Fake History in Texas

According to the New York Times, a group of ten socially conservative Texas Board of Education members have won a decisive victory for determining the content of the state's social studies and economics curricula for the next decade.  No historians or economists were consulted in making the changes, which will affect more than 6.5 million students over the next ten years.  The highlights:

(1)  The new guidelines call into question the separation of church and state through hundreds of minor changes.

(2)  new material on 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

(3)  assurances that the violent ideology of the Black Panthers be covered alongside the non-violent approach of Martin Luther King Jr.

(4)  new sections emphasizing Republican contributions to Civil Rights legislation.

(5)  an amendment to the guidelines suggesting students study the "unintended consequences" of Great Society legislation, affirmative action, and Title IX

(6)  an amendment clarifying that not only Japanese-Americans, but German-Americans and Italian-Americans also were imprisoned during World War II, to counter the notion that the internment was racially motivated

(7)  inclusion of the Venona Papers as a partial vindication of McCarthyism  

(8)  discussion of Milton Friedman and Friedrich von Hayek among traditional economic luminaries Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes

(9)  replacement of the word "capitalism," which has a negative connotation in some quarters, with the phrase "free-enterprise system."

(10)  an amendment requiring the teaching of personal responsibility for life choices in a section on teen suicide, dating violence, sexuality, drug use, and eating disorders

(11)  the removal of the name Thomas Jefferson from a list of luminaries whose writings inspired revolutions in the late 18th and early 19th century and the replacement with Saint Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, and William Blackstone to emphasize that the American Revolution was a Christian one 

On the surface the modification of public school textbooks along ideological or religious lines is pretty disturbing, yet some of the changes of the Texas Board of Education are valid.  The inclusion of otherwise neglected materials - such as the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, the Black Panthers, unintended consequences of landmark legislation, German and Italian internment during World War II, the Venona Papers, and of course, the economic theories of Friedman and Hayek (Although I'm surprised at the latter's inclusion, since knowledgeable social conservatives generally oppose Hayek's moral relativism and humanism.) - is to be lauded.

That being said, this additional material must be covered in the classroom as historical fact and apolitically; likewise for the welfare reforms of Bill Clinton, the Counterculture, the election of Barack Obama, etc.  America's public school curricula in general suffer from the whitewashing of American History into a cohesive and heroic narrative.  Most students learn about Shays's Rebellion and Al Smith, but the true dark underbelly of American History has thus far been left largely to Howard Zinn and Martin Scorsese.  It's time America treats its high school students like adults: we should teach them about American roots of eugenics, the government program to distribute poisoned alcohol during prohibition, the Weathermen, and Guantanamo Bay, so that history doesn't repeat itself.     

It is absolutely necessary it be made clear to high school students that the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion, nor is the United States founded as an anti-Christian nation, as many atheists would have us believe.  Not that it matters, but the majority of the Founding Fathers were Deists or Unitarian Universalists; as such they deeply explored religious doctrine, questioned dogma, and exulted dispassionate reason over blind faith.  It is doubtful that the Texas curricular changes seek to foster such an atmosphere.  But none of that matters, because the United States government and the Christian religion have no overlap whatsoever.

One could argue that politicization of education is an inevitable consequence of public schools with electable school boards; but school board members can and should both show restraint in acting on their own biases and defer to experts when formulating curricula.  In this case, the Texas school board did neither.  While the new textbooks have yet to be prepared, historical inaccuracies are already leaping off their pages: the idea that German and Italian internments during World War II are comparable with that of Japanese-Americans would be laughable if it weren't so invidious.  One tenth as many Germans as Americans of Japanese descent were placed in prison camps during World War II, and this was on an individual basis with most of the internees not being U.S. citizens.  The vast majority of imprisoned Japanese-Americans were U.S. citizens identifying with Japan to the same degree as I identify with Sweden; their internment was collective and assuredly racially based.

The fact that there were communist agents working within the U.S. government in the years during and immediately after World War II as made apparent by the Venona Papers does not justify McCarthyism, just as the fact that terrorists exist does not justify encroachments on civil liberties.  The replacement of the word "capitalism" with "free-enterprise system" is just ridiculous, destined to confuse students across the state.  

It is not the job of public schools to teach morality, but rather reading, writing, and arithmetic.  Personal responsibility for one's actions shouldn't be taught at school; it is something that parents must teach at home, or that should be taught at church.

Comments

[jessica]

The public school system was high-jacked by far left agendas over 20 years ago! Although, the Texas Board of Education has made modifications that are indeed extreme...it is ridiculous not to recognize that they are reacting to all the agendas that had been stuffed down their throat previously. Children have been learning about sex, and whatever gay and lesbian agendas; La Raza has taken over the education of Mexican American studies in schools where there is a latino majority; and above all the public school system has been destroying the names of the Founding Fathers as "racist white men" for quite some time. Thus, this new conservative right-wing lens that has become the focus of Texas' public school education is a counter-point to all the other extreme ideologies! Furthermore, it is insane as an American to say that the public school is not responsible to teach morality! What the heck do you think public education is?! the whole point is to create and prepare the next generation of this country to thus secure the future prosperity of the U.S! Yes, the American schools should promote patriotism and be very strict to provide high standards of morality, and even more all their history should favor American exploits..after all, they are footing the bill.

[Joseph Cox]

Jessica,

why start with the last twenty years? Surely the left wing infiltration of education stretches back to Darwin. Personally I think Socrates got the ball rolling back in gay ole Greece.

At some point shouldn't we just try to tell kids the truth and not what we wish was the truth? Downplaying Jefferson, perhaps the single most important founding father intellectually, demonstrates the hallowness of this "correction" you're defending. Jefferson stands for personal freedom and intellectual self-determination, something that you and the board of education in Texas evidently don't appreciate.

You can be patriotic without pretending your country never does bad things. It's impossible to love people if you don't understand who they are. America is wonderful not because if it's perfection, but because of it's warm hearted intentions and resiliant adaptability in the face of adversity. It has erred often, but it forever presses towards that "more perfect union."

[Christopher Carr]

Children should absolutely learn about sex in school. Sex is the basis for the reproduction of nearly all macroscopic organisms, and as such is an important component of biological science. Disease especially is something that should be taught in schools. It's unfair to deprive children of true knowledge that will help them make informed choices as adults. It is important especially that we see sexually transmitted disease not as God's retribution for poor moral choices but as a public health problem that should be solved with a dispassionate approach to science and public policy.

I agree that modern parlance and moral standards should not be used to castigate the Founding Fathers as individuals. Their political theories should be studied as the essential underpinnings of American government. Will future generations judge Albert Einstein and Norman Borlaug as barbaric because they ate meat, or because they were part of a society that allowed continued atrocities in Africa and elsewhere? We can all agree that that would be unfair, and so I agree that presentations of the Founding Fathers as racist white men are unfair.

The point of this article is to point out one particular example of the egregious politicization of public school curricula. I attended public schools in Massachusetts through eighth grade and can recount more than a few times where I felt I was being indoctrinated. My school had an annual "Diversity Day" where the all-white town would go out of its way to shower praise on the few (doubtlessly embarrassed) Jewish and African-American families. I learned in my seventh grade social studies class that the map produced by Gerardus Mercator purposely exaggerated the size of European countries at the expense of the "inferior" tropics, when in actuality, the Mercator projection was one of the most important scientific achievements ever and totally apolitical.

Your contention that schools should instill patriotism and promote American exceptionalism by ignoring historical realities is frankly shocking. That the Texas Board of Education seeks to counterbalance curricula for imagined or real liberal biases is unfortunate, and this tit-for-tat master-slave battle to the death overflowing into public school curricula is exactly the problem that I am attempting to describe in this article. I would like to avoid comparisons to Hitler as much as possible, but the idea that the job of public schools is to "create and prepare the next generation of this country to thus secure the future prosperity of the U.S" reeks of National Socialism. As with polite dinner conversation, schools should teach facts and critical thinking skills and leave politics and religion to parents and churches.

[Josh]

Excellent article Carr. Very well laid out. In this video, a texas board of education member talks about the importance of stressing American exceptionalism. Her qualifications for making this assessment are "being the mother of three boys in high school, being around all their friends, and being on the PTA." On the school board no less. Crazy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfdz7b8jNnc

Also, "La Raza has taken over the education of Mexican American studies in schools where there is a latino majority." What does that even mean? That's one of the strangest, more racist things I've heard.

[jessica]

Christopher,

To be honest i thoroughly enjoyed the article....and i must say the only thing that reeks of national socialism is the new healthcare bill but i'm sure you will discuss that another time. my point was simply this, the public school system must work in the favor of the country and government that financially supports it. i know liberals would like to think that objectivity is achievable even at a elementary level, but it's just not true! that is exactly what higher education is for. i don't believe that texas is making modifications that will benefit the actual learning and critical thinking skills of their students. this is simply a backlash, nevertheless you cannot attack them for taking an initiative that has already been taken by the left. I'm sorry, but destroying america's reputation through the revision of history is not unveiling truth. it is dishonest because it needing in its own agenda. That is my only point...the agendas of race, religion, and politics are inevitable. I went a baptist high school in san francisco if you can imagine that! i knew that these people were trying to indoctrinate me everyday with their bob jones university curriculum, however we also debated every single day because the only white Baptists in the school were the teachers...i appreciate my education because if it was not for the environment, culture, and politics clashing overtly with the curriculum i would have never been given an opportunity to truly evaluate my being in my society. So to lash out at texas for promoting unrealistic ideals like many other schools do, is not fair. this is not about being right or wrong its about the equality in perspective..."all animals are equal but some are more equal than others". why can inner city areas with a high ethnicity ratio promote La Raza (yes, i said it again) and exclusively black ideals? why can muslims have a free pass at hatred but not other religions? i'm just saying, lets distribute the fallacies in education equally.

[Joseph Cox]

Shouldn't you just condemn anyone who is wrong instead of trying to average out the wrongs into a giant, but nonpartisan lie? They are lying about history in Texas, openly and without shame. They are in charge of the school board, and they use that power to indoctrinate children. You should be outraged as a conservative. After all, if a school sings a song about Obama then that we might as well live in North Korea. If the President of the United States tells kids to try hard then, hello indoctrination.

Instead, because its the right team, you defend them. I don't support any of the things you cite in your article. I also don't know if they exist. But thats a different point. I could see La Raza teaching a course about Latin pride, but if they are teaching anything beyond that this it is an infringement. Fight back against fake history, but don't engage and encourage further distortions.