This Class Needs to Be Taught In Our Schools NOW More Than Ever

I see the American flag being burned… I see people posting about how America “stole the land” with no regard for historical context… I see young people’s solution to all America’s problems is some form of a government monopoly… This flawed thinking has in large part been created by our education system, which has indoctrinated America’s youth to hate America. I say, Enough is enough! High schools should teach U.S. Constitution 101. This should be a mandatory class students should have to pass before graduating high school. The U.S. Constitution is only 4 pages or 4,543 words. With amendments, the U.S. Constitution is 7,591 words.

The question I'd like you to ask yourselves is how is this not already required reading?! Can you think of you any other piece of American literature that has been so relevant for so long? In high school, I spent months reading the Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mocking Bird, Romeo and Juliet, The Odyssey, which I’m not passing any judgement, but perhaps we could spend as much time on the concerns of the Founding Fathers as we did on the complaints of Holden Caulfield? And U.S. Constitution 101 could take the place of another history class because the problem with covering a large swath of history in such a short period of time is that the textbook writers have an enormous amount of power to cherrypick what people and events to cover and for how many pages.

For example, U.S. history classes today put a lot of emphasis on victimized “groups” and “movements”, but there is less emphasis on the individuals who have done the most to shape the way the world is today, i.e. history classes put more emphasis on political actors over businesspeople and innovators.

Just a few days ago, I watched John Oliver’s take on U.S. History classes where he equates the historical significance of Tulsa to the Dinosaurs. Now should Tulsa be taught in our high schools? Maybe, but John Oliver feigns shock at the idea high school students haven’t heard of the 21 black individuals who died in 1921 due to racially driven violence meanwhile most high school students can’t name a single WW1 battle from 1914 - 1918 where millions of people died due to ethnically and nationally driven violence, which the U.S. arguably did more than any other nation to stop. So if you want to paint America as particularly evil… focus on Tulsa. If you want to paint America as particularly heroic and progressive… focus on a WW1 battle.

Generally speaking, U.S. history classes today act as if humanity’s pitfalls are unique to America (mistreating conquered peoples, slavery, poverty, racism) but then U.S. history classes ignore what actually makes America unique: treated conquered peoples better than virtually every other nation on Earth, America is the 1% of the world, America is the most diverse nation in the world, oldest democracy, #1 in innovation, saved world multiple times, could conquer the world with most powerful weapon ever devised but chose to provide aid instead, American dream, only majority white country to elect a black president, etc (I’m happy to respectfully engage with you on any of these facts in the comments if you’d like).

So on Day 1 the teacher should begin the class with a simple question: “What makes us American?” And after getting some feedback, the teacher could then pull out of his pocket the U.S. Constitution, “This.” And then hand it out, “Welcome to Constitution 101!” Day 1 would be about how unique the document is in human history and how progressive it was for its time. After Day 1, students should be walking out of the classroom with a greater patriotism and reverence for our constitution...

READ: https://www.quora.com/profile/Anthony-Galli-5