Course includes lesson plans developed with Hillsdale College
The Defense Department’s planned Western civilization course will draw on “The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition, Volume I: The Ancient World and Christendom,” a textbook published by Encounter Books, a conservative publishing house. The textbook includes suggested lesson plans created in partnership with Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian school in Michigan that has also developed influential materials for K-12 schools.
The Department of Defense is introducing the course this fall in schools it operates for military families, part of an effort by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to redirect the education system toward patriotic values and classical learning.
The Department of Defense Education Activity, or DoDEA, runs about 160 schools across 11 countries and educates roughly 70,000 students who are children of active-duty military or civilian service members.
Unlike most U.S. public schools, which answer to state and local authorities, DoDEA campuses are run directly by the federal government. That federal structure has made the system attractive to conservatives as a testing ground for reshaping K-12 education.