A Wall Street Journal piece today on the Texas State Board of Education’s politicization of proposed social studies curriculum standards notes one particularly outrageous change the board’s far-right faction made (which we have already reported about) back in January. Check out the quote from board member Don McLeroy:
Debate about certain provisions has been intense. For instance, one revision would change what first-graders learn about their civic duty.
The previous standards, a decade old, defined good citizenship as “a belief in justice, truth, equality and responsibility for the common good.” The new standards talk about respect for others, personal responsibility, and the importance of voting and of “holding public officials to their word.”
Board member Don McLeroy, who leads the most conservative bloc on the board, said that “responsibility for the common good” does not belong in the standards because it is “a liberal notion” that edges toward communist philosophy.
“Most of the great tragedies in the world have been done in the name of humanitarian, utopian ideals,” he said.
Teaching students that being a good citizen includes the concept of responsibility for the common good is communistic? Really? What great tragedies does McLeroy think could come from that? The revised standard also drops the concept of justice from the definition of good citizenship. Is “justice” communistic, too? McLeroy must be really unhappy with the folks who write Marxist claptrap like “promote the general Welfare.”
