Dear Fellow Library Media People,
I have been posting on various forums what our Texas SBOE is doing to our
history/social studies curriculum and possibly influencing textbooks that
will be used nationwide. I belong to H-Texas History forum (an excellent,
scholarly discussion group) and this arrived in my e-mail today. I have
signed the letter, and invite any of you who want to, to also sign. You may
want to share the information with your history teacher collegues so they
can sign, too.
Thank you.
Betty Dawn Hamilton (Using retired years to keep up with current events!)
LMS (Middle & High School)
Former Chair of Texas Association of School Librarians
Former Contributing Editor of "Profession" section, Texas Library Journal
Brownfield, TX
bhamilt@hughes.net
----- Original Message -----
To: <H-TEXAS@H-NET.MSU.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 3:05 PM
Subject: Historians speak out about social studies in Texas
Dear fellow list members,
As you have probably heard from reports in the national media, the Texas
State Board of Education is revising the state's social studies curriculum,
the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). Though numerous errors are
circulating in the media, it is true that a majority of the board has voted
to approve a curriculum that minimizes the history and significance of
diversity in the state and emphasizes narrow ideological partisanship over
broader education and critical thinking. Information about the review
process and an online archive of media coverage is available at
http://tekswatch.utep.edu.
The Texas State Board of Education will hold a final public hearing about
the standards in the middle of May. Historians at the University of Texas at
Austin and the University of Texas at El Paso have drafted the letter for
presentation before the hearing. Please read the letter and consider signing
it by visiting http://sensiblehistory.blogspot.com/p/letter.html. Feel free
to pass it along to colleagues in other settings.
Thank you for your willingness to assist in this effort.
Keith A. Erekson
Assistant Professor of History
Director, Center for History Teaching & Learning
The University of Texas at El Paso
500 W. University, El Paso, TX 79968-0532
(915) 747-5878, Fax: (915) 747-5948
kaerekson@utep.edu
http://faculty.utep.edu/kaerekson
Open Letter to the Texas State Board of Education
Public schools must provide students with a sound elementary and high school
education that prepares them to succeed in college and their future careers.
Such a sound education must be fair, accurate and balanced and it must be
based on rigorous, mainstream scholarship, not on ideological agendas.
Those of us who teach and conduct research in colleges and universities have
grown concerned, however, that social studies curriculum standards in Texas
do not meet student needs. We also believe that the Texas State Board of
Education has been derelict in its duty to revise the public school
curriculum. In short, recent proposals by Board members have undermined the
study of the social sciences in our public schools by misrepresenting and
even distorting the historical record and the functioning of American
society.
Some of the problematic revisions that they have proposed include:
* Weakening the study of constitutional protections for religious
liberty that keep government out of matters of faith;
* Minimizing the struggle of women and ethnic minorities for equal and
civil rights;
* Striking Thomas Jefferson from a world history standard about the
influence of Enlightenment thinkers on political changes since the 1700s;
* Excluding an important historical figure from Latin America because
some board members did not recognize him
The integrity of the curriculum revision process has been compromised and we
propose that the Board restore the trust of the public and the academic
community by proceeding as follows:
* Delay the final adoption of social studies curriculum standards;
* Allow curriculum teams and a new panel of qualified, credentialed
content experts from the state's colleges and universities to review changes
that the Board has made and prepare a new draft of the standards that is
fair, accurate and balanced;
* Permit the public to review and comment on the new draft of the
standards before final adoption;
* Make final changes to the draft of the standards only after public
consultation with classroom teachers and scholars who are experts in the
appropriate fields of study.
Like all members of the Texas State Board of Education, we have a vested
interest in giving our schoolchildren the tools that they need to succeed in
college and their future careers. For genuine college and work readiness to
occur the Board must adhere to a more transparent, fair, and inclusive
process of curriculum revisions, and it must make full and effective use of
the faculty and researchers from our colleges and universities in Texas who
can offer expert assistance and guidance.
Organizing Committee
Emilio Zamora (co-chair), University of Texas at Austin
Jeffrey P. Shepherd, University of Texas at El Paso
Anne M. Martínez, University of Texas at Austin
Laurie B. Green, University of Texas at Austin
Keith A. Erekson (co-chair), University of Texas at El Paso
Ernesto Chavez, University of Texas at El Paso
Sam Brunk, University of Texas at El Paso
[END]
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