"The smoke signals from the state Board of Education were unmistakable: This was going to be war.
One by one, significant Latino figures were unceremoniously dumped from certain areas of the social studies curriculum that public school teachers will use starting in 2013. One of the more egregious of all: booting United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta from the third-grade curriculum as an example of a good citizen.
Wednesday's public hearing was foreboding. A board majority ended the proceeding at 6 p.m. even though several dozen people who'd waited all day to speak about proposed changes to the state's social studies curriculum were still in the audience. Some had traveled hundreds of miles. Their arguments probably would have been repetitive. But the SBOE is an elected body. Its members have an obligation to listen."
One by one, significant Latino figures were unceremoniously dumped from certain areas of the social studies curriculum that public school teachers will use starting in 2013. One of the more egregious of all: booting United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta from the third-grade curriculum as an example of a good citizen.
Wednesday's public hearing was foreboding. A board majority ended the proceeding at 6 p.m. even though several dozen people who'd waited all day to speak about proposed changes to the state's social studies curriculum were still in the audience. Some had traveled hundreds of miles. Their arguments probably would have been repetitive. But the SBOE is an elected body. Its members have an obligation to listen."