EDITORS' CORNER
OPINION: My freshman daughter thought America was built on stolen land
My daughter is about to start her freshman year at a California State University campus. While reviewing her back-to-school materials, I noticed a detail about one of the freshman gatherings, so I mentioned to her, “Oh, they named it using an Indian word.”
She replied, “Yeah, well, it’s their land.”
“What do you mean it’s their land?” I asked.
“Well, they were here first,” she said.
My heart sank. As a mom, I have often discussed the realities of America’s founding with her. While the settlers were not perfect, they brought with them Western Civilization and its ideals of self-governance, God-endowed worth, entrepreneurship, and morality, which ultimately paved the way for freedom for all.
I sent her to a Christian school starting in sixth grade. Together, we have had many dinner-table conversations, listened to conservative talk radio, watched historical documentaries, and studied apologetics. She even attended a conservative student conference her junior year.
Yet, what I realized at that moment was that despite all of this, taking nine AP classes, including American and European History, meant that even at a Christian school, secular lessons were imparted and absorbed. She was still taught a progressive viewpoint that America is evil and made up of “colonizers,” largely because those narratives were embedded into the “facts” she had to memorize to get that coveted score of 5 on the AP tests, which she achieved in both history subjects.
It is naive when people say, “Well, don’t send her to college! Don’t pay for that claptrap and indoctrination!” But she is pre-law. Nowadays, higher education is often less about actual learning and more of a required certificate of completion for almost every basic white-collar job.
That doesn’t mean I give up. I told her, “Look, before I pay for your $338 fall semester parking pass, I want you to watch a documentary with me.”
There were the expected moans and groans, but I told her, “Hey, I just want you to at least hear the other side of the story.”
On Saturday afternoon, we sat down and watched a one-hour documentary by Matt Walsh published a few months ago titled, “What Schools Don’t Teach You About American Indians.”
She sat there and listened to the whole thing. Afterward, I asked, “What did you think?”
Being a moody 18-year-old girl, her response was along the lines of, “Okay, well, I listened, and I heard points being made.” Fair enough, at least she was given a powerful reminder that it wasn’t all just peaceful, kumbaya, pipe-smoking love of nature with no borders or private property before the “white man” arrived.
In fact, as Walsh pointed out, it was very much “kill or be killed” for centuries before European settlers arrived. The documentary effectively refuted the argument that European settlers introduced warfare, strife, slavery, and territorial disputes. It cited documentation using original sources to debunk myths surrounding issues like the infamous smallpox blankets and the traditional Trail of Tears narrative.
The documentary helped put history in context, illustrating that for millennia, humanity operated under a conquest paradigm in which no civilization was immune to war, slavery, or territorial conflict.
As editor of The College Fix, I often speak at conferences, radio shows, and podcasts. My biggest mantra is always: Don’t let your kids’ teachers be their only teachers.
Parents cannot just send their kids off to middle, high school and college without arming them with facts, data, and logic supporting conservatism. Bit by bit, step by step, you plant seeds. You ask them to be discerning and to recognize that there are two sides to every story.
I’ve written about this before here at The College Fix. With my son, I showed him Dinesh D’Souza documentaries and PragerU videos, sent him to conservative conferences, and taught him apologetics. He went on to serve four years in the Marines and remains a card-carrying Republican to this day.
In the long run, I think my daughter is going to be just fine. But I appreciated the help Matt Walsh’s documentary offered, and if you haven’t had a chance to see it yet, be sure to check it out.
MORE: New College-Prep Curriculum Paints U.S. History in Horrific Light
