Oklahoma State Rep. Dan Fisher presumably has an array of tough issues to tackle for his state from unemployment to the environment to crime. However, Fisher has decided to take on the ignoble task of banning Advanced Placement history classes in the state because he objects to the inclusion of negative aspects of American history and the omission of material embracing “American exceptionalism.” As an academic, I have previously criticized politicians (here and here and here and here) intervening in our school system to impose their own values or priorities on educators. This however ranks as one of the worst such intrusions that we have seen.
Oklahoma has been one of the states rejecting the Common Core curriculum for K-12 programs. There are valid arguments for states in insisting on control of such curricula as a general matter even if one disagrees with the merits of objections to the common core. However, this is beyond the pale. AP classes are a mainstay of our educational system and allow students to get truly advanced studies in given subjects. I have argued for years that we need to ramp up such courses on civics and history. It is therefore particularly distressing to read Fisher’s bill. It is not only would deprive these students of advanced courses but it would place Oklahoma students at a serious disadvantage in college applications which put great weight on such courses.
Fisher’s primary objection is that the AP history courses, in his view, emphasize the wrongs about America. However, these courses allow students to study not just the triumphs but the mistakes of history so history does not repeat itself. We are not a great nation because we did not commit errors and even crimes in our past. We are a great nation because we overcome such history, recognized our failings, and become a better nation despite such failings. The Trail of Tears, Alien and Sedition Acts, Japanese internment camps, Red Scare and other dark chapters reveal both our succumbing to fears and our transcending them. Part of AP curricula is to train students to read history in a critical and objective way. Converting our history into some Disney tale will teach students little about our country or themselves.
The “exceptionalism” of this country is precisely that we are not perfect but strive to be better.
David, Great job. My only suggestion is to not waste too much effort. I’ve seen this before, many times. Just sayn’.
#1 – opposing the abuses of Unions does not make one a Nazi. That is a way to silence criticism, which is an aspect of any dictator. The teachers unions defend pedophiles from being fired, for goodness sake.
#2 – Personal politics, of any party, do not belong in the classroom. We do not send our children to school to be funneled into a particular political party. It’s an absurd notion and should not be the least bit controversial.
#3 – History classes should be a truthful, accurate representation. It should neither emphasize nor gloss over the good or the bad at the expense of accuracy. An effort should also be made not to apply anachronistic values. In other words, it should be explained what were the norms of the day, and how those have evolved.
This last standard is apparently quite hard to apply to text books, as the writers seem unable to resist inserting their own political views, which then have the approval of many levels of education management, who find their own complementary views irresistible. What is put in and what is left out invariably reflects the author/teacher’s personal, political world view.
We must vigorously resist such a trend by using boards with diverse views, as well as offering school choice. If heavy politics drives away students, the schools will adapt and improve. If there is no feedback on their behavior, there will be no changing course.
We have begun to develop a new, Left version of Fascism. Disagree with the party line, and people will go after your job. The party line is taught in schools now, and any attempts to make things unbiased is attacked as inserting the “other” side in schools. We are developing a ruling government class that is above the law, unifiable, and offered work benefits far above the private sector that supports them. There is a huge backlash against those who criticize the government, and the IRS, NSA, and other government agencies are used against detractors.
And yet, any attempt to criticize these excesses is attacked as “fascist.” Oh, the irony.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Women_Nazi_Germany.htm
“One of the earliest laws passed by Hitler once he came to power in 1933, was the Law for the Encouragement of Marriage. This law stated that all newly married couples would get a government loan of 1000 marks which was about 9 months average income. 800,000 newly weds took up this offer. This loan was not to be simply paid back. The birth of one child meant that 25% of the loan did not have to be paid back. Two children meant that 50% of the loan need not be paid back. Four children meant that the entire loan was cleared.
“The mission of women is to be beautiful and to bring children into the world. This is not at all as………unmodern as it sounds. The female bird pretties herself for her mate and hatches eggs for him. In exchange, the male takes care of gathering food, and stands guard and wards off the enemy.”
Joseph Goebbels, writing in 1929.”
Annie wrote: “One of the earliest laws passed by Hitler once he came to power in 1933, was the Law for the Encouragement of Marriage.”
How interesting to bring this up when the United States is on the verge of abolishing the ancient Institution of Marriage by redefining it to include homosexual couples. It looks like Hitler was smarter than the female Judges and Justices in our courts who are cannot understand our U.S. Constitution nor respect the role of the legislature in defining our laws.
Pay attention Americans. This is the rewrite of history extreme rightists want to teach your children.
He wanted to exterminate the Slavic people too, hence pushing abortion in those regions. Abortion was not legal in Germany to “healthy German women”.
http://alphahistory.com/nazigermany/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/propaganda.jpg
Kuche, Kinder, Kirche.
“Feminism as something that diminishes the female role”, brings to mind the Nazi elevation of the hausfrau and motherhood. Giving mothers of multiple children medals and honors.
Indeed, there has been a wake up call. LOL.
Seen this pathology before, haven’t we Pogo. Maybe about to strike out for the 4th time.
The Nazi’s used that title precisely to fool the German population into thinking they were for them. They used what deception they could to get them out of labor unions and away from socialism. The skewering of history we’ve seen today should be wake up call for those on the fence.
Annie wrote: “The Nazi’s used that title precisely to fool the German population into thinking they were for them. They used what deception they could to get them out of labor unions and away from socialism.”
You invented this history and you know it. It is pure fiction. I think you need to read Mein Kampf, the book Hitler wrote from prison.
Don’t be caught like some educated Jews pre WW2, who lived in Germany for generations, considered themselves German and thought it could never happen to them in such advanced and intelligent society such as they thought Germany’s was..
And this dear readers, is why these extreme rightist ideologies should make you want to keep rightist’s hands off of our precious children’s minds. There are drumbeats of fascism and they’re coming from the right. Pay attention.
Fascism
noun
an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.
synonyms: authoritarianism, totalitarianism, dictatorship, despotism, autocracy; More
(in general use) extreme right-wing, authoritarian, or intolerant views or practice.
Annie wrote: “… an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.”
Obviously written by a leftist and likely to change in a year or two when the authors of that dictionary become better educated.
Here is a link to an interesting debate where 66% say fascism is left wing.
http://www.debate.org/opinions/is-fascism-left-wing-yes-or-right-wing-no
If you read the arguments that it is a rightist philosophy, they are mostly vapid wranglings of leftists who want to distance themselves from the socialism of Adolf Hitler.
The real truth is that the terms left and right mostly concern economic philosophy, whereas fascism is a philosophy about nationalism. Comparing them is complex because they focus on different issues. Concerning economic policy, such as socialism versus capitalism, where socialism is on the left and capitalism is on the right, fascism is clearly on the left.
Baloney. It’s fascist.
The National Socialist platform is socialist. It is not formally communist only because it is ‘nationalist’. The Soviet commits were more than happy to side with them until they fell out, but not over ideology.
Ohhhh yes. Let’s not forget the persecution of homosexuals, who were put in concentration camp and made to wear a pink triangle. What I’ve heard from rightists here regarding homosexuals sounds familiar to what Nazi’s said about them. Fascism and rightism hand in glove, should scare the bejesus of thinking people everywhere if they were to face up to the truth.
Annie wrote: ” Let’s not forget the persecution of homosexuals…”
Yeah, and one of the first things Hitler did was legalize abortion and start a campaign to promote abortion in Poland. There were more than half a million abortions performed every year in Germany. Does that make him automatically leftist? I don’t think so. Your logic is flawed.
Pogo, you demand power to be given to the states, this is one difference. But you know full well that because of gerrymandering there are states that are completely in Republican hands. We have seen the kind of crazy totalitarian
Iike legislation that has come out of the Republcans states regarding voting, women’s issues, and reproductive health, sex education, right to work and destroying unions, and the subject matter of this very blogpost, manipulation of history to teach American exceptionalism (purity) while censoring the truth.
Pogo, their platform sounds like things I’ve been hearing you say for months now. You don’t recognize this? Amazing and scary.
This why conservatives should not be allowed to get near history books or classrooms. They are so ideologically driven they are willing to put aside the truth to rewrite history to fit their narrative. Again one of the first things the Nazi’s did was break up the unions and imprison thousands of socialists. There can be no denying that. Nazi’s hated socialists, their ideology was opposite of socialism. Nazi’s manipulated German history to fit their narrative, nazi’s burned books and prohibited certain literature, music, theater and films to keep Germans “pure”. The purity drive on the right should scare every thinking American. The Nazi’s took children and indoctrinated them into the “Aryan” race. Pogo wants to make children “love” their country by keeping the truth from them. Does he want to teach blind patriotism above the truth? He doesn’t realize they don’t need to be lied to, even as children. They will love their country for the many good things their country has done and forgive it for the bad, even as children. German children in Germany are taught their awful history. They still love their country.
Annie wrote: “Again one of the first things the Nazi’s did was break up the unions and imprison thousands of socialists.”
The Nazi Party also elevated socialists to positions of power. Why do you ignore this history? You cherry pick whatever facts seem to support your ideology, and then you ignore ALL evidence to the contrary. How is that suppose to represent a balanced education in history? On the contrary, you are the revisionist of history, and the sad thing is that you don’t even realize it.
The socialists that they imprisoned were Marxist socialists. Marx taught that socialism was an intermediate step toward communism. In contrast, the Nazi’s, who were elected to power through the democratic process of voting, believed that a strong central government forcing socialism upon everybody was the way that socialism would be established. They hated the concept that socialists needed to wait for capitalists to produce wealth, then wait for the proletariat to rise up in revolution against government. Furthermore, Karl Marx was ancestrally a Jew. Hitler, the leader of the Nazi’s, had many reasons to hate Marxist philosophy. Nevertheless, at his core, his economic policy was pure socialism, which is a leftist ideology.
Annie wrote: “Nazi’s manipulated German history to fit their narrative, nazi’s burned books and prohibited certain literature, music, theater and films to keep Germans “pure”.”
Sounds just like the liberal left today. They use the courts to force out certain literature from the classroom, they prohibit creationist interpretations of empirical data in science, they prohibit certain public displays that they deem too religious, they struggle to keep their liberal ideology pure in the classroom, they fight to establish a secular government, etc. They refuse to accept book donations at universities that would present the truth about homosexuality in the schools and universities. They refuse to allow books that expose feminism as something that demeans the female role in society. Even you want to ban history books that do not tell your version of history.
Inga (Annie)
Don’t be caught like some educated Jews pre WW2, who lived in Germany for generations, considered themselves German and thought it could never happen to them in such advanced and intelligent society such as they thought Germany’s was.
The Socialist party you are referring to is the Democratic Socialist Party and it is a Center Left Party and was moderate. It was destroyed by Hitler’s National Socialist Party which was a misnomer of a name obviously.
Hitler was a pig and a fascist and he felt the Aryan race was something to build upon for 1000 years. Chubby Blue Eyed Blond Children even though it was rumored that his Father was Jewish.
I am sure there are many here that will come to his aid as he turned the economy around in Europe using Crony Capitalism that the US was involved in as Pogo pointed out. Why when we landed on Normandy, imagine the surprise of the troops to find engines of trucks powered by Ford and General Motors (Oh My as Pogo would say)
Come on guys – lets drop the hypocrisy. No wonder we have problems around the world and people “hate us for our freedoms”
George W. Bush not being very bright but kind of a nice guy was probably very confused by all of this no?
This circles back to why conservatives object to the standard lefty tropes in teaching history to young people via the Common Core and AP History.
Their translation of US and world history is entirely ideologically driven, and very often provably false.