Thankful to be Americans

"Gratitude is the lifeblood of healthy schools and civic institutions, writes Rick Hess, being very Old School.

Despite "classroom materials that depict Thanksgiving as just another evil exercise in settler colonialism," he writes, most teachers think schools should teach that the U.S. is "a fundamentally good country." And they want to "teach students to question the policies of their nation’s government."

That's right, Hess writes. Students should count our blessings and ask hard questions.

. . . we’re the fortunate heirs of an extraordinary legacy, one produced by centuries of flawed Americans grappling with the privileges and burdens of citizenship. Our forbearers sold slaves and abolished slavery; they defeated the Nazis and imprisoned Japanese-Americans in internment camps. . . . Ours is a tale of sacrifice, reflection, courage, deliberation, patience, magnanimity, and even civil war.

American history once was taught as "a hero’s tale of manifest destiny, Paul Bunyan, and George Washington’s refusal to tell a lie," Hess writes. "Today, the one-dimensional caricature tends to lean the other way, depicting our nation as a menagerie of bad acts and bad actors."

"Schools should endeavor to help students understand just how much we have to be thankful for without shying away from America’s sins and stumbles," he concludes.

My Grandma Tilly was a small woman who kept shrinking and shrinking as she aged. Her bones were no good. "It was a big family," my father said. "There wasn't enough milk to go around." He'd told me that she married young "to get a square meal." It wasn't entirely a joke.

So I'll think of her as we serve the turkey and mashed potatoes, and wonder why we got so many desserts. I'll say "thank you" to my great-grandparents, who brought their families to America for freedom from persecution, opportunity and -- eventually -- a square meal.