"His"story in the Faking: Texas Rewriting History Curriculum

The Texas State Board of Education has approved new social studiescurriculum standards, in which the updated standards, known as TexasEssential Knowledge and Skills, will be effective with the 2010-2011school year (State Board of Education, 2010). Changes in the curriculumhave caused outrage across the country.
Among the amendments that were approved that attracted considerabledebate were these standards: • Analyze Abraham Lincoln's ideas about liberty, equality, union andgovernment as contained in his first and second inaugural addresses andthe Gettysburg Address and contrast them with the ideas contained inJefferson Davis's inaugural address. (8th grade U.S. History); • Examine the reasons the Founding Fathers protected religious freedomin America and guaranteed its free exercise by saying that Congressshall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibitingthe free exercise thereof, and compare and contrast this to the phrase"separation of church and state." (Government); • Explain instances of institutional racism in American society.(Sociology); • Discuss the solvency of long term entitlements such as Social Securityand Medicare. 
  There are several noteworthy perspectives concerning this change in thecurriculum, which include various comments and views stated by thoseserving on the Texas Board of Education. "What we have is the historyprofession, the experts, seem to have a left-wing tilt, so what we weredoing is trying to restore some balance to the standards," board memberDon McLeroy said (Texas Board of Education, 2010).    Don McLeroy  isthe Chair of the Board and is neither a teacher nor history graduate(Don McLeroy, 2010). "Dr. McLeroy, a dentist by training, pushed througha change to the teaching of the civil rights movement to ensure thatstudents study the violent philosophy of the Black Panthers in additionto the nonviolent approach of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr"(McKinley Jr., 2010).  According to the New York Times, " Efforts byHispanic board members to include more Latino figures as role models forthe state's large Hispanic population were consistently defeated,prompting one member, Mary Helen Berlanga  to storm out of a meetinglate Thursday night, saying, "They can just pretend this is a whiteAmerica and Hispanics don't exist" (Texas Conservative,2010). AnotherGOP board member David Bradley won approval for an amendment, whichrequires students to learn about the "unintended consequences" of theGreat Society, affirmative action, and Title IX programs, and anotherreplaced references to "democratic societies" to references to"republican societies" (Backstory,  2010).  On the losing side of thevote, Mavis Knight, a Democrat from Dallas, introduced an amendmentrequiring that students study the reasons "the founding fathersprotected religious freedom in America by barring the government frompromoting or disfavoring any particular religion above allothers"(Anderson, 2010).  Finally, "conservatives beat back multipleattempts to include hip-hop as an example of a significant culturalmovement"(Texas Textbook Massacre, 2010). As quoted above, Dr. McLeroy says that his goal is to bring balance tothe liberally tilted curriculum.  Do we do that by skewing the facts toreflect the views of the right?  Further, Dr. McLeroy feels that it isvital that the violent philosophy of the Black Panthers   be reflected. Do we conveniently omit that the full history of the "Black PantherParty for Self Defense", do we not teach about the infiltration andhavoc caused  by J. Edgar Hoover's COINTELPRO, and lastly, just erasethe fact that  a  Black Panther member Geronimo Pratt was released  in2000 after being convicted of murder and jailed for 40 years when theFBI knew he was innocent because he was under FBI surveillance?  "Yearslater, retired FBI agent M. Wesley Swearingen said the bureau knew Prattwas in the Bay Area then because the Panthers were under surveillanceand phones at their party headquarters were tapped" (Geronimo PrattCase, 2008).   Those are facts that matter.   Dr. McLeroy also felt itis important to talk about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his nonviolentphilosophy.  Wonderful, but lets not forget to talk about the realpurpose of Dr. King's nonviolent philosophy- Dr. Kings nonviolence inthe face of violence showed how violent others  were against a group ofpeople based on their physical appearance.  It seems that the Texas board members  have turned a blind eye to factual information.   Theseare just a few examples telling half truths, thus,  omitting facts fromhistory. One  can only wonder what the long term affect of tailoring andteaching a  new curriculum  that is not representative of all the factsof the past  will have on the children. I am ok with discussing any partof history on the condition that all the facts are presented, no matterhow ugly.  As responsible citizens we must be open to honest dialogue,Texas board members included!
It's pretty pathetic that K-12 textbook curriculum is  being writtenaccording to the side of the aisle that the majority of the Texas boardmembers stand on. Changing the social studies curriculum to reflectone's political agenda while leaving out chunks of information is wrongand disingenuous.    History is what it is and cannot be changed.  Although we may not agree with some of the events that have occurred inhistory, it doesn't change the fact that it happened. The right or left,Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative agendas should notdictate textbook curriculum.  Pure history is factually based and shouldbe represented as such.  It is evident that this school board isdisproportionately packed with right wing extremists.  What's worse isthat educators in this state will be forced to teach the curriculum aswritten, resulting in Texas' children being "factually"  left behind.