One country, two histories: What does it mean to be an American?
| BUFFALO, N.Y.; and JACKSONVILLE, FLA.
How should schools teach children what it means to be an American?
During the past two years, that question has flowed through cultural battles over what鈥檚 taught in classrooms 鈥� particularly relating to history and race.听
It popped up when President Donald Trump called for more 鈥減atriotic education鈥� and when some educators embraced using the 1619 Project in schools to reframe the traditional U.S. origin story. Also part of the mix: steps taken听by of states aimed at limiting instruction related to the concept of critical race theory.听
Why We Wrote This
How do you create a sense of shared community when a country鈥檚 founding stories are no longer agreed on? Part 2 in a series.
Most schoolchildren already recite the Pledge of Allegiance and learn patriotic songs. But beyond traditional pageantry, many educators are rethinking which topics and voices they should emphasize, trying to reconcile the country鈥檚 multicultural roots听and its founding principles. The long-standing narrative of U.S. history textbooks, that the country鈥檚 overall arc tilts toward progress, is itself under challenge.听
鈥淲e鈥檝e come to this inflection point in our disagreements about what America is and what it means,鈥� says Jonathan Zimmerman, an education historian at the University of Pennsylvania.听
鈥淲e鈥檝e always fought about the history curriculum, but I think in prior eras, the fight was really about who should be included in the story; it wasn鈥檛 about what should the story be. And that鈥檚 the fight now,鈥� says Professor Zimmerman.
A majority of Americans are in favor of teaching 鈥渢he full history of America 鈥� including the terrible things that have happened related to race and racism,鈥� according to a听September 2021听听based on a survey of registered U.S. voters.听They are more divided on听the extent to which听racism is a current problem and whether schools should focus more on teaching about it. Beyond that, most also agree that school should teach young people to love their country.
But which version of it? Two approaches to American history that have captured public 鈥� and critical 鈥� attention recently are best known by their dates.听听reframes听U.S. history, focusing on slavery and its ongoing legacy. It听听first in The New York Times, created by journalist听Nikole Hannah-Jones, and went on to win a 2020 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. The , commissioned by Mr. Trump and released in January 2021, and the separate 听鈥� produced by Hillsdale College in Michigan 鈥� champion a traditional view of America鈥檚 founding.听
Visits this spring to classrooms where both approaches are being used offer insights into the differences in what鈥檚 highlighted in each 鈥� but also show the similarities: extensive discussion, reading and analyzing texts, and expectations for students to contribute to society. Educators at the schools talk about the need to create informed citizens, ready to participate in the work of democracy.
A focus on perspective
As of yet,听there鈥檚 no national data on how many of the country鈥檚 roughly听99,000 K-12 public schools use the 1619 Project or the Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum.听The Pulitzer Center in Washington 听for the 1619 Project, available for public download. This school year, individuals from 40 education organizations participated in a 1619 Project network cohort, and a similar number of organizations are expected to participate next school year.
鈥淭his project asks students to really consider what is the history of the United States and whose perspective has been presented to you before,鈥� says Fareed Mostoufi, associate director of education at the Pulitzer Center, a nonprofit that supports journalism focused on underreported issues.听鈥淲e want students, these are our future leaders, making informed decisions and being curious.鈥澨�
The goal of using the 1619 Project 鈥� included in the district鈥檚听 鈥� is to empower students of color to know their greatness, says Fatima Morrell, the associate superintendent for culturally and linguistically responsive initiatives at Buffalo Public Schools in New York. It鈥檚 also to train students to be informed and critical thinkers who are prepared to live in a democratic society.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an American ideal to fight for justice for all. Our country was founded on those ideas,鈥� says Dr. Morrell, in a phone interview听a month before听the May 14 grocery store attack in her city, when a gunman killed 10 Black people.听The Emancipation Curriculum,听introduced in the 2020-2021 academic year, helps 鈥減revent the Derek Chauvins and George Zimmermans鈥� of the world, she says, referring to the former police officer who murdered George Floyd and the man who killed Florida teen听Trayvon Martin.
Use of the 1619 Project content in the district engages students in a variety of ways. During the school year, an 11th grade U.S. history class at Lewis J. Bennett School of Innovative Technology #363 read and discussed听Ms. Hannah-Jones鈥� opening 1619 Project essay on democracy, in which she grapples with her view of the American flag.听
Large white flip-chart papers still hung on the wall in early May with prompts from the unit and student responses. One question reads, 鈥淲hat does 1619 mean to you?鈥� Student comments include, 鈥淎frican Americans being enslaved and bringing our country to success鈥� and 鈥渕y history.鈥�
Teacher Genah Lasby sees value in looking at all aspects of U.S. history.听鈥淚n order to unify, we have to see the problems and issues that have occurred throughout time,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e all make mistakes, including the United States. And that鈥檚 OK, because we can learn from it, we can change, and we can make it better.鈥澨�
Several miles away,听Deborah Bertlesman starts her ninth grade English language arts class at Frederick Law Olmsted #156 by asking students to write about and discuss a quote from one of the essays in the project.听
鈥淪lavery gave America a fear of black people and a taste for violent punishment. Both still define our criminal-justice system,鈥� the quote reads, part of lawyer Bryan Stevenson鈥檚 essay. 听
Students听also write down information they see in the essay听that confirms or challenges the story of American history they鈥檝e already learned. During discussion, some students say they wonder whether the U.S. justice system is backsliding, after they read about some of Mr. Stevenson鈥檚 clients听picking cotton at a Louisiana prison on the grounds of a former plantation.
Class discussion emphasizes actions students can take and their future impact on society 鈥� ideas reflected in posters on the walls with messages like 鈥淭ell your story鈥� and 鈥淵ou are powerful.鈥澨齌he school building serves almost 900 students in grades five through 12, of which 68% are听. Median household income in the city is just under $40,000.听
Chase Wood wants to become a civil rights lawyer. One of her research projects for the class this year was on how Black people interact with the criminal justice system.听鈥淚 want to be that one peaceful person who goes to fight for people and civil rights,鈥� says Chase.听
Ms. Bertlesman ends by asking the class to respond to the prompt, 鈥淲hat is one thing you can do to continue to advocate for justice and change the world for the better?鈥�
She views the 1619 Project as an opportunity to bring up perspectives that weren鈥檛 included in schools before,听rather than an attack on American values,听as some critics have charged.听She considers systemic racism to be a truth that students and teachers should have 鈥渃omplex鈥� discussions about, rather than ignore.
鈥淕ood citizens criticize. Good citizens question. That鈥檚 democratic 鈥� that鈥檚 democracy if I鈥檝e ever heard of it,鈥� says Ms. Bertlesman, who has not read the 1776 curriculum.
鈥淚t鈥檚 about giving them the evidence鈥�
The Hillsdale 1776 Curriculum is also available for public download. Hillsdale College runs a听听of K-12 classical education schools, which currently includes 57 member and affiliate schools with a mixture of public charter and private schools. The free 1776 resources, including primary documents and lesson plans,听are culled from the history curriculum that Hillsdale has offered its schools for more than a decade.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not about pushing a particular agenda. It鈥檚 not about making sure students have access to a specific narrative,鈥� says Kathleen O鈥橳oole, assistant provost for K-12 Education at Hillsdale College. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about giving them the evidence so they can go about learning what happened in American history, and then once they understand what鈥檚 happened, and have read the associated documents, then they can make a judgment for themselves about what it means and whether it鈥檚 good or bad.鈥�
鈥淲e鈥檙e not afraid of asking hard questions,鈥� she adds.听
Oscar Ortiz听is an immigrant from Honduras who is starting听Heritage Classical Academy, a Hillsdale public charter school in Houston that expects to open in 2023. He says the history curriculum will help students understand how the ideas of America 鈥� like equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, and the rule of law 鈥� developed and why they are important.
Students 鈥渁re going to learn what it means to be [American], what are the ideas or principles that set us apart from the world, and they will never feel that they have to give up their heritage or cultures as they do that,鈥� says Mr. Ortiz.
In Florida, students in Hillsdale schools spend half of each school year on American history, from kindergarten on. In April, 11th graders in a U.S. history class at St. Johns Classical Academy, a public charter school in Fleming Island, read aloud from Martin Luther King Jr.鈥檚 鈥淟etter From Birmingham Jail.鈥�
Their teacher, Carmen Burgess, poses questions for discussion including, 鈥淗ow should we determine if a law is just? Which virtue is shown in Dr. King鈥檚 letter? Which virtues were denied to Dr. King and the other protesters?鈥澨�
Ms. Burgess wears the same school uniform as her students, a navy blazer with an embroidered school seal. A poster of 鈥淚n God We Trust鈥� sits under the American flag in her classroom. The hallways are dotted with portraits of Founding Fathers and classic Western art.
The school, which opened in 2017 and awards seats by lottery, educates 800 K-12 students, with over 1,000 more听on a waiting list, according to the school headmaster. The school is built on the property of a former church in a suburb of Jacksonville where the median household income is $101,000. The student body is 77% white.听听
The class talks about Dr. King鈥檚 intended audience and what he means when he writes of the feeling of 鈥渘obodyness鈥� imposed on Black people by segregation and the different experiences of white and Black people in the 1960s.听
鈥淒oes this kind of thing happen only in America?鈥� asks Ms. Burgess at the end of class. Her students reply no, and they list other countries with contemporary strife, like Myanmar.听She points to the poster of the school鈥檚 standards of virtues and encourages students to pick out and practice one.
One of the students, Grace Holton, says she plans to be an aerospace engineer. She expects to vote when she鈥檚 18 and considers her school a place where she鈥檚 learning values that she鈥檒l draw on as she eventually participates in U.S. civic life.听
鈥淲e鈥檙e young. This is where you shape yourself for the rest of your life,鈥� Grace says of her school. 鈥淎t first when we came here, it was like, 鈥極h my gosh, they鈥檙e pushing these virtues at us again, can鈥檛 they stop, we鈥檙e good people!鈥� But it kind of sticks and then you start noticing this person was really displaying integrity or that person really needs to work on their citizenship.鈥�
Ms. Burgess has not read the 1619 Project and believes media coverage of history debates is divisive. 鈥淎nybody can use history to try and prove any point based on a perspective,鈥� she says. 鈥淸Americans] really have more that unites us than divides us. We鈥檙e not perfect and we talk about that all the time. We clearly have failed from time to time and yet we also have created ways to repair the breaches.鈥�
At another Hillsdale network school nearby, Jacksonville Classical Academy, school head David Withun works with seventh graders on a unit of Civil War history, including reading and annotating Lincoln鈥檚 Emancipation Proclamation and filling out timelines of key dates.听听
鈥淭he way that I teach ... is as the story of the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. We distill those to things like liberty, equality, republican form of government, and self-government, and the rest of the story is a commentary upon those and a battle over the meaning of them,鈥� says Dr. Withun. The school听opened in downtown Jacksonville last academic year. It serves a diverse student body, with about 58% students of color.听
Dr. Withun, who wrote a book on W.E.B. DuBois published by Oxford University Press in March, is concerned about a lack of familiarity with history that some of his students arrive with, like one student who thought King was a Civil War abolitionist.
With the school鈥檚 approach to teaching, he says, students are able to engage and respond with 鈥溾�楬ere鈥檚 why I think that Roger Taney is wrong in the Dred Scott decision ...鈥� and 鈥楬ere鈥檚 why I think Frederick Douglass is right and here鈥檚 what Frederick Douglass means to my own life.鈥� Those sorts of interactions with these really challenging texts inspire the students and help them to think critically about what it means to be an American, what it means to be a citizen, and their place in the larger story of our country.鈥�
听
鈥淐ontested American identity鈥�
Does it matter to American democracy if there are different approaches to teaching students U.S. history?听
In a senior education seminar class that he teaches, students read both the 1619 Project and the 1776 Report and analyze how differing interpretations of U.S. history are formed, says Charles Dorn, professor of education history at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.
鈥淭he [public] debate over these two bodies of knowledge brings into sharp relief something that consistently has existed over time in the U.S., which is this contested American identity,鈥� says Professor Dorn, co-author of the 2018 book 鈥淧atriotic Education in a Global Age.鈥� 鈥淚t also suggests ... a fundamental misunderstanding on the part of Americans on what history is,鈥� he says.
All history is interpretation of facts, he says. The assignment he gives students is meant to highlight this.听
With a nation as big as the U.S. and its long-standing fragmented education system, 鈥渢o some degree it鈥檚 inevitable鈥� that history won鈥檛 always be taught in the same way, says Michael Petrilli, president of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute based in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Petrilli听says commonality can be found by focusing on the state standards for history and civics instruction. He points to an听听the Fordham Institute conducted in 2021 of the history and civics standards in all 50 states, which found that the five states with the strongest standards in both areas were a mix of blue and red states.听
鈥淭hey do it in a way that鈥檚 patriotic but also critical by getting into the details,鈥� he says, 鈥渟o it鈥檚 doable and that鈥檚 what we should aim for.鈥�
The potential for common ground is more robust than partisans on either side might believe.听
鈥淲hen you look at the 1619 materials and 1776, as an educator, parent, if you haven鈥檛 completely been sucked into toxic polarization, the heart and mind must go to 鈥業sn鈥檛 there some room for both/and here?鈥欌�� says Eric Liu, executive director of the Citizenship and American Identity Program at the Aspen Institute and CEO and co-founder of Citizen University in Seattle. 鈥淭he fact is, there is more overlap and opportunity for synthesis than one might think between these two.鈥�
This story is the second in a four-part series:听
Part 2: How should schools teach children what it means to be an American?
Part 4:听How has parental participation in public schools shaped U.S. education?
