?
I suggest you read the NYT response to those 5 historians for a nuanced view. “We Respond to the Historians Who Critiqued The 1619 Project” (published Dec 20, 2019 and updated Jan. 4, 2020)
And I also suggest you read the nuanced view in “The Atlantic” written by Adam Serwer, Dec. 23, 2019: “The Fight Over the 1619 Project Is Not About the Facts: A dispute between a small group of scholars and the authors of The New York Times Magazine’s issue on slavery represents a fundamental disagreement over the trajectory of American society.”
I’m citing those because I am assuming you actually want to make sure you are correct when you attack and demean the 1619 project as “deeply flawed and in any event is a polemical work of journalism”. The vast majority of historians are able to acknowledge the interpretations that they don’t agree on without trying to discredit the entire project — much as people can take issue with any single interpretation written by any of those 5 historians without trying to claim that their disagreement means that everything those historians wrote is worthless and “polemical”.
^^sorry, this was a reply to FLERP!
In elementary school social studies, I learned about various Blacks. The same was true, at Chicago’s Austin High School (predominately Black). Like most Black students there, I took a course on Black History. Two White Male students there took the course also. 🙂
If Black History and other history books are thin, who’s choosing the books? Many school officials and boards are Black. Black bookstores exist too. 😐
Most mass-market textbooks are produced by massive publishing houses. They follow a checklist. They add black history but as a minimum. No textbook today has an author. They are compiled by committees.
Oh dear, that’s bad. ☹️
Take a look at MS and HS history text books. Pretty much devoid of real history and so much whitewashing that the kids think that slavery was almost a choice. They are not worth the paper they are printed on. Pretty sad what’s taught!
Wow! It wasn’t like that in my day.
☹️
Sent from my iPhone