Jeffrey Sikkenga

A growing movement to remove politics from the classroom is gaining steam. At least 42 states have passed or proposed measures to limit perspective-focused education approaches in their schools, while at least 17 have passed or introduced curriculum transparency measures intended to restrict classroom political bias. And 34 states have passed or proposed measures to bolster civics education for public school students.

Many of these efforts are well-intended; some might even be admirable. Nevertheless, most of them seek to address the symptoms of America’s education dysfunction rather than the root cause. The fundamental problem is our approach to teaching American history and civics. We are studying America through someone’s contemporary lens rather than the fundamental documents that have shaped our history.

The tense, politically polarizing debates that have rekindled this school year are indicative of this problem. Proponents of banning Critical Race Theory, for example, argue that they are eliminating political partisanship and increasing the accuracy and quality of their children’s education. However, their detractors see things differently and perceive CRT as a means of resolving generations’ worth of biased, whitewashed history. Given these warring perspectives, any effort to advance or abolish CRT is inevitably perceived by someone, somewhere, as a politically charged effort to micromanage the classroom.

States need to recognize that instead of this politically charged debate, they need to embrace an approach to education that eliminates the ability of school administrators, legislators and school boards to advance biased or whitewashed curricula in the first place.

At least 10 states are working on making this vision a reality by having schools use primary source documents as guardrails to their history and civics curriculums. These 10 states’ laws or proposals vary in their approach and specificity. That said, the best ones direct students to read and explore America’s core documents — such as the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech on their own, rather than hearing about them through a lecture or reading an opinionated textbook’s account.

By having classroom discussions flow directly from the documents and debates that have defined our history and government, our children’s understanding of the past is no longer bound to a school board member or textbook writer’s ideological worldview. Students learn to discover the truth about their country and its system of government for themselves — the whole truth, triumphs, failures and all.

While this unabashedly honest exploration of the American story will inevitably lead to students agreeing on some objective truths — such as that America’s institutions were created to be forces of good — it also lets them come to their own ideological, political and intellectual conclusions. In the process, they will become more informed and engaged citizens capable of thinking for themselves and having civil discussions with others — precisely the qualities we desperately need in our citizens today.

That’s what we should all want from American history and civics. Not to indoctrinate America’s classrooms or turn our children into political pawns — just to ensure that the truth prevails. The states should give students that opportunity by trading in perspective-focused education for a serious, thoughtful approach rooted in the primary sources themselves.

Our children, teachers and nation will all be better off.

Jeffrey Sikkenga is the executive director of the Ashbrook Center, an independent academic center. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.