Yesterday, November 11th, French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a powerful rebuke to United States President Donald Trump when he declared that nationalism was a “betrayal of patriotism” and that “patriotism is exactly the opposite of nationalism.” Many of President Trump’s critics in the media are supporting Macron’s take on nationalism and one can almost understand condemnation of a concept supported by a leader who is so fond of crude populism and authoritarian gestures.

As a New York State social studies teacher for the past thirty-three years and a social studies curriculum coordinator for the past seventeen years, I can say with confidence that New York State teachers should not be leading students toward an understanding as simplistic as that presented by Macron.

I am reminded of the June 2017 Global History and Geography Regents exam taken by New York high school students. It included a “Thematic Essay” in which students addressed the Theme of “Nationalism – Individuals.” The task tested students’ understanding of the idea that individuals have promoted nationalism in order to lead their countrymen to take pride in their culture or to resist foreign rule. Neither of these goals is necessarily bad but students could definitely write about individuals who are arguably representative of malignant forms of nationalism (Otto von Bismarck, Ayatollah Khomeini) as well as figures who could definitely be considered patriots (Mohandas Gandhi, Toussaint L’Overture).

The Regents exam is a benchmark of understandings developed over time. Beginning in middle school students should definitely learn that nationalism (or militant nationalism) is considered a factor contributing to both world wars. But it should also be presented as an element of cultural identity which students are taught to respect and celebrate as early as kindergarten. In high school, nationalism should be studied as an element of authoritarianism as well a factor leading to decolonization movements in the post-World War II period.

Ideally, everyone teaching History in New York public schools would have a solid undergraduate education in History and a nuanced understanding of nationalism as a concept and as an enduring issue. That is not always the case but the New York State Social Studies Framework and New York State social studies assessments make clear that nationalism should not be presented as merely the opposite of patriotism.