Questioninggeller
18th January 2010, 10:55 AM
It's not just creationism (http://ncse.com/news/2009/05/dont-mess-with-textbooks-004804) that the Texas Board of Education wants in public text books. The fight last week was about history:
History Lessened
Texas Tribune (http://www.texastribune.org/stories/2010/jan/15/history-lessened/)
By Brian Thevenot
Jan 15, 2010
The line in the proposed U.S. History high school curriculum seemed simple enough: “Explain actions taken by people from different racial, ethnic, gender and religious groups to expand economic opportunities and political rights in American society.”
But then State Board of Education member and former chair Don McLeroy, in one of a flurry of amendments at the board’s Friday meeting, wanted to axe the words “racial, ethnic, gender and religious” from that and another similar line. The move provoked deep emotions on a day when several members accused the conservative firebrand and others in his voting bloc of bending American history to suit a right-wing agenda and excising the nation’s history of oppression.
“It’s just redundant,” insisted McLeroy, arguing the standard already said “various groups.”
Other board members didn’t buy it. “It’s not redundant to me,” retorted board member Mavis Knight, who is African-American. “Because the racial and gender groups you are trying to strike overcame great obstacles to make great contributions. … This board is rewriting history, wanting to sanitize anything that might reflect negatively on our country.”
...
When board member Barbara Cargill backed McLeroy, arguing that such exploring of minority groups detracted from teaching students about “the melting pot,” Knight was momentarily speechless. “I need a moment ... I need to gather myself,” she told chair Gail Lowe, who thanked her for her decorum.
“You would have us think we’re in some kind of Utopia that didn’t exist,” Knight continued, after a pause. “Look at what ‘groups’ in society do to keep other ‘groups’ from achieving.You made laws. You burned down something called ‘Black Wall Street’ because you didn’t want them to achieve. … I’m sorry. I have to stop.”
...
Long before the board took up the standards this week, 16 board-appointed committees, largely consisting of educators, had pored over them in multiple daylong sessions. The board charged with high school U.S. history included McLeroy’s appointee, conservative gadfly Bill Ames, who had proposed a slew of right-leaning amendments that were shot down by his fellow committee members, all of them social studies educators. On Friday, McLeroy picked up where Ames left off, trumpeting many of the same additions and deletions Ames had proposed and the curriculum-writing committee had spurned.
McLeroy sought, for instance, to rehabilitate the reputation of red-hunting Senator Joseph McCarthy, adding a line to standards on McCarthyism reading: “and how the later release of the Venona papers confirmed suspicions of communist infiltrations of the U.S. government.” The amendment passed without objection. Another change that had been defeated in the curriculum writing committee, adding “legal and illegal” before “immigration,” also passed. In yet another victory for McLeroy, the board added a new standard describing “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract with America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.”
McLeroy and his fellow conservatives lost votes on other amendments, however. The board had an extended debate over McLeroy wanting to add conservative pundit William F. Buckley, Reagan foreign policy advisor Jeane Kirkpatrick, and former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, among others. Board membver Rick Agosto then countered with an amendment to add liberal stalwart Ted Kennedy, which failed, causing Knight to offer another unsuccessful amendment adding “the Kennedy family.” But then McLeroy’s original proposal also got shot down, in another tie vote, which chairwoman Lowe again declined to break.
As the board was winding down on its social studies deliberations, board member Cynthia Dunbar sought to remove African American activist Marcus Garvey and attorney Clarence Darrow, a leader in the American Civil Liberties Union and the defense attorney in the Scopes Monkey Trial, the landmark case in which a teacher was fined for breaking the law mandating the teaching of creationism.
Most of the debate centered on Garvey. Dunbar argued that Garvey, a Jamaican who led back-to-Africa movement, should be removed because he wasn’t an American citizen. Board member Lawrence Allen pronounced that argument weak, as did some other members. “You may be well aware of Marcus Garvey’s back-to-Africa movement, but I don’t think many people are, or how significant his movement was to other movements that came after,” Allen said. “You’re saying we should take him out just because he wasn’t born here?”
“Yes, my concern is that he was born in Jamaica and was deported,” Dunbar answered.
...
Full: Texas Tribune (http://www.texastribune.org/stories/2010/jan/15/history-lessened/)
History Lessened
Texas Tribune (http://www.texastribune.org/stories/2010/jan/15/history-lessened/)
By Brian Thevenot
Jan 15, 2010
The line in the proposed U.S. History high school curriculum seemed simple enough: “Explain actions taken by people from different racial, ethnic, gender and religious groups to expand economic opportunities and political rights in American society.”
But then State Board of Education member and former chair Don McLeroy, in one of a flurry of amendments at the board’s Friday meeting, wanted to axe the words “racial, ethnic, gender and religious” from that and another similar line. The move provoked deep emotions on a day when several members accused the conservative firebrand and others in his voting bloc of bending American history to suit a right-wing agenda and excising the nation’s history of oppression.
“It’s just redundant,” insisted McLeroy, arguing the standard already said “various groups.”
Other board members didn’t buy it. “It’s not redundant to me,” retorted board member Mavis Knight, who is African-American. “Because the racial and gender groups you are trying to strike overcame great obstacles to make great contributions. … This board is rewriting history, wanting to sanitize anything that might reflect negatively on our country.”
...
When board member Barbara Cargill backed McLeroy, arguing that such exploring of minority groups detracted from teaching students about “the melting pot,” Knight was momentarily speechless. “I need a moment ... I need to gather myself,” she told chair Gail Lowe, who thanked her for her decorum.
“You would have us think we’re in some kind of Utopia that didn’t exist,” Knight continued, after a pause. “Look at what ‘groups’ in society do to keep other ‘groups’ from achieving.You made laws. You burned down something called ‘Black Wall Street’ because you didn’t want them to achieve. … I’m sorry. I have to stop.”
...
Long before the board took up the standards this week, 16 board-appointed committees, largely consisting of educators, had pored over them in multiple daylong sessions. The board charged with high school U.S. history included McLeroy’s appointee, conservative gadfly Bill Ames, who had proposed a slew of right-leaning amendments that were shot down by his fellow committee members, all of them social studies educators. On Friday, McLeroy picked up where Ames left off, trumpeting many of the same additions and deletions Ames had proposed and the curriculum-writing committee had spurned.
McLeroy sought, for instance, to rehabilitate the reputation of red-hunting Senator Joseph McCarthy, adding a line to standards on McCarthyism reading: “and how the later release of the Venona papers confirmed suspicions of communist infiltrations of the U.S. government.” The amendment passed without objection. Another change that had been defeated in the curriculum writing committee, adding “legal and illegal” before “immigration,” also passed. In yet another victory for McLeroy, the board added a new standard describing “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract with America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.”
McLeroy and his fellow conservatives lost votes on other amendments, however. The board had an extended debate over McLeroy wanting to add conservative pundit William F. Buckley, Reagan foreign policy advisor Jeane Kirkpatrick, and former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, among others. Board membver Rick Agosto then countered with an amendment to add liberal stalwart Ted Kennedy, which failed, causing Knight to offer another unsuccessful amendment adding “the Kennedy family.” But then McLeroy’s original proposal also got shot down, in another tie vote, which chairwoman Lowe again declined to break.
As the board was winding down on its social studies deliberations, board member Cynthia Dunbar sought to remove African American activist Marcus Garvey and attorney Clarence Darrow, a leader in the American Civil Liberties Union and the defense attorney in the Scopes Monkey Trial, the landmark case in which a teacher was fined for breaking the law mandating the teaching of creationism.
Most of the debate centered on Garvey. Dunbar argued that Garvey, a Jamaican who led back-to-Africa movement, should be removed because he wasn’t an American citizen. Board member Lawrence Allen pronounced that argument weak, as did some other members. “You may be well aware of Marcus Garvey’s back-to-Africa movement, but I don’t think many people are, or how significant his movement was to other movements that came after,” Allen said. “You’re saying we should take him out just because he wasn’t born here?”
“Yes, my concern is that he was born in Jamaica and was deported,” Dunbar answered.
...
Full: Texas Tribune (http://www.texastribune.org/stories/2010/jan/15/history-lessened/)