The most passionately debated question in civic education is how<\/p>\n
to present the overall story of American history in schools.<\/p>\n
Is it a march toward freedom and democracy, a blood-soaked tale of<\/p>\n
oppression, or something in between? I can see three ways to address<\/p>\n
this question:<\/p>\n
1. By trying to tell the truth. <\/em>Some historical statements<\/p>\n are verifiable (or falsifiable); and we should only tell students<\/p>\n the ones that aren’t false. However, the debate is not about whether<\/p>\n particular facts are true; it’s about which <\/em>facts we ought<\/p>\n to mention and emphasize. History is a "vast grab-bag" (as<\/p>\n Robert Weibe once said in my hearing); and one can choose which items<\/p>\n to pull out. As for grand assessments of the overall meaning of American<\/p>\n history—they aren’t precise enough to be either <\/em>true<\/p>\n or false, I suspect.<\/p>\n 2. By conducting a normative (moral) debate.<\/em> How to present<\/p>\n American history is hotly debated because each approach seems to cohere<\/p>\n best with a different moral\/ideological worldview. Modern conservatives<\/p>\n want to emphasize the degree to which our founding institutions have<\/p>\n served us well; some liberals want to stress the March of Progress;<\/p>\n and many modern leftists want to focus on violence, exclusion, and<\/p>\n resistance. There is nothing wrong with having this debate. However,<\/p>\n "is" never implies "ought." One could, for example,<\/p>\n take a very dark view of the American past and still believe that<\/p>\n students should love their country and its founding documents. Many<\/p>\n complex combinations of facts and values are possible. <\/p>\n More importantly, "ought" never implies "is."<\/p>\n It is intellectually dishonest to adopt a normative position and then<\/p>\n try to teach students a set of historical facts that support that<\/p>\n ideology, presented as the <\/em>history of the United States.<\/p>\n If I wanted to help students think about moral and ideological positions,<\/p>\n I wouldn’t proceed by trying to present a brief version of American<\/p>\n history to them. I would teach them explicitly about conflicting values<\/p>\n and methods of normative argument.<\/p>\n 3. By predicting the effects of each version of history on students’<\/p>\n attitudes and beliefs. <\/em>Many ideologists in this debate assume<\/p>\n that particular versions of history will have particular consequences<\/p>\n for students’ psychological development. For instance, a "triumphalist"<\/p>\n narrative will create patriots—or will alienate students, especially<\/p>\n minorities. An emphasis on exclusion and oppression will create social<\/p>\n activists—or will breed despair.<\/p>\n There is not nearly enough research on this (empirical) topic. William<\/p>\n Damon of Stanford argues that young people must develop a positive<\/p>\n view of their nation before they can care enough about it to become<\/p>\n engaged critics. This theory rings true in my own life. I was a jingoistic<\/p>\n patriot at 10, only to become a critical activist by 20. However,<\/p>\n I’m not sure that trying to impart a completely positive view of the<\/p>\n Founders would work as well with young people of color as it did with<\/p>\n me. In any case, I would love to see more research this field, using<\/p>\n as many relevant methodologies as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The most passionately debated question in civic education is how to present the overall story of American history in schools. Is it a march toward freedom and democracy, a blood-soaked tale of oppression, or something in between? I can see three ways to address this question: 1. By trying to tell the truth. Some historical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocating-civic-education"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}