Ross: Teaching our students the truth about America’s history
Sep 21, 2020, 8:07 AM | Updated: 10:27 pm
President Donald Trump speaks to the White House conference on American History at the National Archives museum. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
During a speech at a rally in North Carolina over the weekend, the president made a promise.
“We will teach our children the truth about America, that we are the most exceptional nation on the face of the earth,” he told the assembled crowd. “And no party can lead America that will not teach our children about America.”
So, he promises to teach children to love America, but at the same time teach them the truth about America.
He intended this as a rebuke to the New York Times’ 1619 project and its focus on slavery.
But it could just as easily be a rebuke to some of the more traditional history textbooks, which ignore big chunks of American history.
For example: In 2010, Texas adopted textbook guidelines that leave out the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow laws. Those are embarrassing episodes, but again, I didn’t hear the president say that teaching love of country requires ignoring the truth.
If you did that, America would no longer be exceptional. We’d be like the old Soviet Union, which for years never mentioned Stalin’s purges or the labor camps that at one time imprisoned 50 million people.
No — the president clearly said “we will teach our children the truth about America.”
By the way – Russians now do know the truth about Stalin, and yet a poll last year found he maintains a 51% approval rating.
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