Why is the history of America so obscured?

It was designed that way.

Bennet

The American education system has evolved a lot over the last 100 years. Our systems are locally created and controlled but affected by national and state policies. Over the decades, several movements began changing modern education and each contributed to obscuring the truth. My top five:

1. World War I turned America’s attention to their place within the world. It became important to understand why we fought with England instead of with Germany. When young men were sent off to war, Americans wanted to know why. Many coalitions were formed to create history and civics education. By 1940, 92% of incoming college freshmen had taken history in high school.
2. Jim Crow laws were adopted in most cities and towns. Schools that were integrated were shut down, bombed, or students of color were terrorized into not attending.
3. Confederacy heritage organizations had an outsized influence on the preservation of history during this time. They promoted the idea that our Founding Fathers should be idolized and used to teach morals. Stories like Lincoln’s Log Cabin and Washington and the Cherry Tree were introduced. Positions on school boards were used to introduce white supremacist ideals.
4. Woodrow Wilson and other champions of The Lost Cause narrative wrote textbooks that were adopted in many colleges such as Princeton. These books continue to influence historical discussions today even though their ideas have been repeatedly disproven.
5. No one likes looking at the ugly truth. It’s easier to ignore.

Education is an ever-improving institution where the next generation is trained through the scholarship of previous generations. In 1920, less than 1 in 5 adults completed high school. Within a generation, more than half of adults were educated outside their homes and exposed to new ideas, a significant amount of that history had been manipulated or fabricated. For seventy years, scholarship continued to progress and the lies of old are being challenged.

The wide-spread accessibility of information is creating hard conversations and unrest. Information is not the problem though. Facts do not change. The accessibility and uncomfortableness of education have changed. Learning creates discomfort and facing decades of misinformation does not feel good. Our only hope of survival? We must become vulnerable and ask questions to increase understanding.