If they are doing their job properly, our elected leaders will be unhappy with them much of the time. Consider John F. Kennedy's famous decision to cancel his subscription to the New York Herald Tribune when he became fed up with what he considered to be their negative coverage of his administration.
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Those are just a few concepts that should be included if we ever opt for a patriotic curriculum.
An ideal curriculum would also explain to students that reading a book is a far better way to study history than reading the inscription on a statue.
And perhaps we could teach about leaders such as President Eisenhower, who steered this country through the construction of our interstate highway system and who considered infrastructure to be more than just an oft-repeated theme week.
Eisenhower's adherence to the rule of order is also worthy of study. Eisenhower was no fan of the U. S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision and in one of the most shameful decisions of his presidency, never responded to Mamie Till's letter begging him to do something about the brutal murder of her son, Emmett. Civil rights were outside of President Eisenhower's comfort zone, but when Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus defied the court order to integrate Central High School in Little Rock in 1957, Eisenhower sent the National Guard to make sure the nine African-American students could attend classes.
In other words, Eisenhower did what a president is supposed to do. He developed a fervent and deep respect for the rule of law while earning his spurs in the military. Recent history would indicate spurs can be used for other purposes.
And perhaps we could teach something of the leadership concept shown by another Republican president, Ronald Reagan, who used a hard line approach to dealing with the Soviet Union that led to a surprising friendship with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and eventually led to the collapse of the Soviet Union during the George H. W. Bush Administration.
Reagan developed a friendship, but importantly, never fell in love with Gorbachev.
So in conclusion, President Trump is absolutely right. It is a time for a patriotic education, one that reveres 1776, while understanding that the men who wrote it, great leaders that they were, were not perfect. At the same time, there is absolutely no reason why a patriotic curriculum would not include information from the 1619 Project. One does not have to totally accept what it says, but it is important to realize just how much has been done to whitewash American history.
The most important thing is to make sure that our future voters and leaders can develop a depth of knowledge so they will elect leaders who represent a shared vision of an America that realizes it has always been great and does not repeat its past mistakes in order to be "great again," an America that celebrates its diversity and does not fear and demonize those whose political viewpoints are different or those whose skin color is not the same shade.
It would be truly wonderful if Donald Trump's call for a patriotic curriculum could be something that could lead to a better educated America, one that would never elect a man like Donald Trump president again.