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Texas Tribune: How some Texas parents and historians say a new state curriculum glosses over slavery and racism
Texas Tribune - How some Texas parents and historians say a new state curriculum glosses over slavery and racism
Education officials say the materials were designed to be age appropriate but critics argue they repeatedly omit key context and oversimplify history.
By Jaden Edison
Nov. 18, 2024
5 AM Central
A new Texas curriculum seeks to captivate first-grade students with a lesson on Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s historic estate long revered for its French neoclassical architecture and as a symbol of the founding father’s genius.
The lesson teaches about the Virginia property’s pulley system that opened doors, the mechanical clock that kept track of the days and the dumbwaiter that transported dinner from the kitchen to the dining room.
However, if the State Board of Education approves the curriculum when it meets this week, children could miss out on a more crucial aspect of Monticello’s history: It was built using the labor of enslaved people and occupied by hundreds of humans whom Jefferson enslaved.
Since it was proposed by the Texas Education Agency earlier this year, the elementary school reading and language arts curriculum has faced strong opposition from parents, advocates and faith leaders for its heavy use of biblical teachings, which critics say could lead to the bullying and isolation of non-Christian students, undermine church-state separation and grant the state far-reaching control over how children learn about religion.
But less attention has been given to how the curriculum teaches America’s history of racism, slavery and civil rights.
Some parents, academics and concerned Texans argue that the lessons strip key historical figures of their complexities and flaws while omitting certain context they say would offer children a more accurate understanding of America’s past and present.
/snip
Education officials say the materials were designed to be age appropriate but critics argue they repeatedly omit key context and oversimplify history.
By Jaden Edison
Nov. 18, 2024
5 AM Central
A new Texas curriculum seeks to captivate first-grade students with a lesson on Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s historic estate long revered for its French neoclassical architecture and as a symbol of the founding father’s genius.
The lesson teaches about the Virginia property’s pulley system that opened doors, the mechanical clock that kept track of the days and the dumbwaiter that transported dinner from the kitchen to the dining room.
However, if the State Board of Education approves the curriculum when it meets this week, children could miss out on a more crucial aspect of Monticello’s history: It was built using the labor of enslaved people and occupied by hundreds of humans whom Jefferson enslaved.
Since it was proposed by the Texas Education Agency earlier this year, the elementary school reading and language arts curriculum has faced strong opposition from parents, advocates and faith leaders for its heavy use of biblical teachings, which critics say could lead to the bullying and isolation of non-Christian students, undermine church-state separation and grant the state far-reaching control over how children learn about religion.
But less attention has been given to how the curriculum teaches America’s history of racism, slavery and civil rights.
Some parents, academics and concerned Texans argue that the lessons strip key historical figures of their complexities and flaws while omitting certain context they say would offer children a more accurate understanding of America’s past and present.
/snip
4 replies
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