The Contrarian reports on more SBOE follies.
A reader passed along a link to this Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel story that shows just how much some members of the State Board of Education are trying to slant social studies classes in Texas.
The newspaper reports:
‘Would you consider yourself a conservative when it comes to patriotism, the constitution, the heritage of our forefathers, etc?’
That was the last question that State Board of Education (SBOE) member Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands, asked SFA’s Education Coordinator Rhonda Williams in an e-mail interview for a spot on the state’s world history curriculum writing committee last December.
Williams was nominated to sit on a writing panel that would help shape the state’s social studies curriculum for the next 10 years. She was hoping that she would be selected for the world history writing committee where she felt her expertise could be best utilized. The writing teams are usually made up of high school and college level educators who help to draft curriculum standards in their respective fields.
Now, a lot of people hold politically conservative views of the Constitution, and that’s perfectly fine.
But can someone explain to me how on Earth anyone could consider themselves conservative or liberal about “patriotism” and “the heritage of our forefathers”?
Clearly, he doesn’t think about these things the way that our SBOE does. You have to be an expert to truly understand the nuances of such a question. In case you’re curious, Ms. Williams apparently did not meet muster for sufficiently conservative patriotism. I guess her education in code words was lacking.
For what it’s worth, at least one member of the SBOE is insisting that we’ve got it all wrong about the social studies review.
There’s been some angst about reports that children biographies of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen F. Austin could be yanked from early grades in new social studies/history curriculum standards currently in the drafting stage.
State Board of Education member Patricia Hardy, R-Fort Worth emphatically says such is not the case.
[…]
“Those suggested biographies are still expected reading,” Hardy says. “To bring consistency to the formatting of the TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) it was decided to remover all reference of specific books from one section of the TEKS.”
Critics simply don’t understand, she says.
“Never did the teachers say that those bios were not to be taught,” Hardy says. “Only the listing in that particular section of the TEKS no longer lists specific books.”
If you say so. I’ll wait and see for myself. The SBOE doesn’t have a whole lot of credibility right now.