When Rith Aragon, Secretary of Oklahoma’s Department of Veterans Affairs, writes a column explaining that as a former elementary teacher and principal she understands the need for students to learn and understand our history, we completely agree.
But where she loses us is when she announces that she’ll be hosting a “Day of History” event at the Oklahoma History Center featuring “historian David Barton”:
That’s why I am excited to emcee the professional development workshop, “A Day of History,” on April 29 at the Oklahoma History Center. Teachers and the general public across Oklahoma are invited to learn about ways to make the nation’s founding come alive from nationally known author and historian David Barton and University of Oklahoma professor J. Rufus Fears.
Barton may be many things, but he is not a historian. Which raises the question as to why the Oklahoma History Center, which is an “affiliate of the Smithsonian Institute,” is allowing Barton to use its facility [PDF] to spread his patented brand of pseudo-history:
