Public opinion and the teaching of history in the United States

by Bessie Louise Pierce

In the spring of 1923, the Assembly of the state of California passed a bill excluding from the schools of the state any history or other textbook “which falsifies the facts regarding the war of independence, the war of 1812, or any other war of this country, or which defames our nation’s founders, defenders, heroes or patriots, or misrepresents the ideals and causes for which they struggled and sacrificed, or misleads by stating but partial facts, or which contains propaganda that is unfavorable to this country and government, and favorable to any other government or other type of government.” The bill met defeat in the Senate.[316]

In the spring of 1923 a bill of like nature passed the Senate of New York but failed in the Lower House. By this proposal, known as the Higgins Bill, any American history was prohibited in the primary or secondary schools of the state, “which falsifies, distorts or denies the acts of oppression recited in the Declaration of Independence, or which, if a textbook dealing with the period immediately preceding the Declaration of Independence, fails to refer, ... to the principal acts of oppression as set forth in the Declaration of Independence.” It further forbade the use of any history which “belittles, ridicules, doubts or denies the services and sacrifices of American patriots,” or which “emphasizes and enlarges upon the possible human failings or shortcomings of such patriots without giving at least equal prominence to their virtues or merits.” The bill prescribed for primary schools the presentation of episodes calculated “to arouse in children a justifiable pride” in the winning of “our national independence.” It further placed under ban any textbook which “misrepresents” or “fails to mention ... the compelling causes of the respective wars waged ... against foreign interference, aggression or encroachment, or which ... fails to emphasize ... the final victory of the United States in any war it prosecuted to a successful conclusion,” or which “belittles or ridicules ... American soldiers, sailors or marines in our wars against foreign nations ... as to leave ... a contempt” for them or “an unwarranted skepticism regarding their successes under arms.”[317]

A bill of like import was introduced in the New York Senate in 1924. It included a provision for the training of teachers in the best methods of teaching American history, as well as the requirement that American history textbooks include the Declaration of Independence “in its entirety,” if dealing with the American Revolution.[318] Senator Higgins was also responsible for a resolution instructing the Commissioner of Education to investigate the history textbooks used in the schools of New York to ascertain whether any contained matter misrepresenting events of the Revolution or ridiculing the Revolutionary patriots.[319]

In January, 1924, a bill relating to the selection of American histories as textbooks and reference books in the public schools was introduced into the Assembly of New Jersey. It was designed to exclude any history which “belittles, falsifies, misrepresents, distorts, doubts or denies the events leading up to the Declaration of American Independence or any other war in which this country has been engaged, or which belittles, falsifies, misrepresents, distorts, doubts or denies the deeds and accomplishments of noted American patriots, or which questions the worthiness of their motives or casts aspersions upon their lives.”[320]

A spirited protest against the bill as introduced in the New Jersey Assembly came from the faculty of Princeton University who resolved that “such legislation is in direct contravention of the fundamental principles of freedom of speech and of the press, and calculated to impair the integrity of education in both the public and private institutions in the State of New Jersey.”[321]

The New York Times also objected to the censorship proposed in that state, declaring that it was not conceivable that “any honest man would wish to write textbooks in history for children under such statutory prescription,” and The Freeman, in an article regarding the Wisconsin law, pointed out that “historians sometimes find it a difficult matter to get at the truth in regard to the past, but for the superintendent of schools in the state of Wisconsin it is no job at all....”[322]

AMERICANIZATION OF FOREIGNERS

The desire to instil a knowledge of American institutions has led to much legislation for the education of the foreign element in our population. Some states have attempted to eliminate illiteracy by evening classes for adults, by continuation schools and like means. In all cases, the teaching of the English language has been a primary purpose, as well as training in a knowledge of American institutions. However, not all Americanization laws have definitely stated the purpose of training in citizenship, and therefore do not come properly into this discussion.

Since 1917 more than one-third of the states have enacted legislation for the purpose of developing a love for this country in the foreign born.[323] In that year, California inaugurated the policy of “home teachers” to visit the homes of pupils instructing both children and adults in matters pertaining to “school attendance, sanitation, the English language, and in the fundamental principles of the American system of government and the rights and duties of citizenship.”[324] Two years later, this enactment was followed by another law for the teaching of civic and vocational subjects in evening classes, in which instruction was provided in the “duties and responsibilities of citizenship” for those unable to speak or read the English language to the proficiency of the sixth grade.[325] In 1921, California continued her Americanization program by approving a law to provide for the establishment of classes for training in citizenship for applicants who had filed their declaration of intention to become citizens of the United States and for other persons desiring such instruction. The course of study includes the teaching of United States history, state and community civics, the “constitution of the United States with special reference to those sections in the constitution which relate directly to the duties, privileges and rights of the individuals, and such allied subjects ... as shall properly prepare such applicants to understand and assume the responsibilities of citizenship.”[326]

In 1918, New York passed a law necessitating the attendance of all non-English speaking and illiterate minors at school or at classes established by employers in shops, stores, factories, or plants in which were taught English and civics.[327] In 1921, it became a duty of the commissioner of education to see that schools for the education of these illiterate groups be established, in which should be taught “English, history, civics, and other subjects tending to promote good citizenship and increase vocational efficiency....”[328]