Educating the youth can make or break the very fabric of society, and tampering with it is a sure way to lead to the demise of our nation. President Donald Trump has been using his power in this administration to manipulate history and civics curriculum to erase cruelties and forget the faults and failures that have led us to where we are now. This blatant disregard for proper historical education is a disservice to the youth of America and the future of our country’s society. Education should be focused on protecting teachers and students and providing students with the facts and resources they need to be successful adults and engaged citizens.

We cannot erase history simply because it makes us look bad. Trump seeks to remove Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) from curricula because he thinks it frames our country in a bad light and makes students unpatriotic. In Executive Order 14190, titled Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling, Trump ordered schools to “instill a patriotic admiration for our incredible Nation and the values for which we stand.”

The document claims that these alleged indoctrination practices “not only erode critical thinking but also sow division, confusion, and distrust, which undermine the very foundations of personal identity and family unity.” If schools fail to comply with this, Trump threatened the elimination of “federal funding or support for illegal and discriminatory treatment and indoctrination in K-12 schools, including based on gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology.”

While his attempts to make diverse curricula look like villainous anti-American propaganda may have deceived some, when we look past the misleading language we can see that he is simply trying to advance a narrow vision for the country that excludes many Americans.

My connection to this issue is especially personal, having been raised by a public school teacher my entire life. My mother has taught in the public school system as an elementary school teacher for 26 years, mainly in second grade, and it has become increasingly difficult for her to simply do her job because teachers are not protected against the many issues that they face on a daily basis. According to a poll conducted by EdChoice this past September, just 22% of all American teachers are likely to recommend their profession, and I can vouch that my mother is part of that other 78%.

Growing up my sister and I had always been inspired by her passion for teaching and had dreams of following in her footsteps that she encouraged, but now as we come into the years of deciding our career path, she warns us to turn a different way. Her school stories have taken a stark turn for the worse, with unrealistic curriculum standards, cruel administration and consistent union losses.

While she can’t speak from the high school perspective, evidence makes it clear that political pressure is making it much harder for everyone to teach. In that same study by EdChoice, it was found that over half of teachers report having to modify the way they teach and their curriculum due to political pressure. Rewriting curriculum is not easy, and these teachers are having to find entirely new ways to teach their students effectively.

High school students are not easy to engage, especially now in the age of cellphone addiction and social media. But when diverse stories are incorporated into their curriculum, students could be more willing to engage, especially in more diverse districts. By high school, most students are tired of learning the same stories of American and world history that they have been taught for years on end. They are unrelatable for most, and redundant and boring to many. Adding new perspectives, especially as students get older and become more independent thinkers, can completely change a classroom dynamic and help mold the minds of these teenagers into prepared voters and informed and engaged citizens.

If teaching students about liberation movements and factual injustices against different people leads to some of them leaning to the left side of the political spectrum, then so be it. Learning about trickle down economics didn’t make me a conservative, it just gave me some of the knowledge I needed to decide where I stand.

History, social science and civics curricula should provide the facts — all of them, not just one side of the story — for students to decide for themselves what they believe. Teaching ethnic studies, historical oppression and other less-taught diverse perspectives does not force students to think a certain way, but instead gives them all of the knowledge they need to make informed decisions in their lives and in the future at the voting booth.

Molly O’Connor, FCRH ’28, is a journalism major from Weymouth, Massachusetts.