Amid a raft of executive orders by President Donald Trump, the Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling — which encompasses prohibitions on gender-affirming care, abolishes equity-based instruction and school operational practices and advances “patriotism” — is his administration’s clear attempt to revise history.

This executive order also revives the President’s Advisory 1776 Commission, under the guise of protecting students from “anti-American” information. In Trump’s first administration, his actions seemed to some as a misguided frolic into fascism and detour to dismantle democracy. However, Project 2025 has given way to Trump 2.0, an intentionally architected political plan designed to reshape history into a version that disparages racial justice, erases hard truths, and silences the voices of those who fought for liberty.

This signals the ambition of this administration to see the stains of history be bleached from existence. The purpose of Agenda 47 is to cut a path for pursuing a political agenda that would reestablish the unequal and unjust power dynamics of the past and validate the ahistorical conjecture of those in power to advance their personal ambitions. All of it premised on a willful erasure, “collective forgetting,” and creation of a politically and financially advantageous new American mythos.

What is True History

As galling and disturbing as this all is, it’s essential in this moment to know, speak, and explain that true and honest history is not antithetical to being an informed, productive, and proud American. Being honest about our past is the most patriotic thing we can do and is the foundation of realizing our full human potential.

Across time, through different challenges, and amidst various socio-political inflection points, some of America’s leaders understood portions of this. President Abraham Lincoln was eventually forced to look the moral failure of slavery squarely in the eye, as some half of the nation’s economy depended on it and called for a “new birth of freedom.” President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and sent federal troops to protect Black students in Little Rock, Arkansas – recognizing the need to take racial injustice head on to force some level of progress.

I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.

—James Baldwin

Even conservative icon President Ronald Reagan acknowledged the importance of a true education and in the same breath, the essential role of Black educators in shaping the nation.  “No task is more vital to the strength and security of our Nation than that of providing good education for all our citizens,” his Presidential Proclamation 5743 read. “So that America continues to remain a land of opportunity for all people, we should encourage a wide representation of African Americans as teachers and continued concern for African American students.” In our current political moment, this combination of observation and advocacy seems downright fantastical to be heard coming from a Republican leader.

So that America continues to remain a land of opportunity for all people, we should encourage a wide representation of African Americans as teachers and continued concern for African American students.

—President Ronald Reagan

But in the long term, playing the role of George Orwell’s Big Brother and policing school textbooks to erase inconvenient truths is not cunning. No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, being ignorant of history isn’t savvy or smart. Indeed, refusing the lessons of the past only hastens the often-painful relearning of historical failures.

This is not just about history — it’s about how humans learn. Scientists build on the discoveries (and mistakes) of those before them. Architects study past designs to create stronger, more resilient structures. Every discipline, from medicine to engineering, relies on an honest assessment of what came before. Why should history, particularly the teaching and learning of history, be any different? The current path only serves to reinforce and further cement inequitable structures, increasing strife and putting our collective futures at a heightened disadvantage.

What is True Patriotism

Only highlighting America’s triumphs isn’t patriotic; it shows no great love of country. To truly love a country and The People, we must see it and know it for what it truly is. We love America’s potential because we know it can be better; know that it has more it can provide; and we can see that its rising tide of justice has not reached its breakthrough.

Creating a fabricated, deceptive, over-glossed, white supremacist and lionized narrative of the past doesn’t empower progress forward — but does just the opposite. It subtly signals that our nation can never truly be “great” or even strive toward it; and therefore, we must tell a tall tale version of its past.

If Trump’s claims of loving America were true, he’d heed James Baldwin’s retort to those telling him to be silent about our country’s profound injustices: “I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”

What critically acclaimed author and critic, George Orwell observed rings especially true in this current context: “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” If politicians are allowed to dictate what history can and cannot be taught, we surrender our future to those who would rather rewrite the past than learn from it.

Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.

—George Orwell

The push to erase programs that advance diversity, equity and inclusion, silence discussions on race, and ban books isn’t about protecting students or empowering them. It’s about controlling them and ensuring they don’t know how to think, only what to think. It’s about weakening young people’s ability to grow up with the knowledge they need to challenge injustice, advocate for change, and, or demand informed alternatives from their leaders. It’s the creation of an anodyne “history” to anesthetize those who might think critically and conscientiously and question power both now and in the future.

Teaching the full, unfiltered history of this country is not radical — it’s necessary. Real patriotism isn’t about blind loyalty — it’s actually about pushing this country to live up to its highest ideals… and many of our ancestors did just that. We have to continue the work — even amid an ongoing effort to protect the cement that shields a racist status quo.

Sharif El-Mekki is a former school principal and the current founder and CEO of The Center for Black Educator Development