Guess What Folks, Schooling is Political

By Kass Minor

There is no, and there has never been, any apolitical, neutral, or objective parts of the American Education System. Since Thomas Jefferson’s Bill for the General Diffusion of Knowledge in the late 1700s, The Common Schools Movement in the early 1800’s, the enforcement of compulsory schooling in the 1900’s to now…providing an education to the general public has ALWAYS been political. School was designed to develop citizens, workers, and holders of the future to prevent tyranny; to develop a democracy that supports capitalistic ideals. This is no secret, and it is neither left-leaning nor is it conservative. Rather, it is simply political.

Unfortunately, information offered to for public consumption paints “schooling as politics” as both brand new and partisan, creating an adversarial picture for an already divisive nation. Here, I’ll offer a way forward by discussing a recent example of the “what’s happening in schools” information pipeline.

Recently, the American History Association (AHA) released a report that delves into a two-year exploration of secondary US history education. AHA’s goal was to explore the general outrage, dissent, and contestation about learning in US history classrooms post-2020 by providing reliable, accessible research to educators and the general public.

While the AHA report provides new understandings about what kids are learning in school and how curricular choices are made, major news outlets distort information. Recently, the NY Times used this same report to exacerbate the debate by publishing the article, “History Teachers Are Replacing Textbooks With the Internet” using verbiage like “left-leaning materials” and “conservative options” in the subtitle. What is the intent here? To inform the public? Or to gain consumers?

excerpt from NYT article by Dana Goldstein

Sensationalized news does not help our society make sense of what is happening in our schools, nor does it change the way schools support students, teachers, and/or principals. It leads to more confusion and outrage. For issues on education, where access to school life is largely occupied by young people with limited power, it is imperative news outlets are held accountable for clarity, accuracy, and precision in their reporting. It is the young people who are directly impacted, and they are the ones who reap both harm and benefits from the ways information is shared.

For those working to understand what is really happening in our schools, here are points for your consideration.

1. Intellectual short-cuts leave out meaningful details for student learning. Omit “left-leaning” and “conservative” when you are reading about and/or discussing curriculum. These terms are used as short-cuts by non-educators, and are often conflated with political parties, candidates, or specific think tanks. To clarify, curriculum is arranged upon a learning trajectory based on essential questions, learning standards, and grade level objectives. Ideally, accessibility and relevance based on students’ needs are also considered. What information is included and excluded is often the point of contention. It is not “left” or “right”, Democratic or Republican, it is what is there and what is not.
2. Learning standards and curricular requirements are state-sanctioned. For example, in a US history curriculum, most of the content will stem from the founding principles of the United States, e.g. The Constitution; perspectives on Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Various Amendments. And also–this idea of Justice for All. No matter which curricular camp you fall into when deciding on what should be taught in a US History class, almost all historians find these founding documents and principles essential components of US History curriculum. To what extent and on what premise students and teachers question these principles and values is often the point of contention.
3. Opinions and values are not mutually exclusive. “Moralistic cues” are used in both AHA’s report and Goldstein’s coverage. Essentially, moralistic cues refer to students considering what may be right or wrong, fair or unfair, just or unjust. In a US History curriculum, students are also required to connect their ideas to past events immersed in a collection of data. What is branded as “conservative” or “mainstream” US history assumes neutrality, objectivity, and that human interests or values are non-influential factors on knowledge construction. This notion is critiqued by a wide body of scholarship that names social, personal, and cultural factors inherently shape knowledge, even when objectivity is centered. (Banks, 1993).

U.S. History curriculum will often surface continuity and change over time, as this is the essential work of historians. More and more often, criticality, or questioning, is often conflated with “left-leaning” (as in Goldstein’s NYT article). Organizations like The Howard Zinn Project, Learning for Justice, and Rethinking Schools require students to question and co-construct knowledge in community, later, developing theories on their own. This is quite different than reading textbook narratives that often show summarized historical events with low-level questioning and prompts such as “identify” and “summarize” compared to “analyze” or “examine.” Consider: Does the current state of our world need summarizers, or inquirers?

What school is for beckons the polis to respond to more than what is easily accessible, e.g. whatever was shown in the social media scroll; or what is familiar, e.g. what we used to do in school. If we continue to align status, power, and exposure with truth, we will continue to witness more of the same. I believe schooling can be more than preparation for citizenry. It can be both instructive and energizing; purposeful and liberatory; generative and transformational. If we are to move in that direction, information-sharers must take more accountability for acknowledging what’s really happening. Our youth, the holders of our future, deserve so much more.

References

American History Association. (2024). American Lesson Plan: Teaching US history in secondary schools What are American students learning about US history? https://www.historians.org/teaching-learning/k-12-education/american-lesson-plan/what-are-american-students-learning-about-us-history/

Banks, J. A. (1993). The Canon debate, knowledge construction, and multicultural education. Educational Researcher, 22(5), 4–14. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x022005004

Goldstein, D. (24, September 19). History teachers are replacing textbooks with the internet. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/19/us/social-studies-curriculum.html