[ad_1]
Abraham Lincoln is introduced in Richmond, Virginia, to the applause of former slaves in 1865.
Culture Club / Getty Images
hide the legend
activate the legend
Culture Club / Getty Images
Abraham Lincoln is introduced in Richmond, Virginia, to the applause of former slaves in 1865.
Culture Club / Getty Images
The Texas Board of Education decided Friday to change the way its students discover the civil war. Starting in the 2019-2020 school year, students will learn that slavery played a "central role" in the war.
Previous state social studies standards indicated three causes of civil war: sectionalism, state rights, and slavery, in that order. In September, Democrats on the board of directors proposed that slavery be the only cause.
"What the rights of states do is essentially to hide or hide the real fundamental problem, slavery," said Democratic Board member Marisa Perez. -Diaz, San Antonio, at a meeting of the board of directors.
Republican Board Member David Bradley of Beaumont pleaded for the continuation of other causes in the program. He said: "Every state has had differences and made individual decisions about the opportunity to participate in the conflict, is not it? I mean, that is the definition of rights of States ".
Finally, the Republican-led council has reached a compromise: Students will learn "the central role of the expansion of slavery in creating sectionalism, disagreements over state rights and civil war ".
Houston Democrat Lawrence Allen Jr., the only African-American board member, helped write the new language. He believes that the line of demarcation between slavery and civil war is sharper than the previous norms.
"I do not think we really have that as a consensus in our state," he said Friday. "And if we can not achieve consensus in our state, we must let our students look at it from every point of view."
The council also decided to keep Hillary Clinton and Helen Keller in the program, overturning a decision that made headlines in September. Clinton and Keller were initially removed, along with other historical personalities, with the goal of "rationalizing" the state's standards for social studies.
The approved program still enumerates only one cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: "the rejection of the existence of the state of Israel by the Arab League and the majority of the Arab nations ".
David Fisher, historian of the University of Texas and the Rio Grande Valley, was part of a working group that proposed revisions to the council. He said that the enumeration of a cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lacked nuance and defended only one point of view.
"This actually tells the student what to think, rather than suggesting to the student to study a problem and learn the facts about a problem."
At a public hearing on Tuesday, Shifa Bhatti, a US-Pakistani teacher from the suburbs of Fort Worth, warned of the risk of anti-Muslim bias. "I teach in college because when I was in eighth grade, on 11/09/2001, it was the day I received my first death threat." was in my locker, he was pushed over there, my teachers did not do anything. "
About 1 in 10 American public school students live in Texas.
Lawrence Paska, executive director of the National Council of Social Sciences, explains that what these students learn at school has a considerable impact on the understanding of history and the news.
"Students need opportunities to lead a thoughtful discussion," says Paska; they must be "exposed to sources of information that may include differing views on controversial issues".
The state board of education said the changes would not affect textbooks used in Texas classrooms. The standards come into effect at the level of secondary schools in August 2019 and at the elementary level in August 2020.
Source link
