There are probably many crimes
against society that are committed in our schools whether it is
permitting harassment of isolated students by gangs, angry/weary
teachers, curriculum failures, sheer boredom or in-school violence.
To me, none of these rise to the level of crime that is apparently common at the secondary level in American history classes.
It looks like Howard Zinn's history of the U.S. is a widely used text book based on statements from high school history teachers.
I have been unable to find the number of high school classrooms where this
book is the main text, or where it is supplementary reading. The book
sells 125,000 copies a year and has been selling at that level for 25
years. There are roughly 100,000 secondary level history classes in
the U.S.. Zinn's book is in the top 300 books sold every year on
Amazon. Those are the only reliable numbers I have.
I've read
Zinn's book and have a copy in my library. There are a few interesting
insights into American history such as the firing of all black Federal
employees (5,000) by President Woodrow Wilson in his first year in
office (1913).
On the other hand the book has two serious flaws. (1) Most of Zinn's history is wrong and inaccurate, (2) the rest of Zinn's history is delivered with such hatred of America and such bile that it should be consider intellectual poison.
If
Zinn's book is used in school as an example of self-hating American
historians, I am delighted. I doubt that is the main use. I tend to
believe that hatred of America is widespread among secondary (and
certainly among college level) history teachers. Such teaching is
unwarranted, cruel and sadistic. Most students will learn little else
of American history and most don't have sufficient critical skills to
recognize evil teachers when they are being taught by such people in
positions of authority.
I consider the use of Howard Zinn's history text, as reliable history, in U.S. history classes as the greatest educational crime in our country. Teaching American students to hate their history is disgraceful and apparently widespread.