I read an interesting article on my local news site. A state official a few counties over introduced a bill, which passed the Iowa House, to revamp the Social Studies curriculum. I asked someone who was studying to be a high school social studies teacher if they’d heard of this bill. The person hadn’t. The thing sailed through the Iowa House without consultation with locals as far as I could tell. Some involved in teacher preparation have noticed it but although this is part of their job and they are experts, they were not consulted. My own representative, Barb, didn’t even mention it in her newsletter. I asked her about it and she promptly sent me this link from a media / software / voter data company called Nation Builder and the House Republican Staff.

A few things to notice about this link. It isn’t from any Social Studies experts or teachers. It might be from a media company associated with Brave New Films. Brave New Films has a lot of socially aware films out there and has made films against private prisons—I share their dislike. But I have a problem with this streamlined approach to legislation.

There’s no indication that any local historians have approved or talked about this curriculum. It has no hallmarks of any legitimate historians. It also includes some economics, and I don’t see any hint that economists have been consulted. Many economists from the US have won the Nobel prize recently and the slow thinkers who made this list picked out one, who won it in the 70s. There are some other shady aspects, too. To paraphrase Todd Dorman, Republicans are making history into a political weapon.

It looks to me like your typical boring history/social studies going from one “great” man or his treatise to another. None of these women are in it. How sad that female Republicans voted for this curriculum. Why Barb, why?

It’s not a lively spill the tea People’s History of the United States. This makes sense, coming from Republicans. According to historian Johann Neem, Republicans, led by Trump, they have declared war, not only on modern historians, but on any independent source of knowledge and authority. (It’s why they hate science and have shut down legitimate government science agencies. But I digress.)

For an example of Trump’s disrespect for honest history:  he installed a sham historical marker on his Virginia golf course. It claimed that during the Civil War, a bloody battle was fought on the site and a river ran red with blood. There is no evidence for this. When called out by historians, he said it was a river crossing during the Civil War and it is very likely it ran red with blood. Least you think this is due to recent dementia, this occurred in 2015, before his election. Despite this river of Civil War blood, Trump has said we mustn’t talk about slavery and instead focus on “Success, Brightness, and the Future.” Much like the dictator in the song The Happy Dictator, which is about Turkmenistan.

Trump and conservatives like to make a big deal out of riots, some of which never occurred, and they blame the riots on liberal historical, scholarship which highlights the evils of slavery. They are particularly mad about the 1619 Project, a product of former Iowan Nicole Hannah Jones. She was inspired by her teacher Orlando Ray Dial who went to Central College. Do you think Central College has honored this alumnus, despite being asked to by other alumni? No, they haven’t.

Trump wants to spend our money on a sculpture garden with statues of famous Americans personally chosen by him. As a friend of mine once said, conservatives must have a special connection to a metal statue company because they love to erect them.

What is my personal problem with “great men” sculpture gardens and this proposed Iowa school history? It’s not only static, but it also leaves most people out and is thus uninspiring. It smacks of the Great Chain of Being with its divine recognition of special people. What would be more engaging? In my view, it would be to teach people’s history, which not only includes individuals but situations, great people but also ordinary people. If we learn “we are all living histories” we will be more responsible for our country, not simply rule followers. Yes, some of these guys are latching onto The Power of Positive Thinking. This book was written by someone from the Reformed Church in America and was influenced by his wife from Iowa. Yet, positive thinking can lack nuance and be boring. There’s a saying in fiction writing, “Only Trouble is Interesting.” Ironically, leaving out the trouble of our history makes it a lot less interesting.

Speaking of truly boring conservative education, The Center For Intellectual Freedom is a bust. Not only did it not enroll enough students this semester, it needs more money and a new marketing firm just to exist.  Yes, enrollment is less than 20% of what was anticipated. The solution is at hand. The legislature is working to make it required for graduation from the U of Iowa. I say good. It will make conservatism even less popular and probably the butt of campus jokes. Too bad we must pay for it instead of summer meals for hungry kids, but conservatives have to keep on doing what they always do—making normal people suffer. If only they could learn from our history.

Much of my information comes from here. It’s currently unavailable on Amazon.