My favorite kind of post: a guest-written one. The following post on the ongoing textbook debate in Texas was kindly contributed by Britney Wilkins, who writes about the online universities. She welcomes your feedback at BritneyWilkins81 at yahoo.com. Also check out her website .
There has been a recent debate within lawmakers in Texas over the curriculum in American history classes, moving past the recent “evolution” debate in Texas a few months ago. While there was originally debate over the importance of specific characters within history that many lawmakers did not agree with, the conflict has now moved to the implications which religious theology should have in social studies textbooks. Three of the reviewers of the curriculum have been striving to emphasize the roles of the Bible, the Christian faith, and the civic virtue of religion in the study of American history while two of them want to remove reference to “liberal” iconic figures like César Chávez or Thurgood Marshall.
This debate has in turn sparked controversy around the state, even within the national arena because of the blatant agenda pushing that many partisan voters contend is going on within the legislature. K-12 textbooks have always been a tricky subject for many lawmakers to deal with, since they have to develop a curriculum that can reach all ends of the spectrum while still providing students with a balanced view of their own state. On one side of the review board, lawmakers have the social conservatives who feel that teaching about such figures affects the “moral and spiritual soul of America” while the other camp contends that there should be more references to Latinos and Native Americans who helped mold Texas history. The Texas Board of Education is going about this the right way at least, and allowing social studies teachers from around Texas to cast their recommendations to the board in order to revise the standards.
The reviewers appointed by the liberal/moderate board members are all professors of history or education at Texas universities while the reviewers appointed by conservatives include two who run conservative Christian organizations and a professor of public affairs. One of these conservative reviewers happens to be Rev. Marshall who preaches that Watergate, the Vietnam War, and Hurricane Katrina were God’s judgments on the nation’s sexual immorality. While these reviewers may not appear to be the best candidates for revising school textbooks, the Board has contended that they have the two extremes of the political spectrum well represented. The conservative reviewers maintain that children need to be taught that the nation was founded based on biblical principles and the curriculum should clearly present Christianity as an overall force for good within American exceptionalism. This point of view seems to nearly step on the toes of the separation of church and state which pervade over many education standards, and has caused many historians to discover that the new curriculum will be more politically motivated than ever before. The real ‘debaters’ of the new curriculum should be trained academics, rather than representatives of extreme right and left viewpoints so that they can adequately contend what is important for children to learn in social studies classes.
While this new curriculum will not dictate teacher’s daily lesson plans, publishers will still include the new modes of teaching within their textbooks which will impact students around the state. This debate has begun to impact national circles as more school boards around the country have taken notice of Texas’ seemingly religious debate and have begun to question their own social studies curriculum. Textbooks should not have a political purpose, but it seems that this is inevitable in modern society.
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