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HOW POLITICS IS CHANGING THE WAY HISTORY IS TAUGHT  
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Dana Goldstein
October 27, 2025
The New York Times
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_ History lessons are being wiped from the internet, California is
retreating from ethnic studies, as education swings away from
curriculums that are seen as too progressive. School curriculum had
been restricted before, notably during the Red Scares _

Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle // New York Times,

 

In the Trump era, history and civics education are under a microscope.

Several major curriculum publishers have withdrawn products from the
market, while others have found that teachers are shying away from
lessons that were once uncontroversial, on topics as basic as
constitutional limits on executive power.

California, the nation’s largest Democratic-led state, has passed a
law restricting what teachers can say in the classroom, and has walked
back an effort to require high school students to take classes in
ethnic studies.

To supporters of these changes, they are a necessary corrective to
what they see as a leftward tilt in the education establishment. But
these developments have also set off alarms among free speech
advocates, as the Trump administration pushes to punish speech it
dislikes and to impose its patriotic vision of American history on
schools.

Adam Laats, a historian of education at Binghamton University, noted
that school curriculum had been restricted before, notably during the
Red Scares of the last century. But the current political pressure is
unique, he said: “Never before has this kind of fervor from the
right owned the Oval Office.”

As recently as last year, many social studies teachers reported
success
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in withstanding political pressure
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Now, there is growing evidence that the landscape is shifting. In a
September poll
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more than half of the teachers who responded said that political
pressure had caused them to modify their curriculums or classroom
discussions, a sharp increase from March.

Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist who has led the push for
changes in education, said President Trump’s return to office
accelerated a cultural shift that was already underway. Over the last
five years, more than 20 states have passed laws restricting classroom
discussions on race, gender and American history.

“Even center-left Democrats are starting to pull away from left-wing
ideologies they had endorsed a few years before,” he said. “The
reason for this is quite simple. America has a center-right culture
and the gap between the public and these elite ideologies became a
political liability.”

LESSON PLANS ARE DISAPPEARING

This spring, as Brown University was under intense pressure from the
Trump administration, it shuttered Choices, the university’s
30-year-old high school social studies curriculum, overseen by its
history department.

Choices reached one million students annually, and was especially
popular in advanced courses and at independent private schools. The
program was known for bringing college-level concepts into high
schools and for lesson plans that were rich in primary sources, on
topics from the American Revolution to the riot at the U.S. Capitol on
Jan. 6, 2021.

After the start of the Israel-Hamas War in 2023 and the rise of the
pro-Palestinian campus protest movement — which was heavily active
at Brown — Choices was scrutinized by advocacy groups supportive of
Israel. Critics argued that a unit on the Middle East fed antisemitism
by focusing on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and
downplaying Palestinian terrorism against Israelis.

Now Choices materials have largely been wiped from the internet. 
When Choices units were withdrawn from the market, teachers and
students lost access to a broad range of lessons.  (Photo credit:
Choices Program  //  New York Times)
Brown had been reconsidering Choices since the summer of 2024 for
budgetary reasons. The final decision to shutter the program was made
this past spring, as Brown faced a potential federal funding freeze.
The White House eventually moved to withhold $510 million in grants,
accusing Brown of allowing antisemitism to fester during campus
protests. (The university has since made a deal
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with the government to restore its funding.)

Brian Clark, a Brown spokesman, said the closure of Choices was based
“exclusively” on the program’s financial outlook, and had
nothing to do with debates over its content or pressure from the White
House. He acknowledged in an email, however, that the market for
Choices materials had weakened, in part because of “recent pressures
to eliminate curricula that consider race, gender, colonialism,
etc.”

Brown decided not to allow other publishers to acquire Choices lesson
plans, according to internal communications reviewed by The New York
Times. It also declined to maintain the Choices archives on the
university’s website, and refused to allow the program’s staff to
distribute over $200,000 worth of lesson plans that had already been
printed.

Doing so would have created “legal and financial exposure,” Mr.
Clark said.

High school teachers, worried about losing access to materials that
they relied on for years, have used social media to circulate some
Choices units.

Another group that has withdrawn curriculum is the Anti-Defamation
League, a nonprofit that historically focused on antisemitism and a
broad range of other civil rights issues, while also strongly
supporting Israel. The A.D.L.’s educational resources reach more
than 1.6 million students annually, according to Todd Gutnick, a
spokesman for the group. 

 
Many of the dozens of lesson plans that the Anti-Defamation League
withdrew from its website dealt with race, sex and gender.  (Credit:
ADL  //  New York Times)
 

Over the past two years, the A.D.L. has removed dozens of lesson plans
from its website, according to a review of archived web content. Some
were about transgender identity, sexism against women who have run for
president and sexist tropes in video games.

The deleted lessons also included several that dealt with police
violence against Black men, one on microaggressions, and a lesson on
Frederick Douglass and voting rights.

In a written statement, Mr. Gutnick said that some of the lessons had
been retired and others were “temporarily removed” for revisions.

A statement on the A.D.L.’s website says the group is choosing to
focus its educational resources on antisemitism, the Holocaust and
Jewish identity. “While we are no longer hosting many of our broader
anti-bias resources, we remain deeply committed to fostering inclusive
school communities,” it states.

Last year, the group phased out
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40-year-old program for schools called A World of Difference
Institute, which sought to “actively challenge prejudice,
stereotyping and all forms of discrimination.”

The A.D.L. continues to offer No Place for Hate, an anti-bullying
curriculum that includes material on identity-based bias.

TEACHERS ARE AVOIDING BASIC CIVICS

The organization iCivics was founded by Sandra Day O’Connor, the
former Supreme Court justice, to provide free, nonpartisan curriculum
materials. The group estimates that its lessons reach about nine
million students annually.

This fall, though, staff members noted a significant decline — up to
28 percent — in the number of page views recorded for some popular
lessons, including those dealing with separation of powers, consent of
the governed and other constitutional principles.

iCivics does not yet have a full picture of why this is happening.

But Emma Humphries, the group’s chief education officer, said that
in her travels across the country to train teachers, many have said
they were fearful of having classroom discussions veer into
politically fraught territory — like questions from students about
why Mr. Trump appeared to be violating constitutional norms.

Social studies teachers typically receive much less training from
their school districts than teachers of English and math, the subjects
covered by state tests. As a result, some teachers may have had little
guidance on how to tackle controversial topics.

Further complicating matters, many teachers work in states that have
adopted broadly written laws that limit what can be said in the
classroom.

 
Some teachers are shying away from lessons about basic constitutional
principles, out of concern that classroom discussions will be
overtaken by contemporary politics.  (Credit: iCivics.org  //  New
York Times)
 

iCivics offers training in how to teach students about American
government without walking into political minefields, including by
using primary sources like the Constitution and Supreme Court rulings.
Dr. Humphries said teachers should explain to students that questions
like the limits of presidential power have been debated for centuries,
and that presidents from all parties have tried to stretch the limits
to increase their authority.

“The concern is that teachers will avoid certain topics altogether,
or just revert to boring pedagogy, like reading the textbook the
district approved,” she said. “That is not a good way to teach.
The kids deserve better than that, and our democracy deserves
better.”

A DEMOCRATIC-LED STATE SHIFTS RIGHT

California was once a leader in adopting a left-leaning approach to
social studies. In 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law requiring all
high school students to take a course in ethnic studies, an activist
discipline
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that focuses on the histories and cultures of Latinos, Black
Americans, Asian Americans and Native Americans. Ethnic studies
lessons often criticize settler colonialism, naming Israel as the
prime contemporary example.

Research
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has shown that ethnic studies classes can raise attendance and grades
for students who are at risk of dropping out.

But after some Jewish groups mounted a legal and political fight
against ethnic studies
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— saying its critiques of Israel were fostering antisemitism — the
consensus around the state’s mandate unraveled. This spring, Mr.
Newsom presented and signed a budget that did not include funding for
the classes. Districts are not currently required to offer the course,
according to the state board of education.

In some school systems that are continuing to offer ethnic studies,
there are new restrictions. San Francisco teachers must use a single
textbook that does not discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Supplemental materials must be approved by administrators.

Mr. Newsom signed two bills this month that were intended to prevent
antisemitism and other forms of discrimination in schools. The laws
establish a state office to handle complaints, and require teachers to
abstain from “advocacy, opinion, bias or partisanship” in the
classroom.

Teachers’ unions, the American Civil Liberties Union and Muslim
groups raised concerns about the potential for chilled speech and
increased litigation. But the bills passed unanimously in the heavily
Democratic legislature.

Mr. Rufo, the conservative activist, argued that the new laws do not
threaten free speech, noting that public-school teachers do not have a
legal right to academic freedom in their classrooms.

Kairi Hand, a 15-year-old sophomore at Burton Academic High School in
San Francisco, said ethnic studies had been a favorite course. Israel
was not a focus in her class, she recalled. What stayed with her, she
said, were lessons on the Chinese Exclusion Act and the way in which
the Disney movie “Pocahontas” differed from the true history of
English encounters with Indigenous Americans.

She also understood why the class was controversial. “There is a lot
of controversy going on in the whole world. Especially,” she said,
“things taught in schools.”

_[DANA GOLDSTEIN covers education and families for The Times.] _ 

* censorship
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* school curriculum
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* History
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* U.S. history
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* Education
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* civics education
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* California
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* Executive powers
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* ethnic studies
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* social studies
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* Donald Trump
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* Trump 2.0
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* MAGA
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