In the small town of Bradner, Ohio, some months before World War II, enraged citizens gathered in the town square for a book burning. The target of their fury was an American history text, "Man and His Changing Society," used in the town's schools. It's author, Harold Rugg, a professor of social studies at Columbia University Teachers College, championed progressive education, the notion that education should be seen as an agent of social change, awakening students to the complexities of society and the forces responsible for its character. It was the end of the Great Depression, and progressive curricula explored such topics as the locus of economic and political power in society, and democratic access for people of differing financial and social circumstances.
While extolling democracy, Rugg's book identified anti-democratic abuses of economic and political power. The American Legion, the National Association of Manufacturers and the new Forbes Magazine attacked Rugg's ideas, and his books, as unpatriotic, communistic, and destructive of American ideals. Elsewhere, his books were banned from use by a large number of school boards and city councils.
Rugg was not the first to be attacked for viewing American education as a social change agent, and American history as something other than a celebration of wealth and power -- the winners. In the early 1920s, during what historians call the "Red Scare," the success of the communist revolution in Russia and the strength of socialist movements in Europe frightened many Americans. The most popular American history text of the 20th century, "An American History," by professor David Muzzey, also of Columbia University, came under similar attack, and was banned in cities across the land. Muzzey also thought education should explore social and economic evolution, and that students should know their true history, warts and all.
He described the Sons of Liberty as rabble and the Boston Massacre protesters as a mob; he extolled the work of the abolitionists. Critics called his history a "perversion, distortion and pollution." After the fury had spent itself, calm returned in both the Rugg and Muzzey cases, and teaching continued to evolve to keep pace with the developing sophistication of the broader culture.
The recent machinations of the majority of the Jefferson County, Missouri, school board are poignantly reminiscent of the fury visited on professors Rugg and Muzzey decades ago. That board has decided that the present school curriculum manifests a "liberal bias," and is dominated by "race, gender, class, ethnicity, grievance and American-bashing." The board has established a standing committee to review the curriculum to ensure that it will "promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free-market system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights" and that it doesn't "encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law. Instructional materials should present positive aspects of the United States and its heritage." The committee will review the Educational Testing Service's Advanced Placement Test in U.S. history to make sure it conforms.
The most significant reaction to the committee's actions is the mass walk-out of classes by students and teachers, a pointed exercise in civil disobedience which continued this week.
The country went through this imbroglio 20 years ago when Congress voted nearly unanimously to condemn an attempt to establish new national standards for teaching history. Again the complaint was that race, class and gender had come to dominate history, English and social sciences in the schools, and that teachers in these areas sought to develop critical thinking skills rather than memorization of the "most important facts." The dust settled eventually, as it likely will this time, also.
But it's reasonable to ask if students should not know of the evil of slavery and its present-day legacy, of the rapacity of corporate magnates who would disregard safety in the name of profit, whether in the Triangle Shirtwaist fire in 1911 or the Macondo oil blow-out in 2010, or know of the bribery scandal in the Alaska Legislature from 2004 to 2010. While students certainly need to learn the fundamentals of American democracy and its successes, they'll never know its vulnerability and when it's being trampled if they don't know the pitfalls and those who have succumbed to them.
Steve Haycox is professor emeritus of history at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com