The Texas State Board of Education‘s approval in January of a requirement that students study the ideas in the inaugural address of Confederate President Jefferson Davis hasn’t received a lot of attention. Far-right board member Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands, proposed that addition to the eighth-grade American history curriculum standards. In states that once made up the […]
social studies
How the Right Is Rewriting History
A McClatchy Newspapers piece today notes that the Texas State Board of Education‘s appalling revision of social studies curriculum standards isn’t an isolated case of the political right rewriting history. Moreover, many of the “facts” in the right’s versions of historical events are just flat wrong. Money quote: The effort in Texas and nationwide is […]
UT Faculty Focus on Social Studies Standards
Faculty members at the state’s largest public university clearly are growing increasingly wary as they watch the State Board of Education vandalize and politicize social studies curriculum standards for Texas public schools. Two upcoming events will highlight their concerns. The Texas IP Fellows will host a debate over the proposed social studies standards at 3 p.m. […]
The Federal Reserve and the Bible
Perhaps others were just as puzzled as we were when the religious-right bloc on the Texas State Board of Education went after the Federal Reserve System earlier this month. At the board’s March 11 meeting, Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands, proposed the following standard for revised curriculum standards for high school economics: “(A)nalyze the decline in value […]
A Real Historian Responds
Why do members of the Texas State Board of Education insist on rejecting guidance from real experts? Case in point: far-right board members continue to argue that they were justified in removing Thomas Jefferson, primary author of the Declaration of Independence, from a key curriculum standard for high school world history courses. Those board members […]
