“History Rocks!,” a national tour led by Education Secretary Linda McMahon to honor our nation’s 250th anniversary, is expressly being promoted as a nonpartisan celebration of American greatness. Even The Washington Post has admitted that “there is no evidence that the events themselves push a political message.” And yet “parents, students and teachers” have reportedly taken issue with the tour because it enjoys sponsorship from conservative and religious organizations, leading to the cancellation of several History Rocks! events.
This left-wing backlash to History Rocks! demonstrates how deeply the left has been corrupted by an ideology that is opposed to celebrations of our nation that only a few decades ago would have elicited practically unanimous approval across America.
A Left-Wing Double Standard Over American History
One outspoken senior at a high school in Alabama described History Rocks! as “hypocritical,” because it was “very publicly supported by strongly political groups.” Similarly, after learning that an elementary school in Fairfield, Connecticut, was going to host History Rocks!, a parent voiced her displeasure to the superintendent, claiming the tour was “backed by right-wing extremist groups.” A few hours later, the district canceled the event … because of its connection to groups like The Heritage Foundation and Turning Point USA.
Meanwhile a superintendent in Massachusetts dramatically declared that her district wouldn’t participate in any event related to Turning Point. Even after the Education Department explained to the superintendent that Turning Point “was not involved in the program,” the Post reported, the official canceled the previously scheduled event. Protesters in Illinois in turn held up signs that read, “Keep hate out of our schools,” and “education not indoctrination.” The New York Times featured a mocking op-ed proclaiming, “Linda McMahon is shocked — shocked! — that there’s been a backlash to the Department of Education’s ‘History Rocks!’ tour.”
What’s actually shocking about the dustup over “extremist groups” such as Heritage and Turning Point is that we heard no complaints from such persons as the curriculum of the 1619 Project spread to more than 4,000 schools six years ago. That curriculum promotes an unapologetically leftist and racialist version of American history, claiming, as The Heritage Foundation detailed, that America was founded in order to perpetuate slavery and that there was “no tension, no debate, no struggle” over the institution at the founding. Some of the most well-respected historians in the nation have severely criticized the project. Its brainchild, purported journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, once claimed “the white race … is the biggest murderer, rapist, pillager, and thief of the modern world.”
What History Rocks! Is Actually Promoting
As The Washington Post readily acknowledged, the events for History Rocks! usually feature Secretary McMahon or another member of the Education Department speaking briefly, as well as a quiz on history. “Speeches provided by the Education Department and local coverage of the events suggest the events are a nonpartisan celebration of America and its origins,” the Post admitted. A review of the Department’s website shows absolutely nothing expressly partisan about the program.
“Some have tried to brand this tour as ‘radical,’ ‘dangerous’ and ‘partisan indoctrination.’ How absurd,” reads a statement from McMahon. “What you see is not politics — it is a shared commitment to our nation’s story. It speaks volumes about certain voices in our society that they would seek to distort a celebration of America’s 250th anniversary and deprive children of this experience.”
To prove McMahon’s point, a school member in Wisconsin went to a History Rocks! event and “found it inoffensive but also ‘very shallow.’” She asserted that the trivia questions were “kind of elementary, ” and she questioned whether “students learned anything that the school had not already taught them.”
I wouldn’t be so sure about that. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 2022 determined that only 22 percent of eighth graders were proficient in civics and another 31 percent were deemed below basic, unprecedentedly low numbers. A 2024 survey by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation discovered that 70 percent of respondents couldn’t pass a “basic civic literacy quiz” that covered the three branches of government. Only about half of respondents “were able to correctly name the branch of government where bills become laws.” At this point, even basic refreshers about the author of the Declaration of Independence or the First Amendment are probably necessary for grade-schoolers.
Hellbound and Down 