Textbook Battle Lines Drawn Over History
March 9, 2010 - 11:14 AM | by: Peter DoocyWhen the Texas State Board of Education meets at the William B. Travis state office building in Austin later today for the start of their meetings that will run through the end of the week, one of the items on their agenda will be potential changes to the Social Studies curriculum.
This subject matter is proving particularly controversial because unlike Math or English -- where there is only one way to teach the subject and answers are easy to define as right or wrong -- Social Studies focuses on history and world events. It is easy, educators and parents argue, for a textbook’s author to tell stories about things in the past in a way favorable to their personal political or religious beliefs.
That’s exactly what people think is going on in Texas this week, as their state Board of Education will debate which historical figures and events are worthy of being taught to schoolchildren. Among the contested subjects this week will be the Vietnam War, the Korean War, the Civil Rights movement, the Cold War, Reconstruction, and the Great Depression.
All Americans need to keep an eye on what the Lone Star state’s BOE settles on, because over 90 percent of American textbooks are based on Texas’ curriculum.
So, if the politically charged 15-member board in Texas decides to get rid of Daniel Boone in favor of Cesar Chavez, or to drop a biography of Dwight D. Eisenhower altogether - all of which have been proposed - then children from New Mexico to New Hampshire might not have any idea about a great American pioneer, or the 34th President of the United States, among other