On Eurocentric and ‘liberty-centric’ education

March 4, 2024

 Recently, the Bridge published a letter concerning “Eurocentrism” in the high school history curriculum. “Eurocentrism” is one of those vague buzzwords with a Marxist/progressivist/propagandistic ring to it. In other words, it is a dog-whistle for hating on Western values, which includes erasing our history (viz. the shameful Battle of the tercentenary markers). This article is likely groundwork for introducing a new anti-Western history curriculum in Concord schools. Do you see a pattern here? It grieves me that the author’s high intelligence and innocent idealism have been turned to the Dark Side. 

A constructive history curriculum should be, let’s call it “liberty-centric,” and its focus should be how people and events promoted or undermined values expressed by the original Rebel Alliance: 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. 

This is the most profound text ever written in support of human liberation. Are these values “Eurocentric” or universal? Millions are migrating to its country of origin. In Hong Kong, Moscow and Tehran protesters have risked their lives to quote our Founders publicly. I beseech the author to consider whether our “Eurocentric” Founders were on to something universal, and why. 

Mark Dobbins 

Elsinore Street