OPINION
Friday night lights are usually followed by Saturday morning or Monday morning film sessions.
Coaches across the state are rewinding and reviewing what happened on the football field that either led to a win or resulted in a defeat.
Imagine if the coaches then went to the players at their next meeting and only showed and discussed the good things.
Fumbles? Gloss over it. Penalties? Edit those out. Unsportsmanlike conduct? Never happened.
Many history teachers have devoted their classroom careers to replaying the events of the past. Those lessons cover victories in the form of inventions, economic progress, revolutions for independence, advances in voting and human rights, and technological innovations. Yet the story is not complete without our fumbles: slavery, unchecked monopolies, covert operations in other countries’ affairs, abusive child labor, and civil rights missteps.
Age-appropriate lessons, yes, are necessary when discussing this country’s unsportsmanlike conduct. An effective teacher knows when and how to frame these lessons. Still, those who shout “woke” have handcuffed many of us devoted to helping students with a most important skill: critical thinking. Texas, in particular, has been on a push since 2020 to monitor and even re-direct how history is taught in its public schools.
I find this curious because history hasn’t changed. We have. Someone told us that history teachers were indoctrinating, and people believed it. In March 2025, the president signed an executive order that would “restore truth and sanity to American History.”
This executive order implies that what I have been teaching for over 45 years is not true or sane, and I refuse to accept it as anything but an attack on my dedicated work.
Most students want to ask questions and examine hard truths. This is active learning. Can you imagine how exciting it would be for students to read about Columbus and his exploration and then discuss the positive and negative implications of his trips across the ocean?
•What qualities did Columbus have that enabled him to accomplish what he did?
•How did Spanish influence in the New World impact the natives?
•Who benefi tted most from the influx of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere?
There was a time when those were the types of questions I would ask students. Not anymore. We are in an era where the public is more concerned that we teach students what to believe rather than how to think.
The United States will celebrate its 250th birthday next July. My five trips to Washington, D.C., have always included the Smithsonian Museums, where I have been enlightened by the exhibits of our nation’s history. Seeing Charles Lindbergh’s plane and John Glenn’s space capsule inspired me. Viewing masterpieces in the National Museum of Art was a treat for me and my daughters, who could point out paintings they had to memorize for UIL’s Art Memory contest from their elementary school days.
I have also visited the National Holocaust Museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the National Native American Museum. These offer celebrations of culture as well as sobering refl ections of inhumanity—education, not indoctrination.
Your school’s coaches have prepared for this week’s football game with encouragement and correction. A history teacher worth his or her salt will do the same when it comes to lessons about the past.
This spring as we focus on our country’s 250th birthday, many teachers will hopefully celebrate the United States incredible achievements with coloring pages, patriotic plays, and focusing on the people who contributed to our success. It will be a time to honor all that is noble and good about this nation’s unique story.
The chapters of our story, however, that are difficult to read are still some of the most important because they led to liberty and justice for all. Don’t skip over them.
Snyder, Texas, native Sue Jane Sullivan is a retired schoolteacher whose commentary appears in several West Texas newspapers.
