Teaching Real ‘Patriotic History’: A Nationwide Zoom Workshop

“Nations reel and stagger on their way; they make hideous mistakes; they commit frightful wrongs; they do great and beautiful things. And shall we not best guide humanity by telling the truth about all this, so far as the truth is ascertainable?” W.E.B. DuBois, Black Reconstruction in America (1935)

June 7, 2025 is the fifth annual Zinn Education Project Teach the Truth Day of Action. There are programs being conducted all across the country. There will be a zoom workshop on “Teaching Real ‘Patriotic History’” from 10 AM until noon. You can register at this link.

These are difficult times and teachers must be prepared to take risks in defense of our ability to teach and the ability of our students to learn. The Trump administration, in its push for “patriotic history” and preparation for the July 2026 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence revived the January 2021 President’s Advisory Commission “The 1776 Report” with an Executive Order nine days after his inauguration. He claimed his goal was ending radical anti-American indoctrination in K-12 schools. In a March 27, 2025, Trump charged that there is a “concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth. This revisionist movement seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light.” Trump’s first attack was on displays at Smithsonian Museums and National Park websites.

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Alan Singer is a historian and teacher educator at Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York. His most recent books are Social Studies for Secondary Schools, 5th edition (Routledge, 2024) and Class-Conscious Coal Miners (SUNY Press, 2024). Blogs, tweets, essays, interviews, and e-blasts present his views and not those of Hofstra University.