by When Teaching the Past Becomes Too Controversial for the Present
In what historians are calling “the intellectual equivalent of sticking our fingers in our ears and humming,” school districts across America have begun retreating from teaching actual history, replacing it with a carefully sanitized version that offends no one and educates no one. The initiative, unofficially dubbed “History Lite” by exhausted teachers, ensures that students learn about America’s past without encountering anything uncomfortable, complicated, or, you know, true.
The retreat began quietly when several state legislatures passed laws banning the teaching of topics that might make students “feel bad” about their country, race, or ancestors’ choices. This effectively eliminated most of American history post-1492, as nearly everything that happened since Columbus arrived involved someone treating someone else terribly. One legislator defended the laws by saying, “If history makes you uncomfortable, maybe we’re teaching the wrong history,” apparently not understanding that discomfort is often a sign you’re learning something important.
Texas led the charge by mandating that slavery be described as “involuntary relocation” and that enslaved people be called “workers,” as if changing terminology changes the reality of human beings being treated as property. According to National Archives documentation, this represents historical revisionism so extreme it makes actual Confederates look subtle. One history teacher reported a student asking, “So these ‘relocated workers,’ could they quit anytime?” and having to explain that no, they could not, because they were slaves, which prompted a parent complaint about “inappropriate content.”
Florida followed by banning any instruction suggesting that racial discrimination had systemic causes, requiring teachers to present racism as “a series of unfortunate individual choices” rather than embedded in laws and institutions. This creative interpretation allows students to learn that Jim Crow happened without understanding how or why, creating a generation that thinks segregation just spontaneously occurred due to everyone coincidentally making the same “individual choice” to discriminate simultaneously.
The Native American experience has been particularly whitewashed, with trail of tears now described as a “government-sponsored hiking program” and the systematic destruction of indigenous cultures rebranded as “aggressive cultural exchange initiatives.” One approved textbook describes westward expansion as “manifest destiny fulfillment” without mentioning that fulfilling destiny required genociding the continent’s original inhabitants. When teachers try to provide context, parents accuse them of “anti-American bias,” which apparently means “accurately describing what happened.”
According to educational policy analysis, the retreat has created bizarre situations where students learn about historical events but not their causes, consequences, or context. They know the Civil War occurred but not why. They’ve heard of Martin Luther King Jr. but not what he was fighting against. They can identify Pearl Harbor on a map but not explain Japanese-American internment, mainly because teaching that might suggest America has made mistakes, which is apparently forbidden.
History teachers have responded with resignation, dark humor, and quiet rebellion. “I’m supposed to teach the Holocaust happened without explaining antisemitism, teach the Civil Rights Movement without mentioning racism, and teach women’s suffrage without discussing misogyny,” explained one Texas teacher who requested anonymity. “Basically, I’m teaching that things occurred but not why, how, or what they meant. It’s like teaching math without numbers.”
The sanitization has produced test answers that would be hilarious if they weren’t so depressing. Students now write that “slavery ended because everyone agreed it was mean,” that “women got the vote because men decided to share,” and that “Native Americans voluntarily gave up their land because they preferred living on reservations.” These answers receive full credit under the new guidelines because they don’t make anyone uncomfortable, just ignorant.
Parents who support the changes argue their children deserve to feel proud of American history, apparently not understanding that pride based on lies is just nationalism with extra steps. “I don’t want my kid learning America did bad things,” explained one parent at a school board meeting. “I want them to learn America is perfect and always has been.” When asked if he thought historical accuracy mattered, he responded, “Not as much as patriotism,” revealing the entire problem in one sentence.
Meanwhile, college professors report freshmen arriving with increasingly bizarre historical understandings, including beliefs that the Founding Fathers were “basically perfect,” that American expansion westward was “friendly and consensual,” and that all historical problems resolved themselves naturally without conflict. “They come in thinking America’s history is a feel-good movie where nothing bad happens and everyone lives happily after,” lamented one university historian. “Then they take my class and have existential crises.”
As the Great American History Retreat continues, the long-term consequences remain unclear, though historians predict they’ll involve a generation unable to learn from the past because they never actually learned the past. But at least they’ll feel good about their ignorance, which according to current political logic, is the most important outcome.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/the-great-american-history-retreat/
SOURCE: The Great American History Retreat (Aisha Muharrar)
