May 17, 2010
Scholars Say the Texas Social Studies Standards Fall Short
Impossibly large. A missed opportunity. Plagiarized work. Straight out of neo-confederacy. Culturally irrelevant. Greek mythology. Scholars from universities across Texas and the nation have analyzed the final draft of the proposed Texas social studies curriculum and find it falls far short of providing even a basic education to Texas school children. Collectively, the scholars call on the state board of education, the media, and the public to refocus attention on that which truly matters—the education of millions of Texas school children over the coming decade.
Shunning past politicized debates, the scholars raise a host of common sense educational issues and address several substantive concerns: the curriculum is shoddy, it is too large for any teacher to handle, it is plagiarized from Wikipedia, it emphasizes memorization and ignores preparation for college and the workplace, its foibles mean that testing companies will end up deciding what Texas children will learn. Selected conclusions include:
- “We must teach the children that we have in our classrooms. Our social studies curriculum should reflect Texas’s 21st century reality, that it is an urban, post-industrial, multi-ethnic, multicultural, globally-interconnected society” – Jesús F. de la Teja, Texas State University-San Marcos and first State Historian of Texas
- “In terms of problem solving, analysis, and decision making, the Texas Social Studies standards require nothing more of seniors than they do of kindergartners” – Keith A. Erekson, University of Texas at El Paso
- “Parts of the ‘American exceptionalism’ standard were lifted almost verbatim from Wikipedia . . . . Can we all agree that Texas kids deserve better than this? Shouldn’t the State Board of Education be held to a higher standard?” – Michael Soto, Trinity University
- “I have never encountered ‘nature’s god’ in my studies outside of the coursework taken on Greek mythology. I am curious then, would the entity being referred to here be Dionysus or Pan?” – Christy Woodward Kaupert, San Antonio College
- “Such striking omissions and deletions suggest a pattern of neglect rather than happenstance or an occasional lapse of judgment” – Emilio Zamora, University of Texas
The full text of the analysis can be accessed online at http://sensiblehistory.blogspot.com/p/analysis.html. Additional information about the review process and an online archive of media coverage is available at http://tekswatch.utep.edu.
Contact:
Dr. Emilio Zamora, Professor of History, University of Texas at Austin, ez.cz@hotmail.com, 512-739-0168
Dr. Keith A. Erekson, Assistant Professor of History, University of Texas at El Paso, kaerekson@gmail.com, 915-747-5878
April 15, 2010
Historians Call on Texas State Board of Education to Delay Vote
Historians from the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Texas at El Paso have written an Open Letter to the Texas State Board of Education. The letter identifies specific problems with the proposed changes to the state’s social studies standards and recommends that the board delay adoption of the standards in order to solicit additional feedback from “qualified, credentialed content experts from the state’s colleges and universities” and the general public.
The historians call attention to the board’s general attempts to weaken the study of constitutional protections for religious liberty and to minimize the struggle of women and ethnic minorities for equal and civil rights. The open letter also points out the lack of historical knowledge on the part of some board members.
This call by historians is part of a growing manifestation of discontent with the proposed actions of the Texas State Board of Education. The Dallas Morning News recommended a delay in holding the final vote on the standards until after this year’s public elections of members of the board of education. The Mexican American Legislative Caucus of the Texas State Legislature will hold its own hearing about the standards on April 28. State Senator Juan Hinojosa of McAllen has called to abolish the board of education and a Hispanic advocacy group from the University of Texas at Austin will hold a teach-in on the steps of the Texas state capitol on May 2. A variety of petitions are also circulating online via social networking and advocacy group websites. Additional information about the review process and an online archive of media coverage is available at http://tekswatch.utep.edu.
The letter is posted online at http://sensiblehistory.blogspot.com/p/letter.html and the letter’s authors invite signatures from all who research, write, teach, or share history with the public.
Contact:
Dr. Emilio Zamora, Professor of History, University of Texas at Austin, ez.cz@hotmail.com, 512-739-0168
Dr. Keith A. Erekson, Assistant Professor of History, University of Texas at El Paso, kaerekson@gmail.com, 915-747-5878
