1776 Unites – a Black-led alliance of writers, thinkers, and activists – strongly objects to the adoption of the Department of Education’s “Proposed Priority 1: Projects that Incorporate Racially, Ethnically, Culturally. and linguistically Diverse Perspectives into Teaching and Learning.”  While well intended on the surface, this new rule would prioritize funding for curricula founded on misleading history and divisive ideology.  Prioritizing the classroom content and practices that this regulation seeks to normalize will only result in deepening contempt for our nation, its founding, and its institutions; lower standards and a diminishing sense of agency among Black students specifically; and an America plagued by the worst racial animosity in decades.  It will help undo the very progress it pretends to celebrate.

The proposed priority states that “American History and Civics Education programs can play an important role” in supporting “teaching and learning that reflects the breath and depth of our Nation’s diverse history and the vital role of diversity in ur Nation’s democracy.”  We couldn’t agree more.

Unfortunately, the examples cited as models for more inclusive history and civics education in the proposed priority actually undermine its own admirable goals.  “For example, there is growing acknowledgement of the importance of including, in the teaching and learning of our country’s history, both the consequences of slavery, and the significant contributions of Black Americans to our society.  This is certainly true – serious efforts to grapple with the legacy of slavery and to highlight the decisive contributions of Black people to American life have been underway across the country since at least the 1990,’s if not earlier.

But to say that “this acknowledgement is reflected, for example, in the New York Times’ landmark “1619 Project” and in the resources of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History,” is an appeal to contemporary intellectual fads and fashions, not serious scholarship or pedagogy.  Key arguments of the “1619 Project” have been so thoroughly refuted at this point that to see the project receive such unqualified praise in an official document is shocking.   And while the NMAAHC makes a vital contribution to preserving and disseminating knowledge of both the horrors of slavery and the heights of Black American achievement, its public messaging has also been marred by pseudo-scholarship proclaiming universal values of objectivity, literacy, and self-reliance as aspects of “whiteness”.  Ideas like that do incalculable damage to the cause of actually combating racism and instilling a sense of agency to Black American youth.    

Go to 1776unites.com to read the entire article.

((((OUT rom Regressive Fodder—Instead of Regressives, our country needs Progressives with the courage to stand up and to be sincere advocates for those who lost at the birth lottery and who are with little advantage – but not by sacrificing the mechanisms that facilitate individual  freedom, achievement, innovation, fulfillment and success. 

We need Progressives who have awareness at a holistic level – aware that intersectionality goes beyond the traditional topics of race, gender and class.   There are other concerns such as the need for wealth creation, individual freedom, the need for innovation, not to mention China.  We need Progressives who debate, respect the democratic process and who are willing to compromise.  That gives balance to a democratic republic.—OUT?)))

. . . and Find Out What is Happening at Other School Board Meetings Taking Place in Your Districts(s)

 The details provided on District is an example of the kinds f changes being made in many school districts. 

What’s happening in the neighboring Wheaton/Warrenville District 200? It is a consolidated district including 20 schools PK-12.  What is the view of the District 200 School Board regarding the 1619 Project? 

Will the Board provide residents in District 200 with a summary of the Inclusive American History Commission’s report on guidance for American History curricula changes? 

Will the Board provide residents with timely updates on any resulting PK-12 American History curricula changes used at all grade levels? 

The Community Unit School District #200 ANNUAL STATEMENT OF AFFAIRS SUMMARY FOR FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2021 /  STATEMENT OF OPERATIONS AS OF JUNE 30, 2021 gives a financial reason why District 200 residents should be able to receive this information.

Total Direct Rcpts/Revenues Educational Funds: $149,881,392

Local Sources: $125,070,770

State Sources: $14,754,270

Federal Sources:  $10,056,352

source: Treasurer Reports, Daily Herald, November 15, 2021

IF THE AUTHORITARIANS WIN, HOW CAN YOU BE SURE YOU’LL AGREE WITH WHAT THEY WILL WANT TO DO ?

In their later years the Founding Fathers were generally pessimistic regarding the prospects of the new Republic surviving much beyond their own lifetimes.  James Madison was the last of the Fathers to pass away, dying in 1836.  He also was the most optimistic.  “Madison appears to have reasoned if the Constitution and the union managed to survive 1798, 1814, and 1819 then surely they could survive …”

In the 1830’s he wrote a note which he intended to be his last political statement. “As this advice if it ever see the light will not do it until I am no more, it may be considered as issuing from the tomb, where truth alone can be respected, and the happiness of man alone consulted.  The advice nearest to my heart and deepest in my convictions is that the Union of the States be cherished & perpetuated.  Let the open enemy to it be regarded as a Pandora with her box opened; and the disguised one, as the Serpent creeping with his deadly wiles into Paradise.” 

Fears of a Setting Sun, Dennis C. Rasmussen, Princeton University Press 2021