, Trump urged schools to restore “patriotic education” and blamed the recent protests on the “left-wing indoctrination” in which “many young Americans have been fed lies about America being a wicked nation plagued by racism.”
As history teachers, we have a duty to teach students to examine, analyze, evaluate and critique historical events and help them understand why they are still relevant today. Part of what makes our country truly exceptional is that so many different kinds of people contributed to its success. People of all different colors, religions and backgrounds came here from all over the world and their experiences, both positive and negative, are worthy of study.
. Many schools take field trips to concentration camps, and teachers invite survivors to speak to their classes. Nobody argues German students would be better off skipping over that portion of their country’s history, and in fact, most would agree it helps them understand today’s current events even better. As history teachers, we can’t cherry-pick from the highlight reel and call it a day. We must cover a wide range of topics, people and events as thoroughly as time will allow.