Trump: Public schools teach kids to ‘hate their country’ - The Washington Post

Trump: Public schools teach kids to ‘hate their country’ - The Washington Post

Trump’s newest assault on America’s public schools: They teach kids to ‘hate their country’

President Trump started his administration with a dystopian inaugural speech on Jan. 20, 2017, in which he talked about “American carnage” and said the country has “an education system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge.”

This year, in his Fourth of July speech at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota on Friday, he changed that narrative: Now, in his view, schools are teaching kids to “hate our country” with a “far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance."

At Mount Rushmore, Trump exploits social divisions, warns of ‘left-wing cultural revolution’ in dark speech

“If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted and punished,” he said.

Trump blamed public schools for the popular uprisings across the country that have led to the removal of statues honoring leaders of the Confederacy and other historical figures who owned slaves, such as George Washington.

“Against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes but that were villains,” he said. “The radical view of American history is a web of lies, all perspective is removed, every virtue is obscured, every motive is twisted, every fact is distorted and every flaw is magnified until the history is purged and the record is disfigured beyond all recognition.”

We will not dwell on the multiple ironies in his accusations, not the least of which is that Trump himself has ridiculed and fired people who haven’t agreed with him and has alarmed many Americans, who say he is ignoring constitutional norms and employing authoritarian tactics. That includes the violent removal of peaceful protesters in a park across the White House on June 1 so that Trump could walk across it to a church for a photo opportunity with him holding up a Bible.

We will note that Trump is pushing a view of public education in the country that has long been espoused by many Republicans: that public K-12 schools and institutions of higher education are CONTINUE READING: Trump: Public schools teach kids to ‘hate their country’ - The Washington Post