February 13, 2024
A major problem in America is that so many of us do not have a correct understanding of the origins of our country, and the ideals put forth in the founding documents.
The political left is working very hard to transform the country from what it is and was to something that suits the left’s ideals, the primary one of which is perpetual control of the government and the people residing here.
That concept is 180 degrees from what our Founders created. Their idea was a limited government with the maximum degree of personal freedom: a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
The concept of government of, by and for the people was part of a speech by then-president Abraham Lincoln several decades after the Constitution was ratified in the Gettysburg Address in 1863 as the nation fought the Civil War.
Lincoln’s now-well-known phrase is an apt description of the way our government was perceived and designed, and has operated for over 200 years..
In every nation, regardless of its ruling ideology, there are some who have different ideas about how things should be. In many of those nations, you can die or be severely punished for expressing ideas contrary to the ruling philosophy. But not in America, where we have the Bill of Rights as part of our Constitution that guarantees us the right to free speech, among other valuable freedoms.
Today, we see free speech and other guaranteed rights being restricted by some. We see efforts to challenge our history and aspects of that history under attack, both in plain sight and under the table.
Education is one of those places where un-American ideas are being pushed on our children at every level of schooling. These efforts are being strongly denied by the indoctrinators, who blame critics of their efforts by those with conservative, traditional views of America as exaggerations or lies.
“American history must be taught fully, fairly and honestly or else we have a limited understanding of the past, with no way to explain the present, and no hope of building a better future.”
That truth was written by Michael R. Burgess, in The Island Packet on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Burgess is and has been for many years a history teacher, and now teaches in Lexington County, SC. He was selected as the state’s 2023 History Teacher of the Year by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and is recognized by the S.C. Department of Education.
Of what is currently happening, he wrote, “We are at a crossroads in South Carolina with how American history is to be taught in our classrooms. We are trapped between those who want to whitewash and sanitize our state and national story to omit those truths we find uncomfortable and those who want to erase any part of our past that does not meet our 21st century social and cultural norms.”
He described a false perception that “the dedication to learn, embrace and understand American history is lost among our youth.” It is the education system that is to blame for the failure to present true history to children, not a lack of interest.
“We do not devote enough time to teaching it at the elementary, middle or high school levels. Our standards do not require a thorough teaching of key figures and events in American history. We are losing our best U.S. History teachers as a consequence of large class sizes, long hours, low pay, and bureaucratic overreach. And, U.S. History teachers are the focus of a war being waged against them by groups who wish to whitewash or erase our history.”
“Many U.S. History teachers believe it is safer to create neutral, vanilla, plain -rice-cake learning experiences which fall short of needed instruction, but avoid the onslaught of those who tear teachers down.
If we want American history to be told and taught fully, fairly and honestly, and if we want our children to be prepared to lead this nation forward, we must make significant changes to the way we approach teaching American history.”
Burgess goes on to say that those teachers presenting U.S. History in the proper way need the strong support of the public, and not attacking the devoted and honest ones with “innuendo and false accusations for the wrong-doings of a few rogue actors.”
The problems he sees in his state are not restricted to South Carolina. This same mentality exists in many states, perhaps every state in the country. There is an active faction determined to subvert the strong traditional education that has been the rule for many decades.
Burgess closes with a quote from George Orwell: “The most effective way to destroy a people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”
And the actions cited by Orwell can be easily seen in education in many, many classrooms, schools, and districts across the country. If they are not reversed and our education system returned to its previous structure of honesty and integrity of mission, our nation will continue its slide toward the misery of socialism.
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