Why thoughtful local parents oppose the radical, inaccurate race-based history curriculum being pushed in local public schools

County and local schools have recently rolled out extremist critical race theory-inspired history courses in local schools while ignoring or refusing to give voice to community input. As Wilfred McClay explains in City Journal, opposition to these ahistoric and divisive narratives is vital for a functioning democracy.

We neglect an essential element in the formation of citizens when we fail to supply young people with a full, accurate, and responsible account of their own country. That is what the formal study of American history should provide. Our knowledge of such things does not come to us automatically, by birth, or by cultural osmosis. The knowledge must be acquired and, once taken in, needs to be made our own, part of a shared consciousness and common memory.

And that is something we are consistently failing to do. The evidence is overwhelming and incontestable. In fact,, the most recent test administered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, sometimes called "The Nation's Report Card," shows continuing decline in (already low) history and geography scores. The explanations adduced for this abysmal performance are many, and the barriers thrown up by the surrounding culture are formidable. But the bottom line is that we must recommit ourselves to the teaching of both history and civics--and to the recognition that the two belong together. As Eliot Cohen of John Hopkins University has aptly expressed it, "Without history, there is no civic education, and without civic education there are no citizens. Without citizens, there is no free republic. The stakes, in other words, could not be higher."

Read the whole thing here.

Photo by Ted Eytan.