Lessons about world wars and US history should be banned because of “systemic racism,” says the Minnesota Department of Education

01/28/2021 / By Zoey Sky

It looks like the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) wants to rewrite history or erase it from the public school curriculum.

On Jan. 11, the MDE presented new standards that would banish crucial lessons about World War I, World War II and the Holocaust.

“Systemic racism” and “awareness”

Shockingly, the MDE also proposed the erasure of vital historical moments like the Civil War, the American Revolution, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

Instead of studying these important figures and moments in American and world history, students will be taught about other topics such as:

Gender equality
Developing a “respectful awareness” of the LGBTQ+ community.
How freedom and democracy included or excluded certain groups throughout U.S. history.
The Reconstruction period, particularly efforts to disenfranchise newly freed Black Americans and “connecting this history to persistent discrimination and inequity in the present.”
Systemic racism in America allegedly rooted in the country’s founding.
An analysis of the ideology of Manifest Destiny and its relationship to whiteness, Christianity, and capitalism.
Minnesota’s juvenile justice system and its evaluation on the impact on black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) communities.

Under Minnesota law, the state’s Department of Education establishes standards for K-12 public schools for several categories.

According to an entry from John Hinderaker at the Powerline blog, a committee revises the benchmarks for each category every 10 years. For 2021, the Social Studies standard is being revised.

However, the committee spearheading the revision, including Gov. Tim Walz, is “hard left.” Hinderaker expressed his shock at the first draft, which also received thousands of comments from concerned citizens.

Unfortunately, these comments have been dismissed without careful consideration.

Catrin Wigfall, a policy fellow at the Center of the American Experiment, reviewed the proposed draft. She explained that at least 5,000 comments were submitted to the standards review committee by parents and citizens through the campaign’s website.

Along with the letters was a letter expressing concern about eliminating significant events in U.S. history and civic features.

Wigfall noted that instead of considering the comments and the issues detailed in the letter, Doug Paulson, the Director of Academic Standards, casually dismissed the concerns of Minnesotans. Paulson even said these issues raised in the letter used “white supremacy language.”

But Wigfall clarified that nothing quoted or referenced in the letter came off as “white supremacy language” to her. Even committee member Danyika Leonard asked if the committee should just go ahead and completely dismiss the valid concerns brought up in the comments from 5,000 Minnesotans.

Focusing on the minority and ignoring the majority

Per the MDE’s new standards, students will be taught how to describe alleged tactics used by the American government to claim indigenous and Mexican land.

Hinderaker considers this unusual because there are “an extraordinary number of benchmarks devoted to the history of Native Americans” even though they only make up one to two percent of the state’s population. The blogger was concerned because under the Walz administration, students will be kept in the dark about the country’s true history.

If these standards are enforced, young children may even grow up hating the country for imagined slights on the minority. (Related: BAN HISTORY! Illinois lawmaker wants to stop schools from teaching history because the subject is now “racist.”)

Over 5,000 commenters used the Raise Our Standards MN website to send a letter to the committee, most of which objected to the “anti-American features of the draft standards.” Despite making up 80 percent of the comments that the committee received, the sentiments of thousands of concerned citizens have been ignored.

The second draft of the proposal will be available for public review and feedback from mid-February to mid-March.

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