ARTHUR SCHLESINGER, JR.
633
adherence to ideals of democracy and human rights, a culture to which
many nationalities and races have made emphatic contributions in the
past and will (one hopes) make emphatic contributions in the future .
Our democratic ideals have been imperfectly realized, but the long labor
to achieve them and to move the American experiment from exclusion
to participation has been a central theme of American history.
It
should
be a central theme of the New York social studies curriculum.
And it is important for students to understand where these demo–
cratic ideals come from. They come of course from Europe. Indeed,
Europe is the
unique
source of these ideals - ideals that today empower
people in every continent and to which today most of the world aspires.
That is why it is so essential (in my view) to acquaint students with the
Western history and tradition that created our democratic ideals - and
why it is so wrong to tell students of non-European origin that Western
ideals are not for them.
I regret the note of Europhobia that sometimes emerges in vulgar
attacks on "Eurocentric" curricula. Certainly Europe, like every other
culture, has committed its share of crimes. But, unlike most cultures, it
has also generated ideals that have opposed and exposed those crimes.
The report, however, plays up the crimes and plays down the ideals.
Thus, when it talks about the European colonization of Mrica and In–
dia, it deplores "the eradication of many varieties of traditional culture
and knowledge." Like infanticide? Slavery? Polygamy? Subjection of
women?
Suttee?
Veil-wearing? Foot-binding? Clitoridectomies? Nothing
is said about the influence of European ideas of democracy, human rights,
self-government, rule oflaw.
Even Karl Marx was fairer to European colonization than that.
"England," Marx said, "has to fulfil a double mission in India: one de–
structive, the other regenerating - the annihilation of old Asiatic society,
and the laying of the material foundations of Western society in Asia.. .
. The question is, can mankind fulfill its destiny without a fundamental
revolution in the social state of Asia? If not, whatever may have been the
crimes of England she was the unconscious tool of history in bringing
about the revolution."
I also am doubtful about the note occasionally sounded in the re–
port that "students must be taught social criticism" and "see themselves as
active makers and changers of culture and society" and "promote eco–
nomic fairness and social justice" and "bring about change in their com–
munities, the nation, and the world." I very much hope that, as citizens,
students will do all these things, but I do not think it is the function of
the schools to teach students to become reformers any more than I ever
thought it the function of the schools to teach them the beauty of pri–
vate enterprise and the sanctity of the status quo. I will be satisfied if we
