Texas debates the way history will be taught (SBOE again)

[sonias]

AAS 12/13/10
Texas debates the way history will be taught

AUSTIN, Texas — Parents, teachers and activists lined up Wednesday for the chance to help shape the way history — topics from the Roman Empire to Texas cosmetics queen Mary Kay Ash — will be taught to millions of Texas children for the next decade.

The State Board of Education began taking testimony ahead of a tentative vote later this week on new social studies curriculum standards that will serve as the framework in Texas classrooms. But, as usual in votes before the conservative-led board, the wide-reaching guidelines are full of potential ideological flashpoints.

Early quibbles over how much prominence to give civil rights leaders such as Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall, and the inclusion of Christmas seem to have been smoothed over. Board Chairman Gail Lowe said at the start of the hearing that Chavez and Christmas will not be removed from the standards.

Yea we get to keep Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall in our textbooks!!! :bounce: :woohoo:

But of course it's not over - the fight over the importance of religion is still at the center and simmering.

Our good friends at the Texas Freedom Network are live blogging the hearing

Texas Freedom Network blog 1/13/2010
Live-Blogging the Social Studies Hearing II

Testimony and our live-blogging will resume after the board returns from a lunch break at 2 p.m. A live, streaming Web cast of the hearing is available here. Click on the January 13 link. SBOE Chair Gail Lowe says the board will end the hearing at 6 p.m., even if there are people still waiting to testify. Mary Helen Berlanga says she and any other board members who join her will stay until everyone has a chance to speak.

TFN Insider will continue blogging from the hearing at 2 p.m. In the meantime, please consider supporting the Texas Freedom Network and our work for sound curriculum standards for Texas public school students. We can continue our work only with your generous support. Please click here to donate.

2:10 – The hearing has resumed, with state Rep. Norma Chavez asking that students be required to learn about important Latino historical leaders, such as Cesar Chavez Irma Rangel and former congressman Henry B. Gonzalez.

TFN rocks!! :yourock:


Sonia

[sonias]

1. God and History Class

Texas Observer blog The Contrarian by Dave Mann 1/13/10
God and History Class

I was never the most attentive student in high school. I confess that my attention sometimes wandered, and I didn't always listen to the lesson.

But I'm reasonably sure my history teacher never instructed me that God saved George Washington's life during the French-Indian War through divine intervention.

If David Barton gets his way, though -- along with other Christian conservatives on the State Board of Education -- that's exactly what Texas school children will be learning in history class.

Starting today, the State Board will gather for what promises to be a rollicking three-day meeting in which the 15 board members will debate how to revise the social studies curriculum for Texas' public school students.

Barton -- a religious conservative, former vice chair of the Texas GOP, and head of the group WallBuilders, which espouses, among other things, ending the separation of church and state -- is one of the experts (and I'm using that term lightly since he has no formal training as an educator or historian) the State Board asked to examine the current social studies curriculum and recommend changes.

Sonia

[white cloud]

2. Pravda Sen. Joseph McCarthy

Pravda
When we last checked in on the U.S. history textbooks standards setting process down in Texas, the conservative-dominated State Board of Education was mulling one-sided requirements to teach high school students about Newt Gingrich, Phyllis Schlafly, and the Moral Majority.

Now, in the home stretch of a process that will set the state's nationally influential standards, a liberal watchdog group is worried that the State Board of Education will try to push through changes to claim that communist-hunting Sen. Joseph McCarthy has been vindicated by history, among other right-wing pet issues.
>>>>
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/the_rehabilitation_of_joseph_mccarthy_texas_textbo.php?ref=fpa

[sonias]

3. Texas SBOE - "McCarthy was basically vindicated" (says McLeroy)

TexasToast posted a similar thread last October. McLeroy was taking up McCarthy's defense. Thise wingos are total history revisionists. Texas Freedom Network has already documented that they're basically parroting each other. Some of the talking parrots keep repeating "Verona papers" (like in Verona, Italy) but in fact they want to reference Venona papers. Just goes to show you they don't even bother to read at all. They just repeat what some idiot they admire says. :crazy:

Texas SBOE - "McCarthy was basically vindicated"


Sonia

[sonias]

4. And so it continues....

Texas Freedom Network blog 1/15/10
Live-Blogging the Social Studies Debate III

(snip)

10:07 – McLeroy wants to change the description of U.S. acquisition of new overseas territories in the late 1800s and early 1900s as “expansionism” instead of “imperialism.” The board’s far-right faction has bristled at the idea that the United States engaged in a form of imperialism at one time. But the historical record is pretty clear: we obtained a number of overseas territories and held on to them through the wars (such as in the Philippines). Recognizing this fact isn’t “anti-American.” It’s real history.

10:09 – Pat Hardy is angry that McLeroy wants to remove a reference to propaganda as contributing to U.S. entry into World War I and warns: “Guys, you’re rewriting history now!” We share Hardy’s frustration at the ignorance on display here. It’s appalling.

10:10 – McLeroy debates whether Margaret Sanger should be in the standards. Board member Terri Leo worries that students might learn she had a positive impact on American society. Really. The board votes to exclude Sanger.

:grr:


Sonia

[sonias]

5. SBOE delays vote until March

AAS Postcards from the Lege blog 1/15/10
SBOE delays vote until March

The State Board of Education delayed its vote on the full social studies curriculum standards until March.

The board members spent about four hours on a high school American history course and were clearly running out of time to complete other work on its agenda that had to be done now.

:shrug:

Sonia