Hillsdale University counters controversial 1619 Project with ‘1776 Curriculum’

Share this article

It appears that there is at least one college or university which is actively countering Critical Race Theory indoctrination at the K-12 level: Hillsdale College.

President Larry Arnn said that the curriculum comes at a crucial time in America’s history. “This curriculum is a work of education,” he affirmed, “It seeks to teach the truth of American history and to cultivate in students the knowledge and virtue necessary to live good lives as citizens.”

The conservative college announced a new American history and civics curriculum for grades K-12. Calling it a ‘critical moment,” the college’s 1776 Curriculum will cover “the American Founding, the Civil War era, civics, and government.” It said it also “contains comprehensive lesson plans, homework assignments, quizzes, tests, study guides, and supplementary primary and secondary resource recommendations for teacher and student use.”

The free curriculum was developed by the college’s K-12 Education Department, its professors and also its teachers in affiliated classical schools, according to its press release. Hillsdale also said that by the end of 2021, the curriculum will have added “units on Colonial America, the Early Republic, the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, the Great Depression, the World Wars, the Cold War, and Modern America.”

The college pointed out that the curriculum was not developed by activists or “non-educator groups” like Critical Race Theory is in many public school districts. It said that this teacher-created curriculum “meets the practical needs of parents and teachers on the frontlines of K-12 education,” which emphasizes how parents and teachers are partners in education.

Contrast that perspective with the heavy-handed approach of Critical Race Theory supporters, which have rammed curriculum through teachers’ labor unions, school board meetings, and unelected education bureaucratic proposals at the local and state levels.

Dr. Kathleen O’Toole, assistant provost for K-12 education at Hillsdale College, said, “Our curriculum was created by teachers and professors—not activists, not journalists, not bureaucrats.” She added, “It comes from years of studying America, its history, and its founding principles, not some slap-dash journalistic scheme to achieve a partisan political end through students. It is a truly American education.”

Hillsdale asserts that the 1776 Curriculum “treats American history, even its most controversial aspects, in a reasonable, respectful, and unbiased way.”