Earlier this week, the Oklahoma House of Representatives’ Education Committee moved forward with legislation that would cut funding to the AP U.S. History programs, citing that the new curriculum is too negative and unpatriotic.
This bill would replace the current AP U.S. History program with a curriculum designed by the committee.
I remember sitting in my own AP U.S. History class towards the end of my junior year in high school, reviewing all the material that would be on the final.
In that moment, as Mr. Beck droned on and on, I saw that over the course of our 200-some year history, the United States had acted in more negative ways than I had ever realized.
Was this a result of a liberal agenda, or just the plain hard truth of our history?
Starting with the European invasion of the New World and the slaughters of the Native Americans that stretched through to the Andrew Jackson Presidency, this country has had a massive black spot upon it.
Skip forward to World War Two, when The United States detained over 100,000 American citizens in detention camps due to the color of their skin.
In the latter the end of the 20th century President Reagan waged a secret war in Grenada, and lies about WMD’s in Iraq led to this generation’s equivalent of Vietnam in the early 2000’s.
How exactly do we teach about these events in American history without being negative? What good is a history course that glosses over the mistakes of the past, rather than teaching the future generation how to avoid the same mistakes?
I am far more afraid of a country of uneducated nationalists, taught that our past wrongdoings were a well-intentioned part of American exceptional-ism than I am afraid of teaching high school students about the mistakes in our past.
Philosopher George Santayana once said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” That quote has been replicated time after time, yet the lesson tends to be ignored.
I believe that it is unpatriotic to ignore the mistakes the United States has made as a country. True patriotism lies in recognizing the failures of the past and committing yourself to making the future of the nation better than it is today.
And I do not mean to say that the United States hasn’t had moments of triumph and true victories, but to only highlight the wins and forget the losses is an incredible travesty of true education.
Not only would cutting education funding be a regrettable move by the Oklahoma house due to the repercussions on the school teachers and students in their state, cutting funding on the basis of an unpatriotic history curriculum is irrational and dangerously nationalist.
On a larger scale, it is of the utmost importance that we protect a wholesome history curriculum that refuses to make excuses for our country’s mistakes.
The greatest hope for this country is that the future generation will learn from the continuance of our mistakes, and resolve to fix the mistakes of our forefathers.
The only thing we have to fear is blind nationalism in the place of true education, for if nationalism is allowed to take precedence, we will be condemned to repeat the past.