A Hurricane Of Ignorance Threatens Texas

Well, if you thought Hurricane Florence striking North and South Carolina was bad, just wait until Hurricane Ignorance hits Texas.

As part of an effort to "streamline" the social studies curriculum in public schools, Texas’ State Board of Education voted last week to adjust what students in every grade are required to learn. Among those changes are the removal of both Hillary Clinton, First Lady, Senator from New York, Secretary of State and the winner of the popular vote in the 2016 presidential election, and Helen Keller, from the curriculum.

The board did vote to keep a reference to the "heroism" of the defenders of the Alamo, Moses’ influence on the writing of the United States’ founding documents, multiple references to "Judeo-Christian" values and a requirement that students explain how the "Arab rejection of the State of Israel has led to ongoing conflict" in the Middle East in the curriculum. 

Hurricane Ignorance.

High schoolers have been required to learn about Hillary Clinton, who was the first woman to ever win a major political party's presidential nomination, in history class, and, under a section about citizenship, they were assigned to "evaluate the contributions of significant political and social leaders” including Clinton, Andrew Carnegie, Thurgood Marshall and Sandra Day O'Connor. Barry Goldwater was also removed from this teaching requirement; the board recommended removing evangelist and Baptist pastor Billy Graham, but the state board kept him.

Go figure.

Third-grade social studies teachers have been required to teach their students about Helen Keller, who despite being deaf and blind graduated from college and lived a life of activism and authorship, but Keller did not make the work group's list and so students in other grades will no longer be taught about her achievements.

So why didn't Clinton, Keller and several dozen other historical figures make the cut? Well, here’s where it gets dumb …

Two teachers from the group of board-nominated volunteers that made the recommendations say Texas requires students to learn about so many historical figures that it resulted in rote memorization of dates and names instead of real learning. So, the volunteers came up with guidelines for grading every historical figure as to who is "essential" and who isn't by asking asked questions like, "Did the person trigger a watershed change" … "Was the person from an underrepresented group" … "Will their impact stand the test of time?"

Out of 20 points, Keller scored a 7 and Clinton scored a 5; the work group found that by eliminating Clinton from the requirements, teachers will save 30 minutes of class time, and by eliminating Keller teachers will save 40 minutes.

Thirty minutes to discuss Clinton’s decades and decades of public service? Forty minutes for Helen Keller’s achievements in the face of so many so-called disabilities? These are not worthy of being taught, but Billy Graham, a homophobic asshat gets a pass, as do local members of the Texas Legislature. 

But two remarkable women … nothing.

The vote last week was preliminary, and the board can amend the curriculum changes further before taking a final vote in November so there is hope that Hurricane Ignorance doesn’t devastate the state’s educational system.

Of course, it does make it all the clearer why Texans vote the way they do.

Dallas News