Recently, President Trump announced that he would fund a commission to promote patriotic education in schools. I thought we were already doing that, but what do I know. I've also been told we don't say "under God" in the pledge anymore but we totally do. I closer look past the headline reveals something more troubling about the speech he gave to announce this. He considers the teaching of history around race to be 'toxic propaganda' and was critical of the 1619 Project. This award winning initiative teaches the consequences of slavery and the about the contributions of black Americans. When it came to confederate monument removal, president Trump told Fox News “We should learn from the history, And if you don’t understand your history, you will go back to it again.” I think we can see that those that accuse others of erasing history are really just wanting you to learn about the parts they like.
It wasn't long ago that I took a stab at commentary about what our kids should be taught. Now, I think it is worth breaking down the concept of a patriotic education. Oxford dictionary's definition of patriotic is "having or expressing devotion to and vigorous support for one's country." That doesn't sound so bad. The definition of education is very broad depending on who is speaking on the subject. Is it a science or an art? Or both? Is it about the systematic delivery of knowledge or the opening of a mind? This doesn't murky the water, it shows how beautiful the concept of teaching is and why I think it is the best profession in the world.
I recently made a visit to a social studies class. Their question of the day was "Should you be able to fly a confederate flag? Why or why not?" I might get different reactions to this. One might be that you should not be talking politics in your classroom. Those people might be missing the point. When the teacher walked them through this discussion, the emphasis was not on whether or not it was right or wrong to fly a confederate flag or what political affiliation they leaned towards. They are junior high kids and probably only subscribe to what their parents are talking about at home. The emphasis was on the "Why or why not?" Folks, this is patriotic education.
To answer the second part of the question is to show that you have some prerequisite knowledge of our laws, values and customs. That you can make an informed decision based what you have learned. This is the essence of patriotism. If you love and are devoted to our country, you will learn about all of it. Even the good, bad and ugly. This this the only way we can improve our democracy. So let me fix what President Trump was trying to say, Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it. All history is worth learning.
Some day, Ruth Bader Ginsberg will be just a multiple choice question on a test and the answer most likely will be that she was just a Supreme Court justice. We are doing a disservice to her and our country when this happens. Tell her story long after she is gone. She was a champion for gender equality and the perfect example of a life spent serving others for a greater good. This is also a patriotic education. To make more people like her.
The long and short of it is that we can't improve our nation if we don't know who we are. We are a nation of immigrants. Human slavery existed here. Not all people had the right to vote at some point in time. Things are different now. Not because we chose to omit pieces of history or to re-frame it in a way we like, but because we accepted our mistakes and refused to repeat them. That is the true goal of a patriotic education. I hope the 1776 Commission created by president Trump finds educators who feel the same way.
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