By Paul Horton.

History teaching in the United States is at a crossroads. In many states whitewashing and censorship have replaced Black history and the history of resistance and reform movements. What passes for “Western Civilization” in Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Utah, and Idaho might be closer to “white civilization” than the current state of the art global studies pioneered by historians Ken Pomeranz, John McNeill, and Edmund Burke III (among many others) that decenters Europe and attempts to achieve a more balanced perspective on World history from 1500-present.

In red states, teachers are accused of being woke and are being trained in a whitewashed history that emphasizes the American founding and founding fathers and the accomplishments of Western philosophy, science, and the Renaissance isolated from any meaningful context as if the United States and European history were born from John Locke’s or Athena’s forehead.

The result is that students in the red states and many rural areas in blue states are being deprived of the insights gained during the last fifty years in American history and World history and Global Studies. These insights are being lost in a conservative-evangelical-Hillsdale College inspired fog that is descending on history curricula. This fog is propaganda as much as it is amnesia, straight out of Orwell, more effective in subduing the critical thought and perspectives required for a functioning Democracy than digital misinformation or Xanax or opioid painkillers.

While the curriculum is shapeshifting, history teachers with mortgages to pay and kids to feed are self- censoring as authoritarianism becomes the norm in red states and rural communities.

The key question for history teachers in red states and rural areas is: how can I create a space for critical discussion and inquiry learning without being singled out by local evangelical and “maga” Republicans who will complain to scared-to-death school administrators and hog open mikes and discussion minutes at school board meetings? will I lose my job if a Murdoch publication or television outlet focuses on me or my teaching?

My solution is to teach differing narratives and allow the students to debate and discuss those narratives. I began the year in my American history classes by teaching U.S. History from contrasting viewpoints, including a red state endorsed Hillsdale text, The Land of Hope, and a text that sees U.S. History from the native perspective as colonization and genocide, Not a Nation of Immigrants. I also included a text that centers on standard political history and another text that centers the social history of several cultural groups.

My classes read the first eighty pages of each narrative and these readings generated rich discussions about the strengths and weaknesses of each text. The unit culminated in a state school board simulation. 

The school board simulation generated discussions on the key issues surrounding contemporary political debates, students played their roles effectively, and parents and organizations aired their concerns. Reporters from key media outlets asked questions and wrote stories, and after a series of deliberations, the school board announced its adaptation decision. The key of the lesson is that the students decided that censorship in any form was unacceptable. They adapted a comprehensive text that synthesized social and political history and rule that excerpts from the native and conservative perspectives should be used to generate discussion and debate.

My thinking as a result of this exercise is that the “history wars” are obviously a red herring used by conservatives that assist in creating authoritarian enclaves in communities, regions, and states. If we give students opportunities to reflect and engage with the issues, they will decide that censorship is not the way to go.

American History State School Board Simulation

To prepare for this simulation read or view the following:

“Why are States Banning Critical Race Theory”: 

“Untangling the controversy around critical race theory”:

“Anti-Critical Race Theory Laws are Working”:

“I Helped Fact Check the 1619 Project. The Times Ignored Me.”

“How the 1619 Project underscores connection between slavery and modern America”:

“The 1619 Project: An Autopsy”:

“The Historians are still Fighting”:

“Why are the Proud Boys Showing up at School Board Meetings in America”:

Scenario

The State School Board of Illinois is holding an open meeting to discuss the possible adoption and state purchase of classroom use of four proposed textbooks for the state approved History curriculum:

Davidson et al., Experience History: Interpreting America’s Past

Dunbar-Ortiz: Not a Nation of Immigrants

McClay, Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story

Remini, A Short History of the United States

School Board Members will be making a recommendation for textbook adoption(s) two day after this public hearing.

Scheduled Speakers will speak no more than seven minutes. They are expected to respect opposing points of view with the civility customary at a state open meeting. Speakers and audience will be warned for a first disruption, but if the disruption continues, we will instruct the Illinois State Patrol to remove forewarned speakers or audience members. An additional 10 speakers will be given five minutes to speak. (A detail of ten Illinois State Patrol Officers is present because the Proud Boys who are present have a history of attempting to intimidate participants and speakers in other states and districts).

Roles

When assigned the following role you will be given class time to conduct research and to complete the attached preparation worksheet. You will use your research worksheet to write a seven-minute speech that you will give at the hearing.

Representative of the National Association of Scholars (conservative)

Representative of the American Historical Association

Representative of the American Civil Liberties Union

Representative of the Heritage Foundation (conservative)

Concerned Parent (Conservative, MAGA)

Governor Ron DeSantis (Florida)

Concerned Parent (Liberal, from Hyde Park, U of Chicago faculty with kids at Jones Prep, public)

Attorney General of Illinois (speaking in support of free speech in Illinois and representing Gov. Pritzker)

Proud Boys (multiple)

Chicago Tribune Reporter

Chicago Sun-Times Reporter

New York Times Reporter

Washington Post Reporter

Urban League members (Chicago office)

NAACP members (Chicago office)

Operation PUSH members and CPS (IFT-CTU, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Chicago Teachers Union) teachers (bus from Chicago)

Concerned Anti-CRT parents (bus from Southern Illinois)

School Board Member (CEO of Chicago multinational)

School Board Member (Special Education PhD from Carbondale)

School Board Member (Farmer from Effingham)

School Board Member (Retired School Superintendent from Rockford)

School Board Member (former state director of Illinois Federation of Teachers)

School Board Member (small business person from Charleston) 

School Board Member (Professor of Education from Champaign-Urbana)

Name___________________

Period____

School Board Simulation Worksheet

Research your role from your particular position. For example, if you are the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) representative search “ACLU CRT,” or ACLU “Book banning,” or ACLU “censorship in schools.”

Search your role by coupling your role with some of the following search terms:

1619 Project

Critical Race Theory or CRT

Censorship

American History curriculum

American History textbooks

History curriculum standards

History at school board meetings

Controversies at school board meetings

Erasing Black History

Whitewashing American History

Whitewashing History

Teaching White Shame

Teaching Black Joy

Erasing American History

Gaslighting Black History

Gaslighting History

“Don’t Say Gay” in schools

Anti-LBGT debate

Teaching American Exceptionalism

Teaching Positive American History

Teaching Western Civilization

White Identity politics

Black Nationalism

List article (plus publication information) and what your learned from article:

Article:

Summary:

Article:

Summary:

Article:

Summary:

Article:

Summary:

Using what you have learned in research your role and your reading of the four textbooks that are being considered for adoption write a five to seven-minute speech in favor of adopting one or more of the proposed textbooks for US History classes in Illinois. You must clearly explain why you support the book(s) that you support and why you don’t support the others. Use the articles from the assignment sheet, the articles you have researched for this worksheet, and your imagination to write your speech. You may give yourself a name and use the first person in your speech. Reporters present will write the lead and the first several paragraphs of a news story and list questions for possible interviews before and after the meeting.

Speech:

Paul Horton is History Instructor at University High School, The University of Chicago Laboratory School.