Erasing our history

Another Groundhog Day has come and gone. Keeps happening.

Punxsutawney Phil, that lovable western Pennsylvania rodent, saw his shadow in Gobbler’s Knob last Thursday. Six more weeks of winter.

As a semi-snowbird, I feel for those back at home in Michigan, but honestly I’m not surprised. It’s February, after all.

It’s also Black History Month, a time to remember and celebrate our nation’s African American heritage by removing it from official college curriculums because it makes some people … uncomfortable.

Wait, what? That’s right.

Before Phil’s handler could don his top hat and tux, the College Board released an official curriculum for its new Advanced Placement course in African American Studies. But it wasn’t the same one they had announced last August that eminent scholars such as Henry Louis Gates Jr. of Harvard (and host of the PBS show Finding Your Roots) celebrated as an affirmation to American history.

Turns out an early draft of the course was leaked to The Florida Standard and National Review, both conservative publications. Then Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other right-wing conservatives got all worked up about the bad stuff our ancestors did hundreds of years ago.

You know, like slavery. Made them uncomfortable.

So instead of learning from our past mistakes, the governor and others chose to shake history like an Etch A Sketch to erase the tough stuff and pretend it never happened.

As Mrs. Brouwer, my beloved high school English teacher, used to say, “Oh, piffle.”

The new version of the College Board’s course was gutted of subject matter that had caused DeSantis and his ilk said discomfort, notably:

• Names of many Black writers and scholars, including Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Alice Walker and historian Gates of Harvard.
• Topics such as slavery and Black Lives Matter.
• And something new: “Black Conservatism,” offered as a suggested research project.

OK, then. That paper shouldn’t take long.

More than once in the past year I have heard from teachers I know and love say this: “The goal of education isn’t to make you comfortable.”

No, it’s not. I wish.

They didn’t remove Microeconomics 101 when I was in college, and let me tell you, that was super-uncomfortable. I barely passed by the skin of my consumer equilibrium. Still gives me hives thinking about it. Or Law of the Press, taught in the Socratic method to foster critical thinking and make you think like a lawyer, even though you were a journalism major.

What’s that maxim? “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Philosopher George Santayana said it in his 1905 book The Life of Reason. He also said, “A child educated only at school is an uneducated child.”

How about we focus on that one?

As a nation, we must learn from our mistakes. We should not erase them — whitewashing the bad stuff that makes us feel uncomfortable — and dismiss the truth that got us here.

And yet, they persist with this nonsense.

If you’re not familiar with the College Board, it’s a fixture in American education. A nonprofit organization, the College Board’s curriculum, courses and exams have been a way for high school students to make themselves more attractive to the most selective colleges.

Think SATs, PSATs, and so on.

According to the website, the College Board is “a mission-driven not-for-profit that connects students to success.”

I searched, but I didn’t find anything about erasing Black history.

Perhaps the College Board should go back to school.