This week, the American Historical Association’s director couldn’t back up accusations NBC News attributed to AHA of racism and historical inaccuracy in a K-12 American history curriculum. When attempting to do so Monday, AHA Executive Director James Grossman repeatedly mixed up the facts.
On July 20, NBC News’ Tyler Kingkade published an article slamming K-12 “curriculum that celebrates American patriotism” published by Hillsdale College, called “The 1776 Curriculum.” Hillsdale is a Christian liberal arts college known for its intellectual support of American founding ideals.
One of its free K-12 resources is the “1776 Curriculum.” It covers American history, government, and civics. Several units were released in 2021 and 2022, and the remaining units are scheduled for release this year.
“Educators and liberal-leaning parents object to Hillsdale’s curriculum, saying it inserts a right-wing worldview into K-12 schools,” the NBC article sock-puppets. “The American Historical Association has accused the 1776 Curriculum of downplaying racism, the Great Migration and the power of the Ku Klux Klan.”
The article next quotes Grossman: “What they’ve done is they’ve simply left stuff out in an attempt to shape a vision of patriotism. What they also are trying to do is replace an approach to teaching that teaches students how to think with an approach that teaches the students what to think.”
No Evidence to Back Racially Charged Claims
Yet in an email exchange Monday, Grossman could not substantiate any of these criticisms of the “1776 Curriculum.” Nor could he cite any part of the curriculum to substantiate
