在共产主义受害者国家纪念日之前，美国教育部发布了一封《致同事》信，呼吁全国各地的学校和大学加强对共产主义和社会主义历史及其人道代价的教学。该信函强调了一些州已经采取措施，确保学生了解这些集中化政权所造成的破坏。
Ahead of the National Day for the Victims of Communism, the U.S. Department of Education issued a "Dear Colleague" letter calling on schools and universities across the country to strengthen their instruction on the history and human toll of communism and socialism. The letter highlights states that have already taken steps to make sure students learn about the destruction these centralized regimes caused.
佛罗里达州就是其中之一。该州将11月7日定为共产主义受害者纪念日，并要求在美利坚合众国政府课程中的高中生接受关于共产主义政权及其受害者所遭受苦难的教学。
Florida is one of them. The state recognizes November 7 as Victims of Communism Day and requires high school students in U.S. government courses to receive instruction on communist regimes and how their victims suffered.
但联邦政府不得不提醒学校注意这一点这一事实，恰恰暴露了我们教育体系的失败。
But, the fact that the federal government had to remind schools of this at all reveals a failure in our educational system.
进步教育机器正在崩溃。我们应该让它倒塌。为什么有人必须要求学校教授一套在20世纪夺走超过1亿条生命的意识形态的有据可查的历史？因为教育机构悄然放弃了对经济和政治体系的比较研究。
THE PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION MACHINE IS COLLAPSING. WE SHOULD LET IT FALL Why should anyone have to ask schools to teach the well-documented history of an ideology that claimed more than 100 million lives in the 20th century? Because educational institutions have quietly dropped the comparative study of economic and political systems.
当我上学时，这是历史和经济课程中的一个重要议题。如今它已成了事后才想到的东西。
When I was in school, this was an important topic in history and economics classes. Now it is an afterthought.
数据说明一切。年轻美国人正在爱上……社会主义。其结果是一代毕业生对社会主义政策产生好感，却从未了解这些政策到底造成了什么后果。2025年卡托研究所和尤戈夫的调查显示，30岁以下的美国人中有62%对社会主义持有利态度，超过三分之一的人对共产主义持有利态度。当学生只被教导资本主义的不足之处，却从未学习过集中化国家经济的失败和人权侵犯时，他们自然会认为社会主义是解药。
THE NUMBERS DON’T LIE. YOUNG AMERICANS ARE FALLING IN LOVE … WITH SOCIALISM The result is a generation of graduates who feel an affinity for socialist policies without ever learning what those policies have done. A 2025 Cato Institute and YouGov survey found that 62 percent of Americans under 30 view socialism favorably, and more than a third view communism favorably. When students are taught only the shortcomings of capitalism, without ever studying the failures and human rights abuses of centralized state economies, they naturally assume socialism is the cure.
这就是我写《无共产主义的大学》的原因。目的不是进行党派攻击，而是发出紧迫的教育呼吁。当我们让学生在没有基本理解塑造现代历史的经济哲学的情况下进入劳动力市场时，我们就在犯学术失职。一代人永远不会捍卫他们从未被教授理解的制度。
This is why I wrote College Without Communism. The goal was not a partisan attack. It was an urgent educational plea. We are committing academic malpractice when we send students into the workforce without a basic understanding of the economic philosophies that shaped modern history. A generation will never defend a system it wasn't taught to understand.
如果年轻美国人不知道自由市场是如何运作的，它们如何依赖自愿合作，如何保护个人能动性，以及它们如何让数十亿人摆脱贫困，那么他们就不会在自由消失时意识到这一点。如果他们从未研究过马克思主义意识形态在现实世界中的应用结果，他们就会美化中央计划社会的理想。主教罗伯特·巴伦：共产党人害怕宗教并想让信徒沉默的真正原因如果社会主义意识形态仅仅出现在讲堂的白板上，那么它对20岁大学生的吸引力就说得通了。
If young Americans do not know how free markets work, how they rely on voluntary cooperation, protect individual agency, and have lifted billions out of poverty, they will not recognize when those freedoms disappear. If they never study what happened when Marxist ideology was applied in the real world, they will romanticize the idea of a centrally planned society. BISHOP ROBERT BARRON: THE REAL REASON COMMUNISTS FEAR RELIGION AND WANT BELIEVERS SILENCED The appeal of socialism to a 20-year-old college student makes perfect sense if the ideology only ever appears on a whiteboard in a lecture hall.
在纸面上，社会主义承诺完美的平等、慷慨的安全网和公平。但学生们很少被教授当这些理论离开白板并被强加于真实的人类时会发生什么。
On paper, socialism promises perfect equality, generous safety nets, and fairness. But students are rarely taught what happens when those theories leave the whiteboard and are imposed on real human beings.
他们没有被教授：每当一个国家试图集中计划人类行为、控制价格并自上而下重新分配资源时，它就会制造出严重的短缺，并将权力集中到少数官僚手中。他们也没有被教授：这些政权曾迫害教会、监禁信徒，并试图用对国家的信仰取代对上帝的信仰。
They are not taught that whenever a state tries to centrally plan human behavior, control prices and redistribute resources from the top down, it creates crushing shortages and concentrates power into the hands of a few bureaucrats. They are not taught that these regimes have persecuted churches, imprisoned believers, and tried to replace faith in God with faith in the state.
我们不需要灌输学生。我们需要给他们完整的历史背景，以便他们能够诚实地比较这些体系。教导他们，经济自由和个人自由是同步兴衰的。一个惩罚成功以强制平等的社会将耗尽使任何人摆脱贫困所需的资源。资本主义虽然不完美，但它是唯一一个始终奖励创造力、鼓励竞争、赋予个人而非国家权力的体系。
We do not need to indoctrinate our students. We need to give them the complete historical context to compare these systems honestly. Teach them that economic freedom and personal liberty rise and fall together. A society that punishes success to enforce equality will run out of the resources needed to lift anyone out of poverty. Capitalism, while imperfect, is the only system that has consistently rewarded ingenuity, encouraged competition, and empowered the individual instead of the state.
纪念共产主义受害者国家日是为了铭记过去，但它也是对未来的一课。如果我们希望下一代美国领导人能够倡导繁荣、创新和向上流动，他们需要看到当理论离开讲堂时会发生什么。
The National Day for the Victims of Communism is a day to remember the past, but it is also a lesson for our future. If we want the next generation of American leaders to champion prosperity, innovation, and upward mobility, they need to see what happens when the theory leaves the lecture hall.
我们不能指望一代人去捍卫他们从未被教导理解的自由。是时候让美国教育来教导他们了。
We cannot expect a generation to defend a freedom it was never taught to understand. It is time for American education to teach them.