UPDATE: It looks like Huckabee has said he will not run for president in 2012. We can only hope he means it.
Given the sorry state of education in America, former Arkansas governor and potential GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has decided to take matters into his own hands. Today, Huckabee announced the launch of his new education company, Learn Our History, which offers a series of “educational” videos designed to not only make history fun but also to turn our children into good little God-fearing patriots (or so it would seem).
Here are clips from the first two videos:
The company plans to release another video about “9/11 and the War on Terror”, followed by stories as diverse as the American Revolution, the voyage of Columbus, Lewis and Clark, the Space Race, Women in America, and, how could we forget, the Mayflower and the First Thanksgiving (which, in a rich bit of irony, never really happened).
Huckabee says he started the videos to combat what he sees as rampant “political bias that distorts facts for the sake of political correctness” and jeopardizes “our national pride and patriotism”. True to form, the Learn Our History cartoons teach American history as it should be taught: distorting facts in the name of ideology and patriotism only, which makes it ok. Speaking of political correctness (lest you liberals worry), you should know that the group of kids does include a diva black girl and a vaguely ethnic nerdy kid, so it’s totally not just for white people.
Let the indoctrination begin.
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I am so glad that they were sensitive enough to put “a vaguely ethnic nerdy kid” in there. I was beginning to wonder what the we’ve come to as a people…whew…:)
I know, right? Phew, bullet dodged!
Scariest and funniest line for me: “What we see here is not always the same as what we read in books or see on TV. So what? We know the truth, and that’s good enough for us,” because education isn’t about thinking, it’s about accepting the right answers, or in this case, right versions since we’ve been told it’s the “truth.” Second funniest, ongoing situation/line for me is a politician, any politician, I don’t care which “side” they represent, talking about a “moral crisis”. Call it a job requirement, then I can accept it. Label someone, something, or in this case some point in history with it, and it’s just ironic and funny.
More proof that history is really just his-story.
“Poetry comes nearer to vital truth than history.” ~Plato.