Jonathan Zimmerman is an opinion contributor at The Hill, and he explains that President Trump’s interest is not in ending indoctrination, but in doing more– just in his preferred direction.
President Trump this week issued an order barring federal funding of “the indoctrination of children.” And in its first sentence, he declared that schools should “instill a patriotic admiration for our incredible nation.”
Got that? He said he would ban indoctrination, and then he called for more of it.
Welcome to the topsy-turvy world of Trump and education, where nothing is quite as it seems. On the one hand, Trump wants to eliminate the federal Department of Education on the grounds that schooling should be a state and local concern. At the same time, though, he is imposing new federal doctrines about what schools should teach.
Witness Trump’s ban on Critical Race Theory, which he called “an inherently racist policy.” That’s one view of it. But Trump wants to impose his view, all in the guise of fighting indoctrination.
Or consider the 1776 Project, which Trump created during his first term in office to counter the New York Times’ 1619 Project. As per its name, which refers to the year that the first enslaved Africans arrived on our shores, the 1619 Project roots American history in slavery and racism.
By contrast, the 1776 Project highlights America’s timeless virtues: freedom, liberty, opportunity, and so on. President Joe Biden revoked it when he took office, but Trump re-established it this week “to promote patriotic education.”
It’s Trump’s story. And, again, he wants to impose it on everyone else.
