BY THE CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY HISTORY DEPARTMENT
Responding to President Donald Trump’s September 17 attack on history that is not “patriotic”, and in particular, the “1619” feature in the New York Times, the Chapman University History Department decided to go public with their reply, posting it to The Panther, the university’s student newspaper.
Under the heading, “On Trump’s ‘patriotic education’”, the department’s faculty pointed out that, “History is an old discipline that aims to produce critical thinkers. By exploring the messy, complicated and often contradictory nature of society, culture, politics, religion and thought in the past, and through asking fundamental questions about how people lived their lives and why they made the decisions they did, history teaches us to think deeply about the present.”
Thus, “Historical knowledge is produced through discussion and debate. Patriotic education is not about debate, discussion or compromise (what the Founding Fathers actually instituted as the bedrock of America’s political process). Patriotic education is about obedience, and nothing more. True patriotism comes from the freedom to openly discuss and debate the most fundamental aspects of the nation. Those that are afraid of thinking about the context in which the Founding Fathers acted don’t really care about what they thought, wrote or implemented. They are concerned with a politically convenient narrative that supports their preconceived notions of the way things should be at any given political moment.
Instead, “what historians in America do does not subtract from our heritage, but adds to it. We are not dropping any subjects, but instead adding new ones constantly, uncovering the richness of our story, discovering wonderful and overlooked people and events that were part of our heritage. And yes, in some cases we discuss the difficult and sometimes dark histories that make this nation what it is today. Is that not the greatest patriotism of all, searching for the fullest understanding of our nation?”
The full article can be found here: https://www.thepanthernewspaper.org/opinions/on-trumps-patriotic-education
I would certainly agree with the ideals expressed by the Chapman history profs. In particular, the concept that “History is an old discipline that aims to produce critical thinkers. By exploring the messy, complicated and often contradictory nature of society, culture, politics, religion and thought in the past, and through asking fundamental questions about how people lived their lives and why they made the decisions they did, history teaches us to think deeply about the present.”
i also would not want to subject students to “patriotic” history education that would minimize or eliminate the wrongs done by the Founders and succeeding generations of U.S. leaders. (That was how *I* was educated, at least in K-6.)
However, IN PRACTICE, that is NOT what the 1619 paradigm does, except IN THEORY. In PRACTICE, it is straight out propaganda that distorts the historical record and spins facts with ideology. It doesn’t just “ask fundamental questions”; it provides (partisan) answers and, in that sense, does NOT promote “critical thinking.”
BTW, I’m no Trumpian troglodyte. I happen to be a (Karl) Marxist who happens to believe in a non-Stalinist, non-Maoist, non-Catholic approach to education. To paraphrase Chairman Mao: “Let a thousand THINKERS bloom!”