AP revising American History

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School’s back — and so is the liberal agenda! Across the country, parents and lawmakers are up in arms about an honors curriculum that gives new meaning to the phrase “history in the making.” The 95-page outline is so agenda-driven, educators complain, that basic U.S. facts are either distorted — or worse, omitted altogether. The College Board’s proposal is a study in liberal indoctrination — so much so that the Republican National Committee (RNC) formally opposed the idea in August. In a vote, the RNC concluded that the Advanced Placement (AP) curriculum is a “radical revisionist view” of America’s greatest moments.

If history had a milk carton, Benjamin Franklin and Martin Luther King Jr.‘s faces would both be listed as missing persons in this latest attempt to rewrite the past. And those two leaders aren’t the only things absent from the Board’s outline. “There is no mention of Hitler, the Holocaust, D-Day, or other historic battles,” complains Christy Armbruster. “And you’re not going to find Thomas Jefferson and the House of Burgesses and the cradle of democracy either,” chimed in test expert Larry Krieger.

“What you’re going to find is our nation’s founders portrayed as bigots who developed a belief in white superiority that was, in turn, derived from a strong belief in British racial and cultural superiority,” he explained. The proud tradition of religious liberty — the very thing that drove the Pilgrims to the new world — vanished from the text like the lost colony of Roanoke.

It’s a “drastic departure” from the old outline. Too drastic, experts say. With more than a half-million kids potentially exposed to the curriculum, you can’t blame people for being upset about the revisions. If there’s any hope for the future, it’s giving the next generation a grasp on the past.

Fortunately, there’s no shortage of outrage over the Left’s push to modify the curriculum to fit their narrative. Teachers and administrators from various schools banded together to send a letter to the College Board, demanding that the group table the guidelines. Now, even legislatures are getting into the act, as seven states — including Tennessee — try to delay or block the curriculum. Volunteer State Senators Dolores Gresham and Mike Bell sent the draft to their Board of Education, asking for a thorough review.

In the meantime, the College Board is frantically trying to justify the framework, insisting that there was “no political motivation” behind the exam. You could have fooled us! With the Common Core debate raging in school board meetings on both coasts, parents are on to the Left’s strategy for the classroom. In an August Gallup poll, only 15% of Americans said they wanted federal influence on the public schools. To understand why, tune in to FRC’s special newscast next Tuesday, September 9 from 8:00-9:00 p.m. (ET), “Common Core: The Government’s Classroom.” It’s time for the experts writing the lessons to learn one — on local authority.

Tony Perkins heads the Family Research Council. This article is excerpted from the Washington Update that he compiles for the FRC.

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