Written by Recently, and recurring over at least the last decade, there has been some talk and legal action centering around the idea that democrats are indoctrinating children at a young age. Most of this talk currently swirls around teachers teaching critical race theory and talking to students about sexuality and gender. However, putting these two new subjects aside, schools have long carried on a more conservative than progressive agenda.
Every once in a while you’ll see someone remove their child from a school or blast the school on social media because of their teachings, but for the most part, people send their children to school with little time to worry about the going-ons. In the midst of this, there’s already a clear country-and-capitalism-first agenda in our school teachings that benefits those in power.
Why Some Agenda is Inevitable
It may not be the worst or most troublesome thing that that agenda exists, after all, we’re a capitalist country and every country has a way of coloring their history to put them in a better light. It’s human nature, but also, it’s because the “winners” often write history. Meaning, those who don’t win wars and aren’t respected for their economic prowess, simply don’t have their narrative heard as much as those who don’t. This doesn’t just apply to the countries who are “winning,” but the individuals as well. What that has meant for the History of the U.S., and how it’s taught in our schools is that there are rich, powerful, and connected people who are essentially doing PR work and damage control for their demographics.
Different Subjects are One Thing, Lying is Another
There’s no conspiracism in the idea that there are certain people working to put themselves into a favorable light and to have their ideals spread through the school system. Education lobbying is nothing new and comes from all sides. That’s well known and is part of the system we exist in. However, things become a little more nefarious when you start changing the facts of what we know, or at least what all the information points to. Removing things from our history or eliminating subject matter that could lead to people challenging the status quo does a disservice to us all, is pointedly unamerican, and is a clear move to support certain values and beliefs over other values and verified facts.
History textbooks are where we see this the most, but it creeps into science as well. Those with conservative agendas want certain things to be swept under the rug. Things that christian, white people have done as well as things that have been done by our government. We’ve owned slaves, we’ve slaugtered people for their beliefs, we’ve purposely created insurrection in other countries, and more. This is all documented, not teaching it to our children is to excuse it and let it go on, which you could argue is what some want.
You Can’t Learn From a Past You Don’t Know
If a republic is going to be able to stand up for itself and protect itself against government interests and a few people running the nation, as many republicans still claim to care about, then how can we do that if facts are withheld from us? How can we stop ourselves from repeating the past if we’re not educated on how it happened? Teaching it so we could learn and grow as a democratic country would be a reaffirmation of our values rather than an indictment of our past.
We need to know what was done, when, and by who, without letting special interests groups decide what we can and can’t handle. That being said, it’s probably safe to say that the interests they’re protecting aren’t nearly as historical as the facts they may be skewing. The work they’re doing is to protect the interests of those who are still rich and powerful today.
