方舟小石城。-抱怨他所谓的学校灌输，前总统唐纳德·特朗普创建了一个促进“爱国”教育并淡化美国在奴隶制中的作用的委员会。尽管他已经离开白宫，委员会已经解散，但他的事业并没有消亡。共和党各州的立法者现在正敦促采取类似的行动。

阿肯色州、爱荷华州和密西西比州的提案将禁止学校使用《纽约时报》聚焦奴隶制遗产的项目。佐治亚州的学院和大学被问到他们是在教授白人特权还是压迫。共和党州长支持反映特朗普放弃的倡议的公民教育改革。

支持最新举措的共和党人表示，他们反对K12学校和高等教育中左翼分子灌输而不是教育学生的企图。教师、民权领袖和政策制定者进行了反击，称如果各州忽视国家历史的关键部分，学生将会受到伤害。

美国历史协会执行主任詹姆斯·格罗斯曼说:“简单地说你不会使用某些材料，因为你不喜欢他们在没有专业人士参与的情况下会说的话，这是没有意义的。”。

关于公立学校教学内容的州议会之争并不是什么新鲜事。阿肯色州在1981年的一项法律上输掉了官司，该法律要求在课堂上教授神创论，近年来，保守派就如何教授进化论、气候变化和其他话题展开了斗争。但最新的努力表明，特朗普关于种族的言论在他赢得的主要是农村和白人的州继续引起共鸣。

这些提议主要针对《纽约时报》的“1619计划”，该计划将奴隶制及其后果作为美国历史的中心线索进行了研究。该项目发表于2019年，即非洲奴隶首次到达400周年。该项目还变成了一个流行的播客，并开发了供学校使用的材料。

阿肯色州立法机构正在审议的一项措施批评该项目是“对历史的种族分裂和修正主义描述，通过否认联邦建立的真正原则来威胁联邦的完整性。”

支持这项措施的共和党众议员马克·洛维里称奴隶制是“黑暗的污点”，但他表示，该项目将开国元勋的形象降到了最低，并引用了一些历史学家对其中一部分的批评。

“它不应该被当作历史来教授，”他说。

阿肯色州的共和党参议员汤姆·科顿也经常批评这个项目。

妮可·汉娜·琼斯因该项目的主要论文获得了普利策奖，她称之为新闻工作，并不是为了取代学校教授的内容。汉娜·琼斯出生并成长在爱荷华州，该州是希望禁止该项目使用的州之一，她说，很明显，该项目被用来激起政治恐惧。

“不喜欢某一特定的新闻是一回事，试图禁止它的教学是另一回事，”她说。

普利策中心与《纽约时报》合作开发了1619项目课程计划，该中心表示，已从3800多名K-12教师和近1000名计划使用这些计划的大学教育工作者那里听说了这些计划。其中，只有24人来自阿肯色州。

乔纳森·罗杰斯是爱荷华市高中的新闻教师，他说他在课堂上使用了这个项目的播客。

罗杰斯说:“学生们肯定会考虑使用不同的来源或替代的讲故事方式。“此外，当我们谈论多样性和视角时，无论是历史事件还是时事，听到黑人的声音都非常重要。”

其他措施将比针对1619项目更进一步，包括一项更广泛的法案，洛维里说，他正在修改目前呼吁禁止为一个种族群体促进社会正义的课程。在俄克拉荷马州，一项法案将允许教师因教授美国从根本上讲是种族主义者或其他被认为是分裂性的话题而被解雇。

批评者说，除了蚕食地方控制外，这些提议显示出不愿解决国家的缺点和成功。

俄克拉荷马州众议院最高民主党人、众议员艾米丽·维珍(Emily Virgin)说:“这个国家确实有一段我们必须考虑的历史，有时我们的教育系统会被掩盖。”

就职后，乔·拜登总统撤销了特朗普为应对1619计划而成立的委员会提交的报告。特朗普的1776年委员会被历史学家广泛嘲笑为政治宣传，美化了国家的缔造者，淡化了奴隶制的作用。

特朗普去年宣布该小组时表示:“美国父母不会接受我们学校的灌输，取消工作中的文化，或者在公共广场压制传统信仰、文化和价值观。”

特朗普的亲密盟友南达科他州州长克里斯蒂·诺姆(Kristi Noem)上个月提议拨款90万美元，增加该州的公民课程，以强调美国是“世界历史上最独特的国家”。密西西比州州长泰特·里维斯提议设立一个300万美元的“爱国教育基金”，以对抗他所说的修正主义历史。

里夫斯在宣布这一消息时表示:“在全国范围内，孩子们都受到极左社会主义教义的灌输，这些教义强调美国的缺点，而不是这个国家的非凡成就。”

在德克萨斯州，学术界长期以来一直与该州共和党控制的教育委员会在争议问题上发生冲突，其中包括探索摩西对开国元勋们的影响的课程，州长格雷格·艾伯特(Greg Abbott)上周告诉立法者，学生们必须学会“成为美国人意味着什么，成为得克萨斯人意味着什么”。但是艾伯特没有详细说明他可能寻求什么样的改变。

目前还不清楚这些提议会走多远，即使是在坚定的红色州。密西西比州的两个参议院委员会无视并否决了1619年的项目禁令。

在阿肯色州，共和党州长阿萨·哈钦森说，他认为这些问题通常最好在当地解决。他要求该州最高教育官员制定替代立法，允许家长在地方一级质疑教学材料。

提议的限制尤其触动了阿肯色州的神经，在1957年小石城中央高中合并后的六十多年里，那里的种族分歧依然存在。直到2018年，该州在马丁·路德·金的同一天庆祝邦联将军罗伯特·e·李的生日。

立法黑人核心小组的一名成员表示，她担心该提案对该州形象的影响。

“这将对经济产生影响，因为这个州似乎正在脱离自己的历史，”民主党参议员琳达·切斯特菲尔德说，她是一名退休的黑人历史教师。

 

 

GOP states weigh limits on how race and slavery are taught

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Complaining about what he called indoctrination in schools, former President Donald Trump created a commission that promoted “patriotic" education and played down America's role in slavery. But though he's out of the White House and the commission has disbanded, the cause hasn't died. Lawmakers in Republican states are now pressing for similar action.

Proposals in Arkansas, Iowa and Mississippi would prohibit schools from using a New York Times project that focused on slavery's legacy. Georgia colleges and universities have been quizzed about whether they're teaching about white privilege or oppression. And GOP governors are backing overhauls of civic education that mirror Trump's abandoned initiatives.

Republicans behind the latest moves say they're countering left-wing attempts in K-12 schools and higher education to indoctrinate rather than teach students. Teachers, civil rights leaders and policymakers are fighting back, saying students will suffer if states brush over crucial parts of the nation's history.

“The idea of simply saying you’re not going to use certain materials because you don’t like what they’re going to say without input from professionals makes no sense," said James Grossman, executive director of the American Historical Association.

Statehouse fights over what's taught in public schools are nothing new. Arkansas lost a court battle over a 1981 law that required the teaching of creationism in its classrooms, and in recent years conservatives have waged battles over how evolution, climate change and other topics are taught. But the latest efforts show just how much Trump's rhetoric on race continues to resonate in the mostly rural and white states he won.

The proposals primarily target The New York Times' “1619 Project," which examined slavery and its consequences as the central thread of U.S. history. The project was published in 2019, the 400th anniversary of the first arrival of African slaves. The project was also turned into a popular podcast and materials were developed for schools to use.

A measure pending in Arkansas' Legislature criticizes the project as a “racially divisive and revisionist account of history that threatens the integrity of the Union by denying the true principles on which it was founded."

Republican Rep. Mark Lowery, who sponsored the measure, called slavery a “dark stain," but said the project minimizes the Founding Fathers and cited criticism from some historians about parts of it.

“It should not be taught as history," he said.

Republican U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas has also been a frequent critic of the project.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, who won a Pulitzer Prize for the lead essay in the project, called it a work of journalism that wasn't intended to replace what's being taught in schools. Born and raised in Iowa, one of the states looking to prohibit the project's use, Hannah-Jones said it's clear the project is being used to whip up political fears.

“It’s one thing to not like a particular piece of journalism, it’s another thing to seek to prohibit its teaching," she said.

The Pulitzer Center, which partnered with the Times to develop 1619 Project lesson plans, said it’s heard from more than 3,800 K-12 teachers and nearly 1,000 college educators who planned to use them. Of those, only about two dozen were from Arkansas.

Jonathan Rogers, a journalism teacher at Iowa City High School, said he's used the project's podcast in his classes.

“(Students) definitely responded to thinking about using different sources or alternative storytelling," Rogers said. “Also, just hearing Black voices is so important when we're talking about diversity and perspectives, whether it's historical events or current events."

Other measures would go even further than targeting the 1619 Project, including a broader bill Lowery said he's reworking that currently calls for banning courses that promote social justice for one racial group. In Oklahoma, one bill would allow teachers to be fired for teaching that the U.S. is fundamentally racist, or other topics deemed divisive.

Critics say that, besides eating away at local control, the proposals show an unwillingness to address the country's shortcomings as well as its successes.

“This country does have a history that we have to reckon with and that sometimes our education system glosses over," said Rep. Emily Virgin, the top Democrat in the Oklahoma House.

After taking office, President Joe Biden revoked the report submitted by the commission Trump formed in response to the 1619 Project. Widely mocked by historians as political propaganda, Trump's 1776 Commission glorified the country's founders and played down the role of slavery.

“American parents are not going to accept indoctrination in our schools, cancel culture at work, or the repression of traditional faith, culture and values in the public square,” Trump said when he announced the panel last year.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a close ally of Trump's, last month proposed $900,000 to ramp up her state's civics curriculum to emphasize the U.S. as “the most unique nation in the history of the world.” Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves is proposing a $3 million “Patriotic Education Fund" to combat what he called revisionist history.

“Across the country, young children have suffered from indoctrination in far-left socialist teachings that emphasize America’s shortcomings over the exceptional achievements of this country,” Reeves said when he announced it.

In Texas, where academics have long clashed with the state's GOP-controlled education board on controversies that include lessons exploring the influence Moses had on the Founding Fathers, Gov. Greg Abbott last week told lawmakers that students must learn “what it means to be an American and what it means to be a Texan.” But Abbott hasn't elaborated on what changes he may seek.

It's unclear how far these proposals will go, even in solidly red states. Two Mississippi Senate committees ignored, and killed, the 1619 Project ban.

In Arkansas, Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson has said he believes such issues are usually better addressed locally. He's asked the state's top education official to work on alternative legislation that would allow parents to challenge instructional material at the local level.

The proposed limits especially strike a nerve in Arkansas, where divides over race remain more than six decades after the 1957 integration of Little Rock Central High School. Until 2018, the state commemorated Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s birthday on the same day as Martin Luther King Jr.

One member of the Legislative Black Caucus said she was worried about the proposal's effect on the state's image.

“It will have an economic impact because it will seem as if this state is running from its own history," said Democratic Sen. Linda Chesterfield, a Black retired history teacher.

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