As all know, Monday was the golden anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case, and in honor of that epochal decision we have seen literally scores of articles celebrating and appraising it and its legacy. (Fordham pulled together some of the best, which you can find at http://www.edexcellence.net.) Among them, Anne Applebaum wrote an article in yesterday's Washington Post that hailed Brown for proving that "the language used by America's founders - words such as 'equality' and 'freedom'" were more powerful than "the forces of deep-seated racial prejudice." Yet, Applebaum criticizes schools for not giving students more context within which to appreciate Brown's significance. It seems that Applebaum's son, whose school was planning to celebrate Brown this week, had "yet to be introduced to the concepts of 'Constitution' and 'Supreme Court'" and also hadn't learned much about the American Revolution, George Washington, or slavery. Applebaum also criticizes history textbooks and laments their "tone of cheerful, sanitized neutrality so overwhelming that it actually renders the prose ahistorical." (See A Consumer's Guide to High School History Textbooks for a more detailed critique of the most widely used history texts.) If only more educators agreed and chose to use such "teachable moments" as the Brown anniversary to deepen students' knowledge of U.S. history, rather than as yet another excuse to hold uninformed debates on America's flaws.
"Blanding-down history," by Anne Applebaum, Washington Post, May 19, 2004