Survey: 72 Percent Believe Students Should Be Taught American Exceptionalism, ‘Truth About Slavery’

Seventy-two percent of Americans believe that students should be taught both the “truth about slavery” and that America was founded on the lofty ideals of “freedom, equality, and self-governance,” according to a new Scott Rasmussen survey.

Fully 84 percent believe students should be taught the truth about slavery and 81 percent believe students should be taught America’s founding ideals.

Sixty-four percent of respondents also believe students should be taught that America is “a force for good in the world,” while 15 percent disagree and 21 percent are unsure.

According to the SR survey, 79 percent of respondents who support “Trump-like” policies believe students should be taught that America is a force for good, while 73 percent of “traditional Democrats” and 70 percent of “traditional Republicans” agree.

Comparatively, only 42 percent of respondents who support policies in line with socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) believe American students should be taught this about their country. Thirty percent of this cohort do not believe a positive message should be taught at all.

Additionally, 42 percent of Americans believe children should be taught something closer to the tenets of critical race theory, which, among other things, contends that America was founded on racism and in order to preserve slavery and white supremacy. Forty-four percent disagree.

While some Americans (40 percent) believe students should be taught that America was “founded on noble ideals” but not that it was “founded on racism,” even fewer (30 percent) believe students should be taught both. Nine percent, however, believe that students should be taught the country was founded on racism but none of the noble ideals.

The SR survey was conducted among 1,200 registered voters between December 16 and 17, 2021.

The polling comes as the national debate over education rages on, with many on the left believing that critical race theory should be taught — and they try to hide it under the guise that students ought to learn about slavery when students already do learn about slavery.

Similarly, works like the widely-discredited New York Times “1619 Project,” which attempts to revise the history surrounding America’s founding and even goes as far as to change the date, are being pushed in school districts across the country. Much like the SR survey questions imply, the “1619 Project” purports that America was founded at the arrival of the first African slaves in the New World, and everything thereafter, including and perhaps especially the American Revolution, was done to preserve that institution.

Breccan F. Thies is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @BreccanFThies.