Our American Story: How Will our Children Discover the Truth?

"At the core of every moral code there is a picture of human nature, a map of the universe, and a vision of history. To human nature (of the sort concieved), in a universe (of the kind imagined), after a history (so understood), the rules of the code apply." -- Walter Lippmann

There may be few things as perplexing as the seemingly opposite versions of America's past that have formed between the political left and right in our nation. It represents as Thomas Sowell has written an abject conflict of visions. With such stark differences between the visions that have emerged from our political struggles and how completely they color the telling of our American story, how will our children discover the truth?

Nearly all American history text books in schools today weave a tale of America's past as the expression of racism, sexism, and bigotry. The tales of the Founders as self interested politicians, brutal white slave owners as the common white man, American industry as robber-baron oppressors, and American foreign policy as imperialistic. Over the past 40 years, people have told the story of this country's past dishonestly and we can no longer afford to ignore this reality. We are reaping what we have sown, for "the classroom in one generation becomes the government in the next." -- Abraham Lincoln

As a parent I teach my children the story of America in a way that is almost completely contrary to what they are being taught at school. I teach them that compared to other nations, America's past is a bright and shinning light. America was and is, the city on the hill, the foundation of hope, the beacon of liberty. It is terribly confusing as they get older, they wonder how can their teachers teach what is so terribly wrong? They begin to doubt whether they will ever know who is right and who is wrong, because one thing they sense all too keenly, they can't both be right.

Thomas Sowell proposes in his book "A Conflict of Visions", that the scientific method might be applied to measure the validity of two very different ideological visions of the world being contested in modern times. He explains how "vision" begets "theory" and theory can be tested by evidence. "What empirical verification can do is to reveal which of the competing theories currently being considered is more consistent with what is known factually." The key is for our children to be presented with all the facts. This of course is impossible if a parent relies solely on the public education (or even collegiate education) system to provide a full pucture.

How often we hear, "history is subjective," as if to dismiss the notion that one vision isn't more correct than the other. It is true that visions are subjective and by extension the teaching of history is subjected to the vision with which is is colored, but this does not leave the truth up in the air. We can judge whether one vision or the other is a more correct "theory". We must judge which is truth and which is error, for they cannot both be truth.

The social vision our children choose to accept as truth is vitally important to the future of our nation and world. "Policies based on certain visions of the world have consequences that spread throughout society and reverberate across the years, or even across generations or centuries. Visions set the agenda of both thought and action." For this reason our children must learn the History they don't teach in school at home, they must be vested with all the facts. They must come to understand the very different social visions and moral codes that have led to these two diametrically opposite views of American history. Only then can they apply the evidence to reveal which vision and moral code is more consistent, which is rooted in truth.

Join me and other parents in our study of an America that was committed to both personal freedom and public virtue, to human achievement and respect for the Almighty God. The history that admits what every Founder, pioneer, cowboy, and business man knew; that freedom alone was not enough, that without responsibility and virtue, freedom would become a soggy anarchy, an incomplete licentiousness.

Join me at “American History They Don’t Teach in School” and join the discussions about our history that they aren’t having in American education today.