Janet Y. Jackson got to the point about American history in her column in the Post-Dispatch on Thursday: schools are not endangered by the concept of critical race theory so much as they are shielding their students from the hard facts about American history.

I think of this gap between American myth and American history, as I begin taking the workshop St. Louis Divided: Past, Present and Future?  this week. We are examining how history is often told by the dominant group to fortify their views and position in society. As Jackson remarks in her column:

It is critical thinking that parents are struggling against, the thinking that distinguishes the whitewashing of American history from the transparent curriculum, a curriculum that acknowledges

• brutality of slavery maintained for economic advantage in the nineteenth century
• overt prejudice against other immigrants, such as the Irish and the Chinese
• the seizing of land from Native Americans by breach of treaties
• unreasonable fear that confined Japanese families to work camps during World War II
• the rejection of refugee ship, the S.S. St Louis, in 1939 turning Jewish migrants away to suffer the persecution of the Holocaust.
• the race riots of the early 20th century, including East St. Louis in 1917, incited by mutual fear of the races.

Ms. Jackson reveals that her secondary education failed to adequately address the crimes,  the fraud, the rejection by the white dominant class, perhaps to protect white children from guilt that they may suffer today when these crimes are revealed. Even when the textbooks fails, says Ms. Jackson, there are museums and virtual experiences that reveal the truth, and teachers should avail themselves of truth-telling media.

What Ms. Jackson discerns that white parents should understand, is that white children can contemplate these revelations without suffering damage to their self-esteem.  It may be humbling to know what crimes your ancestors committed, but it need not be personally hurtful. What we need is a sobering perspective on the dominant role of whites in America and how we have prevented some of our neighbors from success in life.  If adults can accept this perspective, their children will find it less demoralizing.

Maybe the anger comes from adult resistance to the transparent curriculum, as much as concern for indoctrination of their children.  Children can learn to critically recognize the truth, but for some adults that critical capacity has been worn down. Hearts have hardened; opinions have been rigidified. If parents want to push back against how history is presented, they should first accept what they may have overlooked in their education.

As Socrates surely did say: Know thyself. Then review American history as you  might have missed it the first time around.