One of the more interesting — if not enlightening — debates about social studies curriculum standards at the May State Board of Education meeting in Austin focused on the avowed importance of including a study of Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ inaugural address alongside the first and second inaugural addresses and the Gettysburg Address of Abraham […]
social studies
Barton Plays Historian Again (Poorly)
OneNewNow (“the day’s stories from a biblical perspective”) once again features David Barton, the prominent right-wing political activist who pretends to be an accomplished historian, in a story about social studies curriculum standards in Texas public schools. You can read the whole thing for yourself, but a few passages stuck out for us. First, Barton […]
Religious Right Gushes over Texas Standards
No surprise, of course, that religious-right pressure groups and websites are engaged in an orgy of praise for the politicized curriculum standards the State Board of Education has approved for Texas public schools. And just as predictable is their common, deliberately insulting line of argument: anyone who disagrees with them must be a radical leftist […]
Church, State and Cynthia Dunbar
In an article on the website of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, Texas State Board of Education member Cynthia Dunbar is pretending to give history and constitutional lessons about the principle of church-state separation. The article explains that Dunbar’s critics — it focuses largely on the Texas Freedom Network — have been critical about her tasteless […]
Dallas Morning News Publishes TFN Op-Ed
The Dallas Morning News is running an op-ed from Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller about last week’s debacle at the State Board of Education and why Texas must change the way it decides what our children learn in their public schools. Money quote: Throughout the state board’s needlessly drawn-out and divisive debates over standards […]
