As if the Dixie Chicks’ civic lessons weren’t enough, Jonathan Zimmerman, author

of Whose America? Culture Wars in the Schools, takes to the op-ed page of the

Washington Post today. The beginning of his piece is excellent, detailing the

sorry ideology of the Iraqi school system.

Unfortunately, and almost as an afterthought, Zimmerman then takes on the

American school system, contending that it promotes an “ideology.” While he

concedes that the America of our history books–”an exceptional nation in human

history, an engine of opportunity for its own diverse people and a beacon of

liberty for the world,” as he puts it–is not quite as bad as the Iraq depicted

in Hussein’s textbooks, he also suggests that “Before we ask a tyrannized people

to promote democratic education, we might try practicing a little more of it

ourselves.”

Having seen some recent school books, I find it a bit hard to believe that

children are in danger of believing our nation is a city on a hill; rather, they

are often subjected to a national history that focuses on our shortcomings, our

failures, rather than our successes. It is more than appropriate to point out

the times that we have failed to live up to our principles, but children ought

to learn that many times we have lived up to those principles, which, as far as

I know, still represent the last, best hope of earth. (They also ought to learn

those principles, but that is a somewhat different problem.)