New 'American Birthright' Social Studies Curriculum Standards Counter Left's Woke Agenda
The Civics Alliance, a coalition of organizations and individuals dedicated to improving America’s civics education, this week launched its “American Birthright” model for K-12 social studies standards.
“State standards are the single most influential documents in America’s education system. State education departments use them to provide guidance to each public K-12 school district and charter school as they create their own courses,” the Civics Alliance explains on its website.
David Randall, executive director of the Civics Alliance and coordinator of American Birthright, said in an interview featured on the site that the purpose of the standards is to “restore the best of traditional education.”
“We’re … working against critical race theory and other divisive, radical ideologies being introduced without accountability into our education system,” Randall said.
“We’re also working to restore good social studies standards that teach the history of the ideals and institutions of liberty, of America and everything that America’s drawn upon back to ancient Greece, ancient Israel,” he added.
Randall, who is with the National Association of Scholars, has a doctorate in history from Rutgers University and a master’s of fine arts in writing from Columbia University.
“There’s a simple story. America’s history is the history of liberty. You start there. It’s the truth, and it’s a wonderful truth. Then you can get to all the wonderful complications about how we achieved our liberty over the generations to get to where we are today,” he said.
The Civics Alliance says its mission is to prevent the subordination of civics education to a “political recruitment [tool].”
In other words, the group wants to see education, not indoctrination.
“We believe American students should comprehend aspects of American government such as rule of law, the Bill of Rights, elections, elected office, checks and balances, equality under the law, trial by jury, grand juries, civil rights, and military service,” the Civics Alliance’s mission statement states at the beginning of its curriculum standards document.
“American students should learn from these lessons the founding principles of the United States, the structure of our self-governing republic, and the functions of government at all levels, and how our institutions work.”
The authors of the document acknowledge the use of work by the Florida Department of Education, the Indiana Department of Education, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the National Association of Scholars.
Randall had complimentary things to say about the “1776 Unites” curriculum put together by African-American scholars and spearheaded by 1960s civil rights activist Robert Woodson.
“They do everything right about making African-American history be part of the proud history of [the] liberty of America,” Randall said.
Among the supporters of the American Birthright standards are award-winning historian Victor Davis Hanson and the Heartland Institute, according to Randall.
He encouraged parents to demand the standards be adopted by their schools.
“What’s really needed is for the American people to speak up loudly for the standards that will teach our children about our history of liberty,” Randall said.
In an online launch event for American Birthright earlier this week, Nicole Neily, president and founder of Parents Defending Education, heartily endorsed the curriculum standards.
“A citizenry that is educated, that understands where they have come from is able to better chart a path going forward,” she said. “So to enable parents to advocate for such an education for their children benefits not only those children, but it benefits our country as a whole.”
Neily exhorted parents to go to their state capitols and school board meetings and say, “This is what we want. This is the kind of education we want because what you have been doing doesn’t work.”
A version of this article originally appeared on Patriot Project.
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