Adam "I Was Hoping We Could Keep It" Laats
@adamlaats
Pulitzer-prize-wanting historian at Binghamton U (SUNY). Columbo fan. Books about schools, religion, conservatism. Now writing about the roots of US public schools, c. 1790-1860. Check out adamlaats.net
Sheesh, school people, what are we all freaking out about? The AI/sex-doll/teacher's aide people have put in 'guardrails'! It should be fine..... mashable.com/tech/new-yor...
[Spoiler alert] Odysseus, that wiliest of mortals, doesn't get enough credit for one thing: inventing the standardized-test con. Here's the gimmick: Make up a task that seems 'objective,' but you know all along who is going to fail and who is going to succeed.
Sheesh—these guys never change: Trump’s 1776 Commission Report, 2021: “Communism. . . . still pervades much of academia” Ku Klux Klan, 1923: “There is hardly a school or college in the county in which a Communist nucleus . . . has not been established”
From the history desk: Your daily reminder of the roots of Trump’s ed program. Hiram Evans, head of Ku Klux Klan, Dec. 16, 1922: “the schools and colleges of America... will teach the principles of the American government and the traditions of their fathers....”
Look who surprised me at breakfast! So sorry to everyone who doesn't get to live upstate.
I can't figure out if this fact is "fun" or very sad. After the Revolution, when they found children wandering around without a birthday, orphanages just assigned July 4 as their birthday.
Gift link ICYM this bizarre story. White migrants from South Africa will all get a copy of Trump's weirdest weird-history doc. Claims that the 3/5 Compromise proves that the Founders were anti-slavery. Claims that communism is the current vibe at US universities. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/23/u...
Douglass understood America like no one else. One of his lesser-known fights was to protect the status of Black children AS children, when enslavers tried to take that away. Douglass, 1855:
I think a bunch of historians would agree that de-Trumpification needs to dig deep--all the way back to the de-Confederatization that never happened under Andrew Johnson.
Just found my new avatar--really captures my social-media presence:
And for everyone who has a beef with welcoming refugees, two things: 1: Kindness is never wrong. 2: Helping refugees helps America. My dad went to NY public schools and eventually worked on the Apollo missions. Help refugees because it's just plain good AND good for America.
For World Refugee Day, a belated thank you to all the people who saved my dad, aunt, and grandparents as they fled from the Soviets in 1945:
He does hit one of the 'classics' of US right-wing educational thinking. Here's Anne Minor of the DAR, 1923: "Better the man or woman who teaches...orderliness and obedience...than the most brilliant mind you can hire with money...We want no teachers who say there are two sides to every question."
This will never not be funny to me: "I traveled all the way to Wisconsin!"
Yup, and early editions of the NE Primer likely wouldn't sit all that well with today's MAGA coalition, considering their take on Catholicism: newrepublic.com/article/1929...
For the ed nerd/fantasy nerd crossover: It's a Boromir moment. Hochul wants to use the awesome power to do good, but.....
Let's at least stop pretending that private-school subsidies are a new idea. They are the failed evolutionary step out of which public schools evolved. It's like if @heritagefdn.bsky.social suggested the "new" idea of having hands without opposable thumbs. slate.com/life/2026/06...
I was inspired by @mpolikoff.bsky.social and @michaelpetrilli.bsky.social to offer the view from the archives. It's tough to refuse fed money, but we know how it'll end. The history is clear: subsidies are bad for all, even rich families who get them. slate.com/life/2026/06...
I can never figure out if it's a bummer or not to see these Scopes-era arguments still feel like breaking news. digital.history.pcusa.org/islandora/20...
Here's some "America250" for ya: At the time of the Revolution, New York City was ravaged by Street Pig Attacks.
Great article! FWIW, this was Horace Mann's big issue too-- Here's the Mann in 1839:
Schmidt: “When someone offers you a seat on the rocket ship, you do not ask which seat, you just get on.” The students know what seat they're being offered:
Dear Ed-Tech Enthusiasts: Thank you for your enthusiasm. Before you explain the future to me again, please check out this great ed-tech revolutionary plan from Henry Barnard, c. 1848:
Absolutely true. Specifically he uses the term "Nordic Americans."
It's no exaggeration. Here's "Imperial Wizard" Hiram Evans in 1926, explaining the Klan's Tuberville-ism: