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The 1776 Report is nothing more than propaganda and bad history. But here's one thing I haven't seen anyone say about it yet: students are going to hate it. 1/
Most students hate history classes when history is presented as a matter-of-fact statement of unerring wisdom rather than a complicated and contested subject that we are all still trying to figure out. 2/
Students that learn to love history in college do so because it's presented differently than they've experienced before, because they are asked to rethink simplistic narratives, and because they're given the opportunity to think for themselves about the past. 3/
One of the lies at the heart of the 1776 Report is that academics and history teachers are engaged in an effort to indoctrinate our students. It's been a right-wing critique of universities for over half a century. It's wrong and intellectually lazy. 4/
No professor or teacher has the power over their students that right-wing critics assume. It's projection, because it's how they imagine they'd use the authority of the classroom if they had it. But it's a power that doesn't really exist. 5/
Nevertheless, that's exactly what the 1776 Project hopes to do. It aims to use authority to propagandize. 6/
But what it would really do is turn more students off of the study of history. Because, while I'm sure there are plenty that prefer comforting and simplistic stories, most students don't want to be told what to think; not by their teachers and definitely not by a gov't report. 7/
Now, if you'll excuse me, my semester starts tomorrow and I have to prepare to teach my students how to think critically of the past, how to make their own conclusions, and not just regurgitate what they're told. 8/
