Trump wants to restore “patriotic history” and has vowed to creat a “1776 Commission” to carry out his wishes. Historians, history teachers, and everyone who cares about accurate teaching of history and academic freedom are alarmed.
Kevin Kumashiro has drafted a petition. If you agree with it, please consider adding your name.
Friends–I’m writing to folks who lead or are closely connected to a number of educational organizations/associations/centers/unions. I haven’t had a chance to update the website yet, but in just the first few hours since the first announcement went out, we already have 300+ signers, and we’ve only just begun to publicize! Individuals AND ORGANIZATIONS can endorse, so I wanted to make sure you saw this and that I reached out to you first to:
(a) invite your organization to endorse (T4SJ already endorsed, thanks!), and
(b) ask you to please help to spread the word to your members and comrades.
The announcement is below, which includes the URL to the sign-on form. I hope to push out to the media the full statement (with all the endorsements) in the coming days. Let me know if you have questions, and thanks for considering and helping,
Kevin
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Dear Friend, Colleagues, Comrades: A coalition of organizations and a team of educators and scholars invite all educators, educational scholars, and educational organizations in early-childhood, K-12, and higher education across the United States to join us in endorsing this important new statement:
“Educating for Democracy Demands Educating Against White Supremacy:
A Statement by U.S. Educators and Educational Scholars”
To view and endorse the statement: https://forms.gle/PcSRzSSvTbDp69V36
From the Introduction: “The battle over what story about the United States gets taught in schools and who gets to tell that story is what has made education, particularly history curriculum, one of the main sites of ideological struggle. Today, as has happened repeatedly before, those who insist on teaching only a white supremacist rendition of U.S. history claim that curricula about the historical and systemic nature of race and racism are based on lies, biased, divisive, and un- or anti-American—but research soundly rejects such claims.”
From the conclusion: “Our country cannot become more just and democratic without illuminating, addressing, and healing from its long legacies of injustices, including imperialism, colonialism, and racism. As educators and educational scholars who specialize in early-childhood, K-12, and higher education across the United States, we reject the renewed calls to deny or ignore the legacies and systems of racism that have long defined and shaped U.S. schools and society and that continue to do so. Our job is to teach toward democracy by teaching the truth, and we proudly work collectively and in solidarity with the communities most impacted by injustice to do so.”
All educators, educational scholars, and educational organizations in early-childhood, K-12, and higher education across the United States are invited to join us in endorsing this statement. Read the full statement and add your endorsement here: https://forms.gle/PcSRzSSvTbDp69V36
Please forward to other educators, scholars, and organizations who may wish to join us. Thank you!
-In Solidarity-
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Kevin Kumashiro, Ph.D.
https://www.kevinkumashiro.com
Movement building for equity and justice in education
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
Done
This is the tip of the iceberg.
And, there is the cautionary “What if the iceberg is just the tip of the iceberg?”
The president has latched on to the education conservative playbook. These are not his words (his beliefs? yes. Words? They are uttered by well funded think tanks and networked “I’m a taxpayer” sources which is why this is bigger than curriculum).
Howard Zinn. Social Justice. Equity.
Privilege. White Privilege. Dismantling Racism. Diversity.
“Agenda 21” (for the environmentalists)
Books and movies: Black Boy, “When They See Us” (we know what the president thinks about their innocence), “Letter From A Birmingham Jail” and hundreds more titles
“1619”
These are just the tip of the iceberg.
Next?
Board approved booklists.
Publisher buy outs just like conservative controlled news media
Censorship in syllabi and libraries.
Targeting teachers.
The word “education” is not in the Constitution. It belongs to the states.
so…
Next? Local and State Board seats. And we’ve seen how that works with charters and vouchers and privatization.
Even suburban moderates and traditional conservatives do not want to see their curriculum and schools taken over (if only for a broad curriculum and experiences for college admissions)… these are the same suburbs the presidents wants to “keep safe” – white wash – and as in his rally yesterday, the ones with “good genes.”
Thank you for bringing the petition forward and spreading far and wide.
Signed and shared
Signed and sent it to other retired or active educators.
The thing is, “nationalism” in a democratic culture is not the same thing as nationalism in other forms of government, especially tribal governments.
That it’s democratic, by that fact, it is experimental (power in the people).
Also, as forming “a more perfect union” (and the words that follow) it’s both dynamic and open to change.
If the union-nation is to survive and pass peacefully from generation to generation, that qualified change will emerge from The People where the power is located. And if the people are to develop and to change for the better . . . in order to fulfill the promise of their own Constitution and Bill of Rights, they must be able to read and to be involved in educating ourselves and our children.
Education, then, need not be stated in the Constitution to be essential to it. Rather, by its unique power structure, education is essential to the existence of a democracy itself and so it is foundational to the Union, State, and States. CBK
Anti-Racist Curriculum Mandatory!
Thanks so much for the info.
signed sealed and delivered.
APPALLING hardly describes this.
The great leader, yet another dictator
showing his stripes.
This is nothing new. I remember an article about history textbooks out of a Texas company that said the blacks were immigrants who came here for a better life!
I wish there was a way to sign this as a parent and public school advocate. I fully support!
Karen, you can sign!
Use original documents of all history’s documents and participants rather than textbooks—history as literature. I once taught Thanksgiving in such a manner, including a contemporary reaction in the
L. A. Times from some Native Americans.
From yesterday, September 23:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-combating-race-sex-stereotyping/?fbclid=IwAR22x87NnlARyQZ2reo7Ij2GdZkFJZwVAcKTAIxZpgNG85yRQQSFbaK00eI