A growing movement to remove politics from the classroom is gaining steam. At least 42 states have passed or proposed measures to limit perspective-focused education approaches in their schools, while at least 17 have passed or introduced curriculum transparency measures intended to restrict classroom political bias. And 34 states have passed or proposed measures to bolster civics education for public school students.
Many of these efforts are well-intended; some might even be admirable. Nevertheless, most of them seek to address the symptoms of America’s education dysfunction rather than the root cause. The fundamental problem is our approach to teaching American history and civics. We are studying America through someone’s contemporary lens rather than the fundamental documents that have shaped our history.
The tense, politically polarizing debates that have rekindled this school year are indicative of this problem. Proponents of banning Critical Race Theory, for example, argue that they are eliminating political partisanship and increasing the accuracy and quality of their children’s education. However, their detractors see things differently and perceive CRT as a means of resolving generations’ worth of biased, whitewashed history. Given these warring perspectives, any effort to advance or abolish CRT is inevitably perceived by someone, somewhere, as a politically charged effort to micromanage the classroom.
States need to recognize that instead of this politically charged debate, they need to embrace an approach to education that eliminates the ability of school administrators, legislators and school boards to advance biased or whitewashed curricula in the first place.
At least 10 states are working on making this vision a reality by having schools use primary source documents as guardrails to their history and civics curriculums. These 10 states’ laws or proposals vary in their approach and specificity. That said, the best ones direct students to read and explore America’s core documents — such as the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech on their own, rather than hearing about them through a lecture or reading an opinionated textbook’s account.
By having classroom discussions flow directly from the documents and debates that have defined our history and government, our children’s understanding of the past is no longer bound to a school board member or textbook writer’s ideological worldview. Students learn to discover the truth about their country and its system of government for themselves — the whole truth, triumphs, failures and all.
While this unabashedly honest exploration of the American story will inevitably lead to students agreeing on some objective truths — such as that America’s institutions were created to be forces of good — it also lets them come to their own ideological, political and intellectual conclusions. In the process, they will become more informed and engaged citizens capable of thinking for themselves and having civil discussions with others — precisely the qualities we desperately need in our citizens today.
That’s what we should all want from American history and civics. Not to indoctrinate America’s classrooms or turn our children into political pawns — just to ensure that the truth prevails. The states should give students that opportunity by trading in perspective-focused education for a serious, thoughtful approach rooted in the primary sources themselves.
Our children, teachers and nation will all be better off.
4 thoughts on “Opinion: Tired of Bias in Classrooms? Here’s a Solution – Inside Sources”
Here’s a complementary solution
VOTE IN PERSON
VOTE THE REPUBLICAN GOLDEN TICKET (yavgop.org)
VOTE NO ON PROPOSITION 209, 211, 308 and 310.
All, except Prop 310 are a RADICAL LEFT MONEY AND/OR POWER GRAB
FACT: Arizona Prop 209 is mostly funded by California Unions!! Let’s call this the “California Trying to Stuff a Radical Left Agenda Down the Throats of Arizonians Act”.
FACT: Prop 211 is an attempt by the Radical Left to find out who is funding their opponents. “Let’s call this the “Once We Know Who Gives Constitutional Conservatives Money, We Can Destroy Them Act”.
FACT: Prop 308 effectively steals taxpayer money and uses it to buy support and future votes from illegal aliens. Let’s call this the “The Illegal Alien Goes to School and the Honest Working Guy Pays for IT” Act.
FACT: Prop 310 is a tax on fire services that are already funded by taxes. Let’s call this the “We Don’t Need No Stinking New Taxes Act”.
As a kid in the 1950’s there was a speaker-microphone box on the front top of each classroom. We received messages from the “office” and the office could “listen” to what was going on in the classroom. If that was in place today, parents could be allowed to audit a child’s class to validate reported bias or indoctrination. I suggest this is necessary and very affordable with todays technology. If federal or state law “prevents” this; it must be changed. Taxpayers pay all the costs of education and actual fact based education is what is required. Are new candidates for school boards up for this challange?
NEWS FLASH!!
It was reported recently by the Government Accountability Institute that, based on Dept of Labor databases:
1) In 2021, the National Educations Association (a large Teacher’s union lead by people that don’t know how to spell properly and travel First Class all over the world, stuffing expensive French cuisine into their filthy pieholes) spent $66 million on pushing a far-left political agenda, while spending only $32 million on its members. Clearly the people running teachers unions are not interested in serving their customers (dues-paying members). But wait, there’s more:
2) During the 2020 election, 100 PERCENT of the $59 million sent to outside groups from the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teacher went to leftist causes. The groups also consistently support some of the furthest-left politicians in the country, like Nancy “Vodka Barrel” Pelosi, “Horse Face, “Bread Line” Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth “Little Rabbit that Speaks with Forked Tongue” Warren, and failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary “I fell down and I can get back up” Clinton. They also send big bucks to Radical Left organizations like the “Color of Change PAC”, which opposed police unions, calling them “killer cop organizations”.
The teacher’s union end game is to help turn the USA into a Dictatorship so the teacher’s union can STEAL EVEN MORE MONEY and to indoctrinate and groom students, not serve good teachers, students and the taxpayer that pays for it all. To fight back against this absolutely disgusting filth:
VOTE IN PERSON ON NOV 8th.
VOTE THE REPUBLICAN GOLDEN TICKET (yavgop.org)
NEVER VOTE AGAIN FOR ANY DEMOCRAT, THEY HAD THEIR CHANCE TO SERVE AND INSTEAD THEY TRIED TO TURN THE USA INTO A DICTATORSHIP. Unforgivable disgusting filth!
VOTE NO ON PROPOSITION 209, 211, 308 and 310. All, except Prop 310 are a RADICAL LEFT MONEY AND/OR POWER GRAB
FACT: Arizona Prop 209 is mostly funded by California Unions!! Let’s call this the “California Trying to Stuff a Radical Left Agenda Down the Throats of Arizonians Act”.
FACT: Prop 211 is an attempt by the Radical Left to find out who is funding their opponents. “Let’s call this the “Once We Know Who Gives Constitutional Conservatives Money, We Can Destroy Them Act”.
FACT: Prop 308 effectively steals taxpayer money and uses it to buy support and future votes from illegal aliens. Let’s call this the “The Illegal Alien Goes to School and the Honest Working Guy Pays for IT” Act.
FACT: Prop 310 is a tax on fire services that are already funded by taxes. Let’s call this the “We Don’t Need No Stinking New Taxes Act”.
Red tsunami coming soon….
Ryan, You wrote “It was reported recently by the Government Accountability Institute that, based on Dept of Labor databases:”, lets make sure folks know what that is. The “Government Accountability Institute” is a conservative think tank that was caught paying it’s executives, while they were also working in leadership roles at Breitbart News, a very biased, clearing house for right wing politicos. Now, the GAI has every right to do research on anything it wants, but let us not think it is an independent thought type of think tank, it was created to promote right wing causes.
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