President Donald Trump (R-Texas) on Friday (Dec. 19) officially announced the 1776 Commission (1776 Commission), which will focus on promoting patriotic education and educating American children about American history and principles, against the 1619 Project proposed by the New York Times Magazine.
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The 18-member commission is chaired by Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn and vice-chaired by Carol M. Swain, a retired professor at Vanderbilt University. The committee also includes conservative activist Charlie Kirk, founder of the nonprofit Turning Point USA, and Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant. The committee’s executive director will be Matthew Spalding, vice president and director of educational programs at Hillsdale College.
The significance of the 1776 Commission’s creation
The White House issued a statement Friday saying, “Today (Dec. 18), the president is pleased to welcome to the 1776 Commission these great Americans he intends to appoint. As our nation enters the 250th anniversary of our glorious independence, many of America’s schoolchildren are tragically being taught to hate our founding, to hate our history and to hate our country.”
“This must stop. 1776 Committee will help ensure that every American child knows they live in the greatest and most privileged nation in the history of the world. That is why it is absolutely critical to teach America’s youth all the inspiring and unifying historical facts of our nation’s history. We want our children to become patriots who love their country.” The statement said.
“The 1776 Commission will share our nation’s amazing founding story, proclaim the self-evident truths of the Declaration of Independence, and explain how these founding principles have helped our people overcome great national challenges throughout our history and how these principles have guided us toward a great American future. All Americans should pay close attention to this work.” The statement said.
Politico reported that Spalding, executive director of the 1776 Commission, said in a statement, “The 1776 Commission was established to provide the president with advice on the core principles of America’s founding and how to protect those principles by promoting patriotic education. of the United States. a path to a renewed, confident national unity by reclaiming the commonality that roots us in those principles.”
Trump established the commission in an executive order issued last month to “give the rising generation a better understanding of the history and principles that led to the founding of the United States in 1776, and to work toward a more perfect union.”
One of the purposes of the 1776 Commission was to counter the New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project.
“The 1619 Project is accused of falsifying American history
“The 1619 Project was launched by the New York Times magazine in 2019. The project proposes that American history begins with the arrival of the first African slaves in the North American colonies in 1619. In the 400 years since then, it has been black Americans who have fought to achieve the founding ideals of America – freedom and equality.
But the ideas promoted by this project have been opposed by some historians. Some have argued that the 1619 Project is an attempt to falsify American history. Historians have criticized its content for numerous inaccuracies. Among the criticisms is that the American Revolution was not fought to gain independence from Britain, but to preserve slavery.
The Pulitzer Center has released a school curriculum based on the “1619 Project. Some U.S. states have decided to incorporate the program into their school curricula.
President Trump said in September that the Department of Education was looking at the use of Project 1619 in schools and warned that schools that teach the alternative narrative of American history could lose federal funding.
In a statement, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Texas) called the program a “racially divisive, revisionist depiction of history that denies the noble principles of freedom and equality on which our nation was founded.
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