So I admit that I am not the most qualified person to voice an opinion on this, which is why I’d love to hear your opinions. This New York Times article from last month talks about the Texas Board of Education and their vote to make their history curriculum standards much more conservative. This affects not just the children of Texas, but the children of the nation, as Texas is a large state and a large purchaser of textbooks. This means that textbook companies will tailor their book content to Texas’s standards.
It seems this debate has become another battle of Democrats versus Republicans, and what I want to know is why education is being politicized at all? The most concerning paragraph of this entire article – for me – was: “There are seven members of the conservative bloc on the board, but they are often joined by one of the other three Republicans on crucial votes. There were no historians, sociologists or economists consulted at the meetings, though some members of the conservative bloc held themselves out as experts on certain topics.”
Why, why, WHY are we allowing elected officials with next-to-no knowledge of the subject matter make these types of decision for us? We are educating our future voters and leaders. Should they not be presented with both sides of the issues and allowed to analyze the facts, thereby reaching their own conclusions? You know, be taught to THINK for THEMSELVES instead of being spoon-fed the rhetoric of whichever party happens to be in power at the time?
And why are we not consulting with the experts before these decisions are made? Historians spend their lives researching the truth in our history and are in a better place to determine what should be taught to our kids, in my opinion.
I’d love for parents, teachers, voters, and historians to weigh in on this…but be nice! This should be an open debate. Be respectful of each other’s opinions. Any hostile comments will be rejected.
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