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Citation: 

Hartman, Andrew. “‘A Trojan Horse for Social Engineering’: The Curriculum Wars in Recent American History.” Journal of Policy History 25(1) (2013): 114-36.

Abstract/Summary: 

The curriculum of public schools has served as one of the primary fronts in the “culture wars”—the politicized conflicts over values that have dominated headlines since the 1960s. Placed in the long historical context of American educational politics, this article examines recent curriculum wars from three distinct angles: the lens of Christian conservatives who resisted secular curriculum reform at the grassroots; the perspective of neoconservatives who sought to overturn educational trends by taking hold of the commanding heights of the state; and the position of professional educators who believed their liberal curricular innovations represented the latest in state-of-the-art knowledge. What emerges from this three-pronged approach is a vexing, yet clear, picture of why the knowledge taught to young Americans has long been such a hot button political issue, with all sides assuming others were using curriculum as a “Trojan Horse” to re-engineer impressionable young minds.

Source/Credit: 
CLA Department of American Studies