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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

opinion

Forging history isn't "patriotic"

In 1905, writer George Santayana wrote “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

A little more than a century later, Oklahoma finds itself embroiled in an educational and ideological conflict centered on the same denial of which Santayana warned: citizens’ refusal to accept or acknowledge the dark periods in our ?nation’s history.

On Feb. 16, Oklahoma’s legislative committee on education voted 11-4 to pass a bill forbidding teachers from offering Advanced Placement United States History because the course was deemed unpatriotic for its unflinching portrayal of America’s tumultuous and often violent past.

“We are a wonderfully diverse state, but the Tulsa race riots, the Trail of Tears — those things happened,” said Linda Hampton, president of the Oklahoma Education Association, in Newsweek. “We can’t sanitize history.”

Oklahoma lawmakers are determined to do just that.

According to Newsweek, House Bill 1380 was first ?supported by Rep. Daniel Fisher.

A Republican, Fisher is also a member of the Black Robe Regiment, a group that seeks to deconstruct the “false wall of the separation of church and state” by integrating religion — specifically Christianity — more deeply into public schools.

His rationale for banning the teaching of AP U.S. History stemmed solely from his objection to the course’s failure to teach “American exceptionalism” to students.

But Oklahoma isn’t the only state working to eradicate history: the Georgia Senate condemned the AP U.S. History exam administered by the College Board for its “consistently negative view of American history” in a resolution earlier ?this month.

It is exactly this glorification of Americana with which I take issue, because it is ?simply inaccurate.

No aspect of America or American culture is in any way superior to other nations or cultures, and promoting such an idea is a blatant ?misrepresentation of reality.

Patriotism is not at stake in this debate; pride in one’s nation of origin is both common and commendable.

The motivations of the legislators in Oklahoma to remove an educational opportunity from their state’s classrooms is not patriotism, but deliberate disillusionment and academic neglect.

Using ignorance to promote extreme nationalism has a long and rich history, and the willful and deliberate misleading of America’s youth by editing the dark moments of our nation’s past out of their curriculum rings far too familiar of a Huxley novel for comfort.

In our culture, honesty bears a taboo — the truth makes us incredibly vulnerable by forcing us to confront aspects of reality we may find less than glamorous or ?downright difficult to stomach.

America, along with arguably every other country across the globe, has enjoyed innumerable triumphs and has committed countless crimes.

However, as Santayana and countless thinkers before him have attempted to remind us, unflinching retrospection is equitable to ?collective introspection.

As a nation and as a human race, the only way in which we may feel qualified to hope for a brighter future is to consciously correct the mistakes of the past.

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