Sibyl West: Another reposting of a November 2009 series that started the push back leading to the Texas SBOE’s recent victories. It’s not over yet. Parents and grandparents, please take the time to read and you will know that the aspersions - such as “far right extremists” or “fundamentalist Christians” or “right wing nutjobs” -are just feeble stoppers being cast by the faceless educrats behind the scenes who are worried about their six figure salaries, not your kids. Otherwise, why do they want to change “American citizen” to “global citizen”?
These purveyors of creative reality need to be reminded that history is not simply what they say it is; it’s what actually happened and what is. Bill Ames sets the record straight, and for that we owe him a debt of gratitude. (Hat tip Donna)
Part I of III:
A Texas Insider Exclusive
In Part I of a three-day series of articles here, Bill Ames today reveals how various left-leaning groups in Texas might have come together to hijack the social studies review process in order to promote their agenda of indoctrinating Texas’ public school students with a negative, politically biased view of America.
Have Liberal Activists Hijacked Texas’ Social Studies Curriculum Process?
By Bill Ames
During 2009, the 16 social studies review panels met three times: In February, July, and October. Overall, of some 100 members, all but four were “educators”. In my group of 9, I was the only non-educator, and the only member who consistently supported conservative principles.
I objected in vain as the leftists first hijacked the standards process by using a bootlegged version of standards, created by the left-leaning Texas Council for Social Studies (TCSS) as the starting point for revision and update. This action clearly violated the direction of the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE), which required that the existing TEKS standards be the starting point. (TEKS stands for the Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills curriculum framework.)
Outvoted 8 to 1 on nearly every standards issue, I watched the standards go from bad to worse over the months of the project. We will deal with specifics of major standards flaws in part II of this article.
Today, we will examine facts behind the review process itself, and let the reader begin to answer questions regarding why the process went awry.
