In the Trump era, history and citizenship education classes are under close surveillance.
Several major curriculum publishers have withdrawn their products, and teachers are now avoiding previously neutral topics as basic as constitutional limits on executive power.
California, a large Democratic state, adopted a law regulating what teachers can say in class and abandoned an initiative to make an ethnic studies course compulsory in high school.
For supporters of these changes, it is about correcting some left-wing biases of the education establishment. But among freedom of expression activists, there is concern, in the context where the Trump administration sanctions comments that displease it and wants to impose its “patriotic” vision of American history in schools.
According to conservative activist Christopher Rufo, who campaigned for these changes in education, Donald Trump’s return to power has only accelerated the pendulum swing. Over the past five years, at least 20 states have passed laws governing classroom discussions about race, gender and American history.
“Even center-left Democrats are moving away from the leftist ideologies they recently supported,” he says. The reason is simple: the United States has a center-right culture and the gap between the public and these elitist ideologies has become a political liability. »
This spring, Brown University was under intense pressure from the Trump administration and it closed the social studies curriculum Choices, aimed at high schools and produced by its history department for 30 years.
Lesson plans disappear
Choices reached a million students each year and was especially popular in advanced courses and private schools: it introduced college-level concepts to high schools and was rich in primary sources, on topics ranging from the American Revolution to the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021.
PHOTOS PROVIDED BY BROWN UNIVERSITY
When some of Choices’ educational content was removed, teachers lost access to many popular lessons.
In 2023, from the start of the war in Gaza, the pro-Palestinian movement was very active at Brown University. Choices came under scrutiny from groups supporting Israel, saying a module on the Middle East fueled anti-Semitism by focusing on the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and downplaying Palestinian terrorism against Israelis.
Today, Choices’ online educational content is largely erased.
According to Brian Clark, Brown’s spokesman, the closure of Choices was “exclusively” motivated by financial considerations and not by debate over its content or pressure from the White House. He acknowledges, however, that demand had declined, in part because of “recent pressures to eliminate school curricula on race, gender, colonialism, etc.” “.
According to internal communications read by the New York TimesBrown University ruled out other publishers from acquiring Choices lesson plans, deleted the Choices archive from its website, and refused to allow staff to distribute more than $200,000 worth of already-printed lesson plans. This would have entailed “legal and financial risks,” explains Mr. Clark.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE
A page from a lesson plan formerly provided by the Anti-Defamation League, released in 2020 to mark the centennial of women’s suffrage in the United States.
High school teachers, fearful of losing these long-standing resources, posted elements of the Choices program on social media.
Another group withdrew its program: the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit that has long focused on anti-Semitism and other civil rights issues while strongly supporting Israel. Over the past two years, the ADL has removed dozens of lesson plans from its website, according to an analysis of archived content. Some focused on transgender identity, sexism against female presidential candidates, gender stereotypes in video games, police violence against black men, microaggressions, black abolitionist activist Frederick Douglass and voting rights.
Some lessons were removed and others were “temporarily removed” for review, spokesperson Todd Gutnick said.
Civic education, a course to avoid?
The iCivics organization was founded by former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to provide free, nonpartisan educational materials.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY ICIVICS
Page from a lesson on American constitutional principles in a course provided by iCivics.org
This fall, staff saw a notable drop (up to 28%) in page views for some popular lessons, including those covering the separation of powers, consent of the governed, and other constitutional principles.
iCivics says it does not yet have a complete explanation for this situation.
But according to Emma Humphries, director of the education program, many teachers she trains across the country say they fear that classroom discussions will drift into contentious topics, such as students asking why Donald Trump appears to be flouting constitutional norms.
Not to mention that many teachers work in states that have passed laws that limit what can be said in the classroom.
iCivics teaches how to explain to students how the U.S. government works without getting into slippery political territory, including using primary sources (the Constitution, Supreme Court decisions, etc.). Mme Humphries suggests teachers explain that the limits of presidential power and other topics have been debated for centuries, and that presidents from both parties have attempted to push those limits and increase their authority.
A blue state refocuses
California was once at the forefront of the so-called progressive approach to social studies. In 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law making a mandatory high school course in ethnic studies, an activist discipline focusing on the history and culture of Latino, Black, Asian and Indigenous Americans. These courses often criticize colonialism, with Israel being the main contemporary example.
But after Jewish groups launched a legal and political challenge to ethnic studies – blaming criticism of Israel for encouraging anti-Semitism – the consensus collapsed. Last spring, Mr. Newsom presented a budget that did not provide funding for these courses. According to the state Board of Education, school boards are not required to teach this course.
In some school boards still offering ethnic studies, there are now restrictions. San Francisco teachers must use a single textbook that does not address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Any additional support must obtain approval.
Ethnic studies was one of Kairi Hand’s favorite classes, a 15-year-old 9th grader.e year in San Francisco. In her class, Israel was not a central topic, she said. What stood out to her were the lessons on the Chinese Exclusion Act and the gap between the film Pocahontas of Disney and the true history of contacts between English and Aboriginal people.
She understands why this course was controversial: “There is a lot of controversy around the world. Particularly about what is taught at school. »
This article was published in the New York Times.
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