Your Opinion: Black history based on politics, not evidence

Dear Editor:

There is an old saying, "We cannot understand things unless we look at it under their skin in their point of view."

I read the July 30, 2018, commentary from Columbia (AP) in the News Tribune, "Missouri Center aims to promote black history education." Missouri is one of more than 40 states that don't require a black history portion in K-12 curriculum, so it's not emphasized in teacher education programs or standardized tests. Black history courses are typically offered as electives in high schools.

I feel black history is too broad a subject for K-12 curriculum. The left-leaning liberals have an agenda that has nothing to do with teaching children how to think and everything to do with teaching them what to think or to think in politically correct terms by the official standards set forth by the Democratic Party definitions. A favorite tactic employed by leftists is to propagandize ideas or information to further damage a cause. Black activists like separating black history from mainstream American history to show racism as an excuse to renaming historical streets after black people or removing Confederate memorials and monuments from public parks and courthouse lawns in areas in which to question the absence of their culture and heritage, or demand university officials acknowledge the university's alleged historic discrimination against black students and work to correct such mistakes for monitary gain.

LaGarrett King, an associate professor of social studies in education, said: "What we are missing is a complete historical narrative about black people and their contributions to democracy and how institutionalized racism has persisted."

Modern America reminds me of the television show, "The Walking Dead," except the world is ravaged by an epidemic of faulty ideas and lack of historic perspective. The only way we can save the future is to change the present. Family is society's most basic unit. Entire civilizations have survived or disappeared, depending on whether family life was strong or weak. These first experiences in the home mark the beginning of education and religion. If a child sees such traits as love, honesty and fair play practiced at home, he will probably have these traits as an adult. A child's home training may fail to give him the basic intellectual, emotional and social skills needed to adapt to the future.