The Brief: Top Texas News for Jan 12, 2010
THE BIG CONVERSATION
Just because the Republican debates will make for good television, don’t forget the joys of a live show. Today, the State Board of Education is coming to town.
Couched between graduation requirements and investment strategy, the fireball will be the social studies curriculum (and the public testimony around it).
It's largely a debate over which historical figures to include — and the racial and ethnic backgrounds of those figures. Include more minorities and civil rights figures or clamp down on stories about labor organizing and subversion? As with most SBOE fights, the split comes not down ...
Comments (1)
RebeccaBellMetereau
Eight members of the current Board of Education want to exclude Hispanics from the social studies curriculum, with no Mexican American figures to be taught in the first three years. Do they really expect us to believe there are no Hispanic figures who affected Texas history? What about the explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, who wrote the first book about the exploration of North America? Isn't this ground-breaking author and explorer a significant historical figure to present to Texas children learning to read and write?
I am shocked and saddened that we must still battle to teach comprehensive history in Texas of the 21st Century. When I am elected to serve on the State Board of Education for District 5, I will make sure the curriculum represents all people who have contributed to the history of Texas and the United States. Our young people deserve a complete and thorough history, not one limited to a handful of elite figures hand-picked by some of the current State Board of Education members.
-Rebecca Bell-Metereau
www.voterebecca.com