The West’s ability to understand (1) why we are where we are, (2) why we are who we are, and (3) what is happening in the world right now and what may happen next, is atrophying from over a century of miseducation and historical illiteracy.
It’s the scandal no one even knows is happening.
What I’m about to share is both a warning and a promise.
1. Social studies—the method of history education used by teachers across the United States—is not actually history education. It’s social science, a discipline born from the Progressive Era as an attempt to address the social, political, moral, and economic issues of the day. Social studies is defined as “the study of social relationships and the functioning of society”, and it’s a blend of economics, sociology, anthropology, history, civics, and other areas. Not only is social studies *perpetually* the least-liked subject in American schools, but countless studies in the past 30 years have demonstrated it is an epic failure. (See comments for citations.)
2. Generations of Americans know little more than what was presented to them in social studies class—and multiple recent surveys show that they know even LESS each year. The lack of historical knowledge in the country is criminal, despite the fact that knowledge of the past is crucial in understanding our very democratic process, how current cultures and civilizations were formed and how they interact, identifying problems in the present which we can solve using what we know about the past—and so much more. Our cultural identity is intricately woven within our past, and we don’t even know it.
3. Colleges and universities are the main framers of historical theories: the professors in history departments across the US are the foremost formers of how students think about the past. This is EXTREMELY important because American students show up in university lecture halls knowing almost nothing about their own history, and are therefore intellectually unarmed and unable to identity biased historiography disguised as historical fact. The fact that liberal professors outnumber conservatives 12:1–and the number is much higher in history departments—and that 80% of US professors all come from only 20% of institutions (almost always liberal ones) should demonstrate why this is a problem.
4. History curriculum (including homeschool curriculum) leans heavily in the INTERPRETATION of the past rather than striving for fair, balanced, and research-based factual history. This is precisely why “curriculum” like the 1619 history curriculum is used in New York public school system, and why Christian curriculum tends to lean towards Consensus historiography. In other words, most history curriculum is trying to sell you one version of the past—usually the one you already agree with. (Much of the homeschool history curriculum out there at the time of this post is written by non-historians….something worth intense consideration.)
5. Have you heard about the Five Gatekeepers? (Probably not because I made it up.) The main gatekeepers of information (the media, the libraries, the schools, the museums, and the universities) are left-leaning. Liberals may rejoice at this fact, but with one-sided ideologies, everyone loses. Learning properly about the past means hearing ALL voices, comparing interpretations to primary sources, and learning to spot clear biases or ideological agendas when you’re utilizing the gatekeepers. It helps you identify the biases in your own ideology. That’s how we grow. That’s how we get closer to objective truth about what happened in the past.
The warning:
If American students (and their parents) don’t grow in their knowledge of the past, propaganda and historical myth will replace it—threatening our nation and democracy.
The promise:
If we teach the past chronologically (Stone Age to Modern Age), understand context (why things happened the way they did, what events were taking place at the time, etc.), work specifically on cause and effect (X happened because of W, and Y and Z are the effects), and develop the skills needed to decipher and analyze information (finding sources, identifying and challenging biases), we can correct this problem and strengthen our nation and democracy.
We need to move fast.
The Homeschool Historian 