The Leaders You Deserve...

A professor of mine once said, "In a democracy, you get the leaders you deserve." It is a common enough phrase and its consequences can be disastrous. This time the disaster is to education.

In Florida, Jeb Bush signed into law the Florida Education Omnibus Bill (H.B. 7087e3). One purpose of this law is to require that the State's public schools teach American History as being "factual" and not "constructed." American History shall be "knowable, teachable, and testable, and shall be defined as the creation of a new nation based largely on the universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence." This bill presents many controversies.

First, how will the new History teach the principles of the Declaration: Will this be used to introduce into history rights secured by a creator (and introduce religion into history, even though it calls for a secular education?) Will these principles discuss the absence of women, children, and blacks from civil and political life and focus only on property holders (which would be historically accurate? What is the fate of native Americans?
Press reports indicate that Native Americans have been removed from history.

Second, how will "History" express every action to provide a comprehensive view of history. An LA Times article writes:

"That's why Cornell's Carl Becker chose the title "Everyman His Own Historian" for his 1931 address to the American Historical Assn., probably the most famous short piece of writing in our profession. In it, Becker explained why "Everyman" — that is, the average layperson — inevitably interpreted the facts of his or her own life, remembering certain elements and forgetting (or distorting) others.

"For instance, try to recount everything you did yesterday. Not just a few things, like going to work or eating dinner or reading the newspaper, but everything. You can't. Even if you kept a diary and recorded what you did each minute, you would inevitably omit some detail: a sound in your ear, a twitch in your nose, a passing glance of your eyes. A 24-hour video camera might pick up these physical actions, but it could never record your thoughts.

"So when somebody asks what you did yesterday, you select a certain few facts about your day and spin a story around them.

"As do professional historians. They may draw on a wider array of facts and theories but, just like "Everyman," they choose certain data points and omit others, as well they must."

Third, how will the new history treat competing views of the United States? It is interesting to note that the Bill also declares that history shall stress: "The nature and importance of free enterprise to the United States economy." This, of course, is a construciton of history, one that views the importance of ALexander Hamilton's vision of the country over the agrarian community of Thomas Jefferson. If, for example, you favor Hamilton's view over Jefferson's, and the Federalist view over the anti-Federalist, can you teach Jefferson and the anti-Federalists? Furthermore, this view of free-enterprise seems to contradict the nature of free enterprise (or show the irony of free enterprise). In free enterprise, quality emerges through quantity: through he competition of products, or ideas, the best products or ideas emerge. However, this rigs the system from the beginning. There is to be little competition, just these views.


Finally, how is history connected to character development? There is a section of the bill on "character development." The bill proclaims:
The character-development curriculum shall stress the qualities of patriotism;, respon- sibility;, citizenship;, kindness;, respect for authority, life, liberty, and per-
sonal property;, honesty; charity;, self-control;, racial, ethnic, and religious
tolerance;, and cooperation."

It is interesting that before liberty comes respect for authority. This is the exact lesson of the American Revolution, right?

The New-Republicans have moved from small government and individual liberty to bog-government that limits individual liberty, especially in social issues associated with the culture wars: flag burning, abortion, same-sex marriage, education, and religion in schools. (This does not man the Democrats are competent; it just means that the Republican Revolution produced certain ironies in social policies that contradict the principles of conservatism.) While Republicans loathe the emergence of “the State,” they do a lot to create the powers of “the State.”

The Bill itself can be found here:
http://election.dos.state.fl.us/laws/06laws/ch_2006-074.pdf

For more info, read:
http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/26016.html (The History News Network).
http://hnn.us/articles/28095.html

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0717-22.htm (Common Dreams Newsletter).