"History should be content-centered once more. Only after students know the requisite important names, dates, and places can they have a solid base of knowledge to analyze and evaluate various issues.
If students followed this sequence, they would see just how amazing their country and culture are. When past generations took this approach, they did much better on civic tests than today’s more formally educated youth and consequently felt much more patriotic than most Americans today.
For teaching history, a better grasp of the facts would empower students to resist flimsy narratives made by anti-American hacks."
If the author really believes that teaching names, dates, and places is what creates more patriotic students who understand how amazing our country is (was), I don't agree. If he believes that it was this curriculum that led to previous generations doing better on civic tests, I don't agree with that either.
I support Sen Cotton's bill to defund schools that teach a Marxist-driven curriculum whose goal is not only reparations, but to promote ignorance, rage, and civil insurrection. Even such legislation, if passed (which won't happen), would merely tinker at the margins of the root cause of our societal collapse. But, at least Cotton's bill has a basis in reality.
What a well written and thoughtful response!