"AUSTIN — After hearing scores of Texans give conflicting advice Wednesday on what to include in new public school history textbooks, the State Board of Education now will have to decide a lot of questions.
The 15-member board will take preliminary votes starting Thursday on new standards for the public school social studies curriculum that will influence history, government, geography and economics textbooks that will be in use by 2013 and last at least a decade.
Texans offered their views at a seven-hour public hearing on a long list of issues: the impact of ethnic minorities, the concept of states' rights, whether the nation's roots are secular or religious, America's role in a global society and why students should be taught about “American exceptionalism,” the idea that the United States is unique among world civilizations through history."
The 15-member board will take preliminary votes starting Thursday on new standards for the public school social studies curriculum that will influence history, government, geography and economics textbooks that will be in use by 2013 and last at least a decade.
Texans offered their views at a seven-hour public hearing on a long list of issues: the impact of ethnic minorities, the concept of states' rights, whether the nation's roots are secular or religious, America's role in a global society and why students should be taught about “American exceptionalism,” the idea that the United States is unique among world civilizations through history."