American schools just reported that only 13% of eighth graders are proficient in U.S. history.
A man who went from a Detroit slum to Johns Hopkins neurosurgery has something to say about that.
What he told parents this week is the kind of thing your grandchildren's teachers will never let them hear.
Gen Z Patriotism Just Hit a Record Low and American Schools Are Why
The federal government's own National Report Card confirmed it: only 13% of eighth graders scored at or above proficiency in U.S. history.
That was 2022 and it's gotten worse.
A Gallup poll released last June found that only 41% of Gen Z adults say they are proud to be an American.
The Silent Generation clocks in at 83%.
Something happened between then and now.
Dr. Ben Carson knows exactly what it was.
"It's unfortunately something that happens in a lot of countries before they fall," Carson told The Christian Post. "They neglect their history, or they allow their history to be rewritten."
Every movement that has sought to destroy a nation has followed the same playbook.
"Before you can transform a country, you have to erase its memory," Carson told PJ Media.
The Left has been doing this to American children for thirty years – through the 1619 Project, through DEI curricula, through classrooms that teach kids to see the flag as a symbol of shame rather than sacrifice.
And now we have the results.
Ben Carson Built on Faith and the American Dream the Left Wants Erased
Carson's mother had a third-grade education and could not read.
He grew up in poverty in Detroit with no money, no connections, and no safety net.
But he earned a scholarship to Yale anyway, then a medical degree from the University of Michigan, and wound up running Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins at age 33 – the youngest major division director in the hospital's history.
He later served in Donald Trump's first Cabinet, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and has visited 68 countries.
"I thank God every day that I was born here," Carson said.
His life is the argument.
And that argument is exactly what the Left is trying to bury.
They tell kids that America is a trap – that the deck is stacked, the system is rigged, and that certain groups will never achieve justice in this society.
Carson looked at that narrative and said exactly what his mother used to tell him when he was a child.
Open your eyes and look around you.
What Ben Carson and Riley Gaines Are Doing About America's 250th Anniversary
Rather than just criticizing, Carson acted.
He joined Kirk Cameron and Riley Gaines – the swimmer who beat back the transgender sports agenda – to release a package of children's books through Brave Books, a Texas-based faith-focused publisher trusted by more than 275,000 American families.
The America Wins Bundle, released March 23, includes Carson's Built on Faith, Cameron's Built by the Brave, and Gaines' 1, 2, 3 We Are Free.
The timing is deliberate.
America turns 250 years old this July 4.
"Here we are coming up on 250 years of sustained liberty under the same Constitution," Carson said. "That's pretty significant. Nobody else can claim anything quite like that."
No other nation on earth has done what this one did – taken a collection of militiamen fighting the world's most powerful empire and built, in record time, the greatest civilization in human history.
That story is being stolen from children.
Carson, Cameron, and Gaines are taking it back.
And there is something else Carson pointed to that the media will not cover.
"You may have noticed that a lot of Gen Zers are starting to go back to church," Carson told Fox News Digital, "and are starting to realize that the path we were on can't possibly lead to a good place."
When you strip a generation of its history, its faith, and its identity, some of them eventually figure out they've been robbed.
The Progress They Hide So Your Grandkids Stay Angry
Carson remembered seeing "Whites Only" signs as a child visiting Tennessee.
He watched America go from that – to black admirals, black generals, black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, black university presidents, and a black president of the United States.
All in one lifetime.
"That's an incredible amount of progress in one lifetime," Carson said. "We ought to concentrate on what has allowed that to happen."
That is the question the radical Left will never ask.
Because the answer – faith, liberty, hard work, equal justice under law, the American Constitution – destroys their entire agenda.
The Left controls the classrooms.
Which is exactly why books like these matter.
And why Trump signed an executive order in January 2025 directing federal agencies to promote patriotic education and reestablish the 1776 Commission.
America doesn't need to be perfect to be worth loving.
It needs to be honest.
And when you show American children what this country actually did – starting from nothing, fighting for everything, building something the world had never seen – pride follows naturally.
The only way to prevent it is to hide the truth.
That's what they've been doing.
Carson, at 74, is done letting them.
Sources:
- Samantha Kamman, "Dr. Ben Carson warns of decline in patriotism among youth ahead of America's 250th anniversary," The Christian Post, April 3, 2026.
- Ashley J. DiMella, "Ben Carson points to Gen Z church revival as young Americans push back on secular culture," Fox News Digital, March 29, 2026.
- Valerie Richardson, "Kirk Cameron, Ben Carson, Riley Gaines release patriotic children's books cheering America at 250," The Washington Times, March 24, 2026.
- Matt Margolis, "Make Americans Proud Again," PJ Media, March 28, 2026.
- "Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling," White House Executive Order, January 29, 2025.
