Teach Students to Believe in America

The 1619 Project is making its way into classrooms, and critical theory has captured our schools of education. It’s essential to refute the precepts and facts within these progressive theories and histories. I spend time disputing the philosophical roots of critical theory in education, and National Review has done much to contest the historical accuracy of the 1619 Project.

Even so, these debates extend beyond esoteric squabbles to practical realities. As conservatives like to say, ideas have consequences. If the ideas within these radical projects — that America is built on racism, that our constitutional order is rotten to the core — a definitive consequence will be a country that lacks any resolve on the international stage. A country that doubts its own goodness will decline.

About the Author

Daniel Buck

Daniel Buck is a research fellow and the director of the Conservative Education Reform Network at the American Enterprise Institute.

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The 1619 Project is making its way into classrooms, and critical theory has captured our schools of education. It’s essential to refute the precepts and facts within these progressive theories and histories. I spend time disputing the philosophical roots of critical theory in education, and National Review has done much to contest the historical accuracy of the 1619 Project.

Even so, these debates extend beyond esoteric squabbles to practical realities. As conservatives like to say, ideas have consequences. If the ideas within these radical projects — that America is built on racism, that our constitutional order is rotten to the core — a definitive consequence will be a country that lacks any resolve on the international stage. A country that doubts its own goodness will decline.