Mini-Series Part 3: LB1024, Teaching About Communism
- Lisa (Admin)
- Jan 25
- 3 min read
My Views Are My Own
By Lisa Schonhoff, Ed.S.
1/25/2025
Legislation
Legislative Bill 1024 would require each Nebraska school district, starting with the 2027-28 school year, to teach the history of communism — worldwide and in the U.S. Current Nebraska statute 79-724 states the following:
(i) Administration of a written test that is identical to the entire civics portion of the naturalization test used by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services prior to the completion of eighth grade and again prior to the completion of twelfth grade with the individual score from each test for each student made available to a parent or guardian of such student.
(b) The benefits and advantages of representative government, the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in our government, and the dangers and fallacies of forms of government that restrict individual freedoms or possess antidemocratic ideals such as, but not limited to, Nazism and communism.
Legislative Bill 1024 provides more concrete details to include instruction regarding America’s Constitutional Republic as well as the “atrocities committed in foreign countries in the name of communism.”
Social Studies Standards
Currently, the Nebraska Department of Education is in the process of revising social studies standards. As I have mentioned in previous blog posts, the Nebraska social studies standards received an extremely low rating from Civics Alliance, “Nebraska’s civics and U.S. History standards are inadequate. In addition to containing little of substance—especially in history—their rigid organization inhibits the complete and logical presentation of content. A complete revision is recommended…Nebraska’s standards largely fail to offer any substantive U.S. History outlining, leaving teachers and districts almost entirely without content guidance.” In the Nebraska Social Studies Standards, communism is mentioned twice, in 7th grade Economics and High School Economics; see the following standards:
SS 7.2.4.a Compare and contrast characteristics of different socio-economic groups in economic systems. For example: traditional, market, command/communism, socialism, feudal, or caste systems - Examine the daily life of the indigenous people of Guatemala as opposed to those in urban areas.
SS HS.2.8 Compare and contrast the roles and responsibilities of government and differing outcomes from various economic systems: command/communism, mixed, socialism, market, and traditional economic systems.
Conclusion
The Founding Fathers “maintained that the success of the fragile American democracy would depend on the competency of its citizens. They believed strongly that preserving democracy would require an educated population that could understand political and social issues and would participate in civic life, vote wisely, protect their rights and freedoms, and resist tyrants and demagogues.” I wholeheartedly support legislation that requires students to have a full and complete understanding of the foundations of our Constitutional Republic. As afterschool socialist clubs begin popping up in high schools across Nebraska, it is clear that basic civics knowledge is lacking. Every student should have an opportunity to discuss countries who voted for socialism and how it has impacted the history of those nations. See recommended reading list below.
Nebraska’s social studies have a great deal of room for improvement. You may provide feedback to the following email: nde.socialstudiesstandardsinput@nebraska.gov. My recommendation is to begin with looking through the high school history and civics standards.
Book Recommendations
Yeonmi Park recounts her harrowing escape from North Korea, enduring starvation, sexual slavery in China, and separation from family before finally reaching freedom in South Korea. She articulates how socialism leads to communism. She speaks at universities about her experiences and has an excellent video you can watch if you are not a reader. Here is a shorter video yet: How Socialism Becomes Communism |Yeonmi Park at Texas A&M University
Jan Wong’s journey from idealistic Maoist student to disillusioned journalist, witnessing China’s transformation through the Cultural Revolution and Tiananmen Square crackdown.
An inside look at Hugo Chavez’s thirteen-year presidency in Venezuela, examining how he transformed from democratic revolutionary to charismatic autocrat while maintaining devoted followers despite national decline.
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