Over the past few days, the language used to describe the Supreme Court's decision to strike down segregated public education has been inspiring. Nevertheless, when I learned that my son's school intended to celebrate the 50th anniversary of that Supreme Court decision this spring, I felt somehow less inspired. The problem was not the principle, but the context.

I hope most American children are given more context, and I'm sure that many are. But if they aren't, that won't be surprising. The larger problem in many schools is an apolitical one: Nowadays, history is too often drained of any meaning, left- or right-wing, whatsoever.

A recent review of grade school textbooks found a huge variety of staggering flaws, from phony attempts at relevance, such as comparisons of Odysseus to Indiana Jones, to bad writing and design. Proliferating cartoons, sidebars and trivia drown out the main narrative.