Column for Feb. 11, 2010

"History is written by the victors," is a famous quote by Sir Winston Churchill. If we are not careful, they will teach history, as well. One of my hobbies is United States history. Perhaps I should have been a history major in college, but I figure that the only job for which that would prepared me for was as a history professor. I truly have no desire to be a professor in the Land of Academia.

I've had several discussions recently with those in the field of public education as well as with those who are college history professors. Quite honestly, after discussing issues with them, I am quite happy with my own learning, thank you very much.

I had already decided to write on an aspect of history this week and then I ran across an article that just coincided too well with my thought. First, I shall touch upon the article. Several national news agencies are reporting that The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction claims it is "certainly not trying to go away from American history," but is dropping world history in favor of "global studies, focusing in part on issues such as the environment". Furthermore, they want to drop the idea of teaching US history going back to the country's founding and instead "take U.S. history only from 1877 onward".

Have we allowed America hating, God hating, history re-writing liberals to corrupt our education system? Of course we have. The proposal is meant to dumb down our students towards a false religion such as environmentalism and lessen their learning from history itself. By dropping world history, students will not be taught about the great mistakes and triumphs of world civilizations. Nor will they be taught about our nation's founding. They will not learn about colonization, about our struggle for independence, and our founding documents. It is our genesis as a nation that determined where we are today.

One of my pet peeves comes around every February. Black History Month bothers me not because of the topic thereof. It bothers me because it is done out of appeasement and the idea that we can not effectively include Black history in with the rest of this nation's history. The history of Blacks in America is inextricably woven into the fabric of this great nation. Without the history of Blacks in America, America would not exist as we know it.

We should teach all of America's history, the good, the bad, and the ugly. America has our share of all three, as does the entire world. History is, after all, the story of fallen mankind living in a sin cursed world, all being short of God's perfection. To ignore any of history is to ignore the lessons that can be learned from history. To ignore our nation's founding principles is to fail to teach the precepts that are the building blocks of the rest of our history. Likewise, to ignore the contributions of the Negro in America is to ignore the lessons that can be learned from both mistakes and triumphs in America.

When it comes to American history, it should be just that, American history. Though I come from a French family, I don't want Franco-American History Month, White History Month, Hispanic History Month, or any other. When I studied (and still do study) American history, there were many discussions about slavery, freedom, war, and it could all be analyzed, picked apart, and dissected.

To pass over the context under which our nation was created and to take the history of a particular race out of that context are both equally wrong. The victors who write history in America have re-written history to teach that our Founding Fathers were rich, agnostic, racist, white guys. Perpetuating that fallacy is one reason to skip over the nation's founding. It is also one reason to have a special focus on the history of a single race. America is not made up of any one race and should never be portrayed as such, regardless of from whence such a portrayal comes.

Let's stop short changing our children and teach ALL of American history…the good, the bad, and the ugly. Let us also learn from our own history so that we do not repeat the bad and the ugly parts.