History Is Written By the Winners

Just when I think I can’t get any more exasperated at educational policy after President Bush’s No Child Left Behind program, along comes his brother.

Jeb Bush and the Florida legislature are embracing the victor’s privilege of dictating history. Last month, Jeb signed a bill stating that “American history shall be viewed as factual, not as constructed,” and this history should be “knowable, teachable and testable.”

As any true historian will tell you, however, “constructed’ history is the only kind there is. (I have a postgraduate degree in history from Oxford University, so I claim some expertise in this matter.) Yes, most people will agree that certain people existed and certain events occurred, but it is the interpretation of these events that forms the heart of what history is. Otherwise, it’s just a memorized string of events and dates—and even the “facts” of events happening on particular dates get fuzzy as we move further back in time.

By claiming that history should not be constructed, however, Jeb and his Floridian supporters are hoping no one will notice there’s naturally some interpretation going on—and it comes from Jeb & Co.’s perspective. As Robert Jensen of the University of Texas says:

Florida’s lawmakers are not only prescribing a specific view of U.S. history that must be taught (my favorite among the specific commands in the law is the one about instructing students on “the nature and importance of free enterprise to the United States economy”), but are trying to legislate out of existence any ideas to the contrary. They are not just saying that their history is the best history, but that it is beyond interpretation. In fact, the law attempts to suppress discussion of the very idea that history is interpretation.

Napolean Bonaparte, a man keenly aware of the importance of history, once said “History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon” (or, as it is sometimes quoted, “History is a set of lies agreed upon”).

Jeb would be wise to remember that. In the meantime, all the more reason for us to remember that education—real education—begins and ends at home, whether one uses public schools, private schools, or homeschooling. If you don’t know anything about a particular subject, find a friend who does. Share your own knowledge in return. Create a community of learning that goes beyond the classroom, especially when the classroom and the statehouse are so intertwined.