According to many right-wingers, schools are radically indoctrinating our children.
Claiming that there is systemic indoctrination in K-12 public school curricula has become a mainstream assertion by the Republican Party. But it isn’t just Republicans who are throwing around the new “indoctrination” buzzword. The political left has often responded to the claim with similar accusations of religious indoctrination to clap back at right-wing accusations of grooming students and indoctrinating children to be LGBTQ+. The right uses the term as an emotional projection to defend a contested nationalist identity rooted in selective history and half-truths.
A notable aspect of the American identity is a pronounced sense of nationalism. Throughout the United States’ history, unapologetic and unconditional loyalty to the country has been taught to citizens. This can be observed in various rhetorical devices, many of which are used in K-12 public schools.
Firstly, there is a longstanding, overarching cultural belief that America is a land of opportunity where all are free. The words freedom and liberty have been enshrined and heralded since the days of The Declaration of Independence, which directly states that all men are created equal.
However, when the Declaration of Independence was written, it only applied to specific demographics of people: white, heterosexual male landowners. It was almost an entire century from the time the Declaration was written to the abolishment of slavery in 1865, via the 13th Amendment. Also, same-sex marriage was not federally legalized until 2015, 239 years after the Declaration.
These are only two examples of civil rights’ contradictions in America’s history, as countless other demographics have also been denied equality in America. Yet, American educational institutions and the broader nationalist culture have always prided themselves on the liberty they claim to extend to all. This liberty has seldom been true.
The disregard for true equality is reinforced by other nationalist-building tools, such as the Pledge of Allegiance. The Pledge falls precisely into the definition of indoctrination, which is to teach someone a value or set of beliefs uncritically. Since the pledge includes words such as allegiance, indivisible and justice — and is proclaimed by children starting at the age of 5, when they are just beginning to learn how to read — it’s not unreasonable to conclude that these students simply have no idea what they are repeating. Therefore, as they grow older and begin to understand the meaning of these words, they often do not attempt to question a chant that has been deeply ingrained in their brains. These words go from meaningless routine to an undeniable societal truth.
Additionally, schools have often sugarcoated histories regarding minorities to absolve the U.S. of violence. For example, a California history curriculum — similar to this publicly available one here — describes European relations with Indigenous populations as mere exploration, an exchange of values or as if Europeans were civilizing the natives. This effectively sanitizes the violent treatment of indigenous peoples, rather than what it was: a cultural genocide.
Combining a broader American culture around freedom, the Pledge of Allegiance and colonized curricula creates a system that indoctrinates nationalism and blind loyalty to the U.S.
This nationalist aspect of the American identity is what makes the indoctrination buzzword so loaded. Because American society is so used to the indoctrination of half-truth values, unraveling that indoctrination feels like an attack on the very American identity that so many resonate with.
This is why schools that introduce supplemental materials — which are materials that aren’t required to be taught — like those that promote queer inclusivity, are often criticized and labeled as indoctrination. Inclusive, unbiased and objective curricula, alongside actions like removing “God” from the Pledge of Allegiance, are effectively unraveling centuries of American indoctrination of nationalism. However, those who don’t understand the problematic undertones of indoctrinating nationalism based on whitewashed narratives feel this as an attack where white, male European descendants are no longer centered as the pinnacle of the American identity.
In other words, this buzzword is merely an emotional projection of America’s right-wing politics used in an attempt to defend and uphold the deceitful American nationalist identity. To them, questioning their positionality implies that they did not work for what they earned, which results in resistance to change. However, this fearful and misunderstanding reaction is not productive when academics, teachers and historians are only seeking a more objective approach to history after centuries of biased education, rather than one filled with sugarcoating and half-truths.
If America seeks to foster an education system that encourages free thought, this projection must not continue. Political figures who exacerbate this fear of an objective history, such as Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump, must not be given power if the nation cares to uphold the liberty it claims to care for so deeply. Children should be given the tools to question the Pledge of Allegiance and not be forced to repeat it blindly.
Alexander Randall is an Opinion Intern for the summer 2025 quarter. He can be reached at arandal1@uci.edu.
Edited by Annabelle Aguirre
