The Falsified Truth of America's Education System

In fourth grade, I peered over an American history textbook that described the Battle of Saratoga, the turning point of the American Revolution. As I read about the battle and looked over the maps that showed troop movements, I couldn’t help but feel a strong sense of patriotism well up inside of me. The same held true in seventh grade when I read about the formation of the Constitution and the time in which our country was structured. My pride became amplified as I read about American expansionism and the Louisiana Purchase in eighth grade. The principles of liberty, freedom, and equality were ideas that I not only accepted but believed to be truly American. I believed, without question, that American society revolved around these principles -- that these principles were the foundation of everything that is identifiably American.

These beliefs were fostered by our own education system. In my early years of learning, I was exposed to what I was told was the greatness of our country -- topics such as the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the infallibility of our government due to the division of power, and America’s diplomatic prowess across the globe. All of these amalgamated into an American story -- one that I believed in, had pride in, and accepted as the truth. Unfortunately, this isn’t America’s truth and this isn’t America’s story. America’s education system is one that conceals the truth from its children, guarding them from the disappointing realties of the actuality of America.

The falsified truth that is perpetuated by America’s education system can be first found in its structure. American history is commonplace in elementary and middle school curriculums, far more than world history. In my current experience under New York’s education system, I recall being taught very little world history until high school. Most of my elementary education in social studies was devoted to introduction to American history and government. We read books about American heroes such as Paul Revere, discussed central elements of American culture such as American sports, and read the preamble to the Constitution and absorbed its glory. In my three years of middle school, we spent two years covering the 300 years of American history, but just one year was allocated towards the thousands of years of history of the billions of people over the rest of the world. In the little amount of world history that was taught to me prior to high school, almost all of it was dedicated to European history; African, South American, and Asian history is scarcely taught, giving American students a biased, misled understanding of the world's history -- one that can perhaps lead to the development of racist beliefs in some of these students.

What’s more revealing is the content that was taught to me. A primary example of this can be seen in my study of Manifest Destiny, the period of American expansionism during the 1800s. I was taught that this period was a period of American glory, a period in which America secured its seemingly divine right to exist from ocean to ocean. I was taught of the courage of American settlers who moved westward and I learned of their stories as they completed the arduous and treacherous journey. My teacher, in fact, labeled Andrew Jackson as her favorite president of all-time. I myself was amazed by America’s story, and I felt pride in hearing about how the settlers made discoveries and laid the groundwork for the expansive nation that we know today.

But in this study of expansionism, I was not enlightened to the atrocities committed by Americans as they expanded westward. While my textbook droned on in its discussion of the settlers and their stories, it spent miniscule time covering the unconstitutional maneuvers of Jackson, the egregious displacement of native people, and the global connection that Manifest Destiny has to imperialism of Africa and Asia. The lack of light shed on these topics is a reflection of the one-sided nature of America’s education system. It is not a system that makes students aware, but rather, it is a system that has conjured its own truth for our youth -- a falsified truth that is ultimately deleterious for our country.

While curriculums went in depth about the aforementioned topics, there was little depth about civil rights issues, the roots of these issues, and the current state of these issues. While I learned much about abolition, I learned less about the deep hardships of slave life. While I learned about women gaining the right to vote, I learned less about their subjugation throughout the entirety of history, the lack of political voice that was long not given to women, and the continued subservience expected of women even after suffrage. While I learned about how Native Americans helped settlers survive when they came to America, I learned less about their annihilation by the same people that they enabled to survive. While I learned about how America was compassionate in opening its door to immigrants through Ellis and Angel Island, I learned less about the hardships that immigrants face in trying to assimilate and the inequalities they face as minorities. While I learned about the liberties afforded by the Bill of Rights, I learned little about how these rights were not extended to all Americans. Indubitably, the worst example I encountered was the perpetuation of the idea that the Civil War was fought over states rights rather than slavery: a quick examination of the foundational documents of the Confederacy will hastily disprove the notion that state rights were the central qualm in the Civil War -- these documents all reference slavery at the core of the Confederacy, and the argument of state rights was over the topic of slavery. (It is necessary to point out that my seventh grade textbook failed to identify slavery as the central cause of the civil war, instead placing blame on the tariff issue, again guarding the American image.) It is obvious that our education system unambiguously glorifies America and protects its image -- it is designed to make our children believe America is great and to show them that it is great, it is advanced, and it has evolved. This is the America that exists in the classrooms of elementary and middle schools, but this is not the America that exists on the sun-baked backs of Mexican laborers, the paychecks of working women, and the impoverished neighborhoods of African Americans. Our education system has instilled an image into the minds of children that makes them love America and trust the notion that it is great and flawless, but it protects them from the struggles of minorities in America.

This raises the question that is our education system an exposure to the truth or indoctrination program to promote patriotism? Why do we teach history? Is it to foster a greater yet blinder love for our country, or is it to make the youth aware so that they can create the change to make our country great? For many of the horrific totalitarians of the past, the former reflected the purpose of education. Hitler, for example, used his schools to create a cult known as the Hitler Youth. His schools teemed with propaganda that indoctrinated Germany’s children into hypernationalism and anti-Jewish beliefs. Mao’s Red Guard in China followed in suit, serving as the indoctrinated youth that intended to promote the greatness of his country and protect the image of communism. While our education system is certainly less extreme than these examples, it cannot be overseen that guarding the truth from the youth leads to a prolongation of the status quo that exists and a worsening of existing issues. This is the danger of the falsified truth of our education system.

Ultimately, how can America’s youth challenge the status quo and instill change when we are not made aware? How can we challenge pertinent issues such as unequal pay for women, the lasting poverty that plagues African Americans, and the persecution that immigrants face when we are not taught about the state of these issues and their origins in our social studies curriculums? Knowledge creates awareness of the problems that exist, and awareness fosters a desire for change. However, if knowledge and awareness is lacking, then change will continue to be nonexistent. Unfortunately, this is the case under our current education system. Many of my peers are unaware of many of the issues that minorities face and the roots of these issues, and I myself feel that my knowledge of the history of America’s minorities is not sufficient. It is not possible for my peers or me to call for change when we don’t know what change to call for. Until our education system is realigned to tell us the truth and not shield us from it, America will remain a place in which the principles of liberty, freedom, and equality that we swear by are merely words and not a reality for all.