As we roll into July again, it is great to be able to celebrate the Fourth of July with a cookout and large family gatherings after the more subdued gatherings during the pandemic last year. With the Fourth always comes the classic accounts of the founding of our country and the values that the Declaration of Independence declared. While it is good for us to celebrate and take pride, the Fourth should also be a holiday where we remember to learn more about all of our history, the good and the bad, to know how we got to this point 245 years after that original July 4, 1776 idea.
It has become increasingly a point of contention in our country about what should be taught, especially in schools, about our country and its history. There is a debate about whether we are teaching our young people to be critical of America, that kids should be receiving “patriotic” education instead. The Fourth of July is a great occasion to look at this controversy and what it says about how we view the United States. What we each know about our history, and the context that we view it through, has a deep impact on our perceptions of current events and the policy debates about what we should be doing in our country.
To start, history is something that affects all of us, because it tells us how we got here. Based on the way it is taught, it can either teach us something, or it can reinforce beliefs we already have or want to believe. History is something that objectively happened, events occurred, people took actions that were recorded. But since there is no way to learn everything that happened, what we choose to highlight takes on such important meaning.
This is where we get into our current debate. American history has highs: the idealism of the Declaration of Independence, defeating totalitarianism in World War II, putting a man on the moon in the Space Race. It also has terrible lows: the institution of slavery and the Civil War, segregation, discrimination and violence against fellow Americans based on the color of their skin. Looking at all of these events, people can come to many different conclusions, sometimes negative, about how they view America. It often depends on how these events and trends affected them and their family history.
True, talking about the bad in our history can be discouraging or even downright shocking to hear. It can shake our faith to hear of atrocities such as the Tulsa Race Massacre, Native American boarding schools or the violent opposition Black Americans faced during the Civil Rights movement merely attempting to be treated as equal citizens. And if you haven’t read about these and many other events in our history, I would encourage you to learn more. But the bad in our history ultimately serves a strong purpose in teaching us where we have gone wrong in the past, and what we need to change moving forward.
This is where “patriotic education” falls short. If we only teach our young people the good parts of American history, we are failing to account for the wrongs that were done, the imperfections our nation has. If we teach our young people our nation can do no wrong, then we are ill-preparing them for the real world. If we think we can do no wrong, how can we ever stop and consider whether what we are doing is right, learn from mistakes and improve over time?
Being truly patriotic doesn’t mean unquestioningly believing everything about our country is great. Being a true patriot is recognizing the good and the bad and striving for our country to truly live up to the values it was founded on. Liberty and justice for all shouldn’t be just a slogan. And if we don’t teach ourselves about all of our history, we won’t be equipped with the knowledge required to truly make liberty and justice for all a reality.
Connor Kockler is a student at St. John’s University. He enjoys writing, politics and news, among other interests.
