When I was a kid, resentment radiated from my skin as I entered history class. History felt... what's the word I'm looking for? Oh yeah... pointless. History felt pointless! Nobody told me when I started reading "social studies" books in elementary school why social studies, or really history, was important. I was confused –– and honestly bored –– by the idea of memorizing collections of dates, names, and maps, all from the past. History was a subject we were taught –– albeit oftentimes inaccurately –– without any preface as to why these dates, names, and maps mattered.
But about nine or 10 years into learning history in a formal school setting, probably around the time I took AP United States history in 11th grade, I developed an appreciation for the subject. This is when I began to notice the patterns. Something that happened in Europe in the 1600s was happening again in the U.S. in the 1800s; the book was not being redundant, history was simply circling back upon itself. This repeated narrative within these books –– and the weight these historical texts hold –– in our world, country, etc., was beginning to take shape in my mind.
Now, my appreciation for history has morphed into a full-fledged urgent hunger as the critical nature of historical texts lands heavy on the metaphysical shoulders of the U.S. And even more critical at present is the need to police what these historical texts teach: They must not preach propaganda for the U.S. government; they must not create false narratives to zombify American youth into blindly supporting the actions of colonizers.
As news outlets and those engaging in social media make connections between the present situation in the United States and historical tragedies, the pressing nature of teaching our children history is becoming greater and greater. Our children need to know the history of the United States: They need to hear, read, and watch programs that teach them about the genocide our country is built on. To raise a new generation of children who do not put up with the human rights atrocities being committed by the United States, it is history teachers' (and truly, every citizen's) obligation to unveil the myths that have been taught in public and private institutions since their inception. We must rewrite history as it was meant to be told –– truthfully.
Donald Tr*mp and his administration are, and have been, forcibly detaining (incarcerating) "illegal" immigrants because, according to them, these people have committed "crimes" against U.S. border law –– which the administration upholds at all costs. For the first month+ this has been happening, at least 2,300 children have been separated from their parents, shipped all over their country without any type of identification which would enable them to ultimately be reconnected with their parents. Trump has scaled back on his measure to separate the children from their parents, but he has failed to implement a system to reunite families.
How will this event go down in history books? Will it be written in plain text that Tr*mp, our 45th President of the United States, is repeating history? Will the text equate this event with another U.S. atrocity, Japanese Internment during WWII? Will this event be referred to as ethnic cleansing? Will it be explicitly stated that Tr*mp's policies were designed to keep brown people out of the United States, and to permanently psychologically damage these people by taking their children away from them, by instilling terror in them?
How history is written matters; how it is written changes the potential of what history can do. More often than not, "fake" news does not come from the media; it comes from the text books our children read in public schools. History books are the OG "fake" news.
Digesting the truth and truly understanding what it means to say #NeverAgain is why history matters. If we tell our kids this, we will be giving them the power to disrupt historical repetition. If our children understand that historical truth is power, then perhaps they won't feel the way I did about history for as many years as I did.
We cannot keep feeding our children watered down –– or in many cases, entirely false –– versions of the truth, because by the time they mature into voting adults, they will not be able to handle the repeated tragedies of the world. This is the value in debunking historical myths, and in learning historical truths, and I wish someone had told me that in 2nd grade. Empathy will be taught through truthful history, not fluff.
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