The College Board has revised its controversial framework for Advanced Placement history courses. For a summary of what the College Board claims are the changes, see the Inside Higher Education story.
For a grimmer view—and a critique of the European history revisions—see Stanley Kurtz’s essay elsewhere on the NRO site.
The American history framework issued last year came under heavy criticism for failing to say anything positive about American history. (Ronald Reagan was “bellicose” and “manifest destiny” was a “belief in white racial superiority.”) Now, according to Kurtz, the College Board has “cut out the most controversial phrases, tweaked the worst sections, but done little to create a genuine alternative approach.”
And there’s a new European history framework, too, says Kurtz.
The new European history framework is egregiously biased in all the ways that the 2014 AP U.S. history framework was. It downplays national identity, focuses overmuch on the evils of colonialism, is hostile to capitalism, downplays the excesses of the left and the problems of communism, and gives short shrift both to religion and to the sources of the classic Western liberalism.
We await Round 2 of the Advanced Placement follies.