There’s finally some curriculum for public school students that people might actually be able to get on board with. What those ‘America is evil’ framers at the “1619 Project” don’t understand is that the U.S. wasn’t a country until 157 years later.
Last month, Hillsdale College unveiled a K-12 curriculum appropriately titled, “The Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum” in response to the perversion of history Critical Race Theory (CRT) advocates and those at the aforementioned 1619 Project have cultivated based on the color of people’s skin.
“The Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum determines what students should learn in history and civics based on the answers to a single question: What ideas, words, and deeds have most significantly formed the world into which students were born?” the introduction to the curriculum states.
Dr. Kathleen O’Toole, assistant provost for K-12 education at Hillsdale, told Newsweek that the purpose of the curriculum was inspired “from a since admiration and respect for America's founders and the principles they expressed so beautifully in the preamble of the Declaration of Independence—the recognition that all men are created equal, that our natural rights pre-exist government, and that governments are formed to protect the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness of all citizens.”
“This curriculum seeks to tell the entire grand narrative of the American story — the promises, the perils, the tragedies, and triumphs,” O’Toole continued.
According to the “1776 Curriculum” homepage:
The Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum is a complete collection of lesson plans for teaching American history, civics, and government to K-12 students. Students who study using this curriculum learn about American history from the colonies through the Civil War at four different times during their K-12 years, each time increasing in depth. The curriculum also includes American history since the Civil War and American government and civics for both middle and high school students.
This curriculum provides teachers with guidance—not dictates—about how to plan and teach a given topic in American history or civics. This guidance includes Hillsdale College-vetted books, online courses, and other resource recommendations; lists of content topics, stories to tell, and questions to ask of students; “Keys to the Lesson” that clarify important points for teachers to keep in mind; student-ready primary sources; and sample assignments, activities, and assessments.
The Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum is the product of Hillsdale College professors and some of the very best K-12 teachers, both past and present, derived from and created for real classrooms with real students taught by real teachers.
Sounds good to me.
What these “progressives” educators don’t understand is that you don’t have to base everything on negativity. You teach children about the negative aspects of American history, explain that it happened and why it was bad. But, you should also focus on what historically made this country into what it is today, so that kids don’t grow up hating the place they live — which, ironically, is better than anywhere else on the globe to grow up.