Amna Nawaz:
The rise of what’s known as edutainment, the integration of entertainment with educational content, has become a billion-dollar industry. The conservative PragerU has positioned itself as a major player in this space by producing short educational videos on a range of topics that are now showing up in more classrooms.
Stephanie Sy examines what it could mean for school districts moving forward and why critics are alarmed.
Actress:
Yes, but what about slavery?
Stephanie Sy:
They’re lessons designed for young learners…
Actor:
Slavery is as old as time and has taken place in every corner of the world.
Stephanie Sy:
… where historical figures like Christopher Columbus come back to life to defend themselves.
Actor:
Being taken as a slave is better than being killed, no?
Stephanie Sy:
And with the help of artificial intelligence, introduce themselves to a new generation.
Actor:
I am John Adams, blunt, stubborn, and the indispensable voice for independence in the Continental Congress.
Stephanie Sy:
These videos are courtesy of PragerU, a nonprofit conservative advocacy group now partnering with the White House on a new exhibit in Washington.
Actor:
There is no greater calling than to teach young people.
Stephanie Sy:
Since its founding in 2009, PragerU has built a massive online audience with more than three million YouTube subscribers by creating videos for both kids and adults.
Actor:
The fear that fuels the climate crisis is simply not justified by the data.
Stephanie Sy:
Exploring topics ranging from climate change to what its content creators deem to be similarities between wokism and radical Islam.
Actress:
Islamists shout “Allahu akbar” and “Death to America.” The woke shout, “Black lives matter and I can’t breathe.”
Jonathan Zimmerman, University of Pennsylvania: The first thing to know about Prager University is that it is not a university. It’s a conservative activist organization that was started by Dennis Prager, who was a right-wing radio host.
Stephanie Sy:
Jonathan Zimmerman is an education historian at the University of Pennsylvania.
Jonathan Zimmerman:
What it does is, it creates video content that it’s hoping is adopted in school systems.
Stephanie Sy:
Florida was the first state to approve PragerU’s materials for K-12 classrooms in 2023.
Woman:
Inequality is a fact of life. Any economy will always have people who are much wealthier than others.
Stephanie Sy:
While no states are requiring teachers to use Prager content, about 10 states are allowing teachers to do so if they choose. And, in Oklahoma, Prager is playing another role.
Ryan Walters, Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction: We have to make sure that the teachers in our classroom, as we’re recruiting these individuals, aren’t a bunch of woke Marxist activists. And PragerU stepped right in.
Stephanie Sy:
The state superintendent will require teachers coming from New York and California to be screened for so-called leftist ideologies using a Prager-developed exam.
The organization’s CEO, Marissa Streit, has said it’s needed to undo the damage of gender ideology.
Marissa Streit, CEO, PragerU:
Part of what this test is doing is, it’s actually recalibrating what is happening in the classrooms. It’s reminding teachers to focus on what matters. It’s reminding teachers to actually look at the world through common sense, a lens of common sense.
Stephanie Sy:
PragerU’s rise comes at a polarizing time that has turned school board meetings into political flash points. Over the last decade, at least 20 states have passed laws or policies that restrict how history can be taught in schools.
Donald Trump, President of the United States: We have an education system that teaches our children to be ashamed of themselves in many cases, to hate our country.
Stephanie Sy:
Earlier this year, President Trump signed an executive order promoting — quote — “patriotic education,” a phrase usually associated with authoritarian regimes.
Jonathan Zimmerman:
Americans have always debated what their schools should do and should teach. This isn’t new. But at the same time, I think the whole idea of the president of the United States decreeing what a school should be teaching or not, that’s extremely new, because in the past it was almost entirely a state and a local matter.
Stephanie Sy:
Also relatively new, the ability to quickly reach mass audiences outside of the classroom. PragerU has more than 11 million followers across social media.
Woman:
Martin Luther King Jr. protested discrimination against Blacks on city buses by boycotting city buses.
Stephanie Sy:
And while some of their videos are grounded in facts, critics say they’re often presented with a clear ideological perspective.
Woman:
Am I saying racist cops don’t exist? Of course not. But I would say this. Blacks have a lot more to fear from Black criminals than from the police.
Jonathan Zimmerman:
There’s been a little bit of misinformation about the Prager videos, because a lot of people on the left have reported that they’re teaching falsehoods. And I think that’s too facile. Again, there are some falsehoods in the videos, but that’s not the problem with the videos.
The problem with the videos is they pretend that they’re simply factual. That doesn’t mean they’re false. It means they have a very distinct perspective.
Stephanie Sy:
This is one often cited…
Actor:
My name is Frederick Douglass. Welcome to 1852.
Stephanie Sy:
.. featuring one of America’s most well-known abolitionists.
Actor:
There was no real movement anywhere in the world to abolish slavery before the American founding. Slavery was part of life all over the world. It was America that began the conversation to end it.
Stephanie Sy:
While some early Quaker settlers in Pennsylvania were abolitionists, the animated video ignores the fact that the U.S. was one of the last Western countries to abolish slavery.
Jonathan Zimmerman:
So to imagine the United States was somehow a leader in worldwide anti-slavery, that’s not a matter of perspective. That’s a matter of facts. And, on that one, Prager has the facts wrong.
Actor:
How can you come here to the 15th century and judge me by your standards from the 21st century? For those in the future to look back and do this is, well, estupido.
Stephanie Sy:
In explaining this video featuring Christopher Columbus, PragerU told the News Hour that: “Historical figures must be understood within the context and standards of their own era.”
Sam Cole, 404 Media: Kids think in very black-and-white terms often. Kids aren’t really prepared to understand the nuance of some of the topics that they’re talking about.
Stephanie Sy:
Sam Cole is a technology journalist and a co-founder of 404 Media. She says PragerU appeals to parents’ anxieties about what side teachers fall on in the culture wars.
Sam Cole:
Is my kid learning something about gay marriage or something that I don’t prove of that’s outside of my beliefs while they’re at school and I can’t watch them? So, if they say, oh, well, PragerU is watching your kids, I think it’s very comforting for a lot of the folks who align with that ideology.
Stephanie Sy:
PragerU didn’t make anyone available for an interview by our deadline, but they provided “News Hour” this statement, writing in part that — quote — “Too often, history and civics are taught through a narrow politicized lens that highlights America’s flaws, while ignoring her incredible achievements. PragerU offer something different, educational content that is fact-based, values-driven and rooted in love of country.”
Charlie Skyes, Radio Talk Show Host:
There’s been a long-term project to create an alternative intellectual infrastructure to replace the liberal institutions, a liberal academia with something else.
Stephanie Sy:
Charlie Skyes is a former conservative talk show radio host who now hosts his own podcast. He’s also an MSNBC contributor. He says PragerU is part of a larger, more ambitious goal.
Charlie Skyes:
To come up with a counterpoint to public television, public radio, to the Harvards and the Yales of the world. If you can create your own infrastructure, kind of a mirror right-wing infrastructure, that would be certainly one of the goals that people have dreamed about for many years on the right.
Robert Pondiscio, American Enterprise Institute:
Was there equal coverage of conservative fears about The 1619 Project, of Howard Zinn’s history of the American people?
Stephanie Sy:
Robert Pondiscio of the American Enterprise Institute says the classroom has never been a politically neutral space, and with more than 13,000 schools across the nation, teachers still have enormous freedom in designing instruction.
Robert Pondiscio:
The permission structure exists for vested interests of all political stripes to take advantage of what is a captive audience of children in every schoolhouse in this country.
Actor:
This is a crucial time in our nation’s history.
Stephanie Sy:
Now another crucial time, where debates in the classroom about our nation’s past may end up shaping our future.
For the “PBS News Hour,” I’m Stephanie Sy.
