State Board of Education members on Friday approved a rewrite of what Texas high schoolers learn in social studies, disregarding pleas from Muslims who testified that schools should teach how people of Islamic faith positively contributed to world history. <\/p>\n
The Republican majority instead adopted a lesson, for example, requiring public school students to learn that \u201cradical Islam\u201d motivated the 9\/11 attacks, as opposed to more narrowly focusing on terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and extremists such as Osama bin Laden. A Muslim-American EMT was notably among those killed while attempting to save lives during the tragedy. <\/p>\n
The board greenlit students learning about early Islam through the lens of the Prophet Muhammad\u2019s \u201cbrutal military campaigns against Jewish and Christian tribes, the normalization and regulation of slavery, and the taking of female captives as harem slaves.\u201d No credible Islamic scholar would find such a portrayal accurate, the Muslim Texans argued. <\/p>\n
At least three of the board\u2019s appointed experts also cautioned against the characterization. Andrea Hutchison, a social studies curriculum coordinator for Prosper ISD, said it does not \u201chold up to close historical scrutiny.\u201d Robert Koons, a philosophy professor at UT-Austin, said most nonreligious scholars find the source of the claims \u201cnot very reliable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would warn us about including things that are not based on well-established secular sources,\u201d Koons said Friday. <\/p>\n
With minor tweaks, a Republican majority approved it anyway. The GOP members voted against eliminating the word \u201cbrutal,\u201d as suggested by their colleague, Will Hickman. <\/p>\n
They did not revive a previously deleted expectation that schools teach about Muslim contributions to algebra and astronomy. Students testified earlier in the week that the decision to instead portray Islam as violent will cause significant harm to them and their classmates. <\/p>\n
\u201cI feel attacked, as if my religion doesn\u2019t belong,\u201d Habiiba Quresh, 15, told board members. \u201cI shouldn\u2019t have to defend my religion in the middle of history class because of one sentence someone on this board wrote.\u201d<\/p>\n
Final revisions to high school history, government and geography studies come after the board\u2019s Republican majority approved changes to Texas\u2019 K\u20138 social studies materials in June alongside a mandatory reading list that includes Bible stories. <\/p>\n
The group postponed four of the upper level courses after members expressed concerns about rushing the process and potentially causing unintended errors. Preliminary votes occurred after hours of discussion Monday and Tuesday. The elected officials continued debate and finalized the plan Friday afternoon. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe board has turned our classrooms into a place where prejudice is taught as fact and entire communities are written out of their own history,\u201d the Council on American-Islamic Relations\u2019 Texas chapter wrote in a statement. \u201cThis is not only a Muslim issue, a Black issue, or a Palestinian issue \u2014 it is a Texas issue, because a board willing to do this to one community can do it to any community next.\u201d<\/p>\n
Republican State Board of Education Chair Aaron Kinsey said he believes that once tensions calm, Texans will see how \u201cbalanced\u201d the new social studies framework turned out. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot said out of this room, particularly to sensationalize all these topics and to make them seem more divisive than they actually are,\u201d Kinsey said. \u201cFifteen people sat in the room, and we worked through, democratically, how to make those choices on behalf of our constituents. So I don\u2019t think we shortchanged anything. I think that we did an exceptional job overall.\u201d<\/p>\n
The contentious process to rewrite social studies has stretched several years. The board delayed changes to the courses in 2022 after pressure from conservative lawmakers who complained about how students would learn about topics such as race and gender.<\/p>\n
Those leaders and activists now champion the new framework, which they view as the final battle in a push to rid Texas schools of instruction they say paints America in a negative light and trains students to hate the country. <\/p>\n
Hundreds of people have testified at meetings that often extended overnight, well into the early morning. Throughout the board\u2019s deliberations, many Republicans attacked Islam, a religion they see as incompatible with their interpretation of Christianity. <\/p>\n
\u201cAll they need to know is how evil Islam is,\u201d Chuck Allmon, one of over 100 people who spoke Monday, said of Texas students. <\/p>\n
Democrats, educators and students, meanwhile, criticize the minimization of racial, ethnic and cultural diversity reflected in U.S. and world history courses, as well as the materials\u2019 hefty emphasis on Christianity. The critics noted that many of the learning expectations will teach children what to think \u2014 not how to arrive at their own conclusions.<\/p>\n
The education board approved a requirement, for example, that students graduate with the ability to describe arguments against \u201cthe modern welfare state that emerged from continued expansion of Great Society programs.\u201d The Great Society refers to President Lyndon B. Johnson\u2019s 1960s policy agenda that sought to abolish poverty and racial inequality.<\/p>\n
Regarding Christianity, students must now learn how \u201cbiblical imagery and founding principles of equality and justice from the Declaration of Independence\u201d connect to Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d speech. <\/p>\n
Some speakers noted Monday that the changes whitewash other aspects of the religion, such as how white Americans used the Bible to justify violence against Black Americans, including slavery.<\/p>\n
\u201cSlavery existed for thousands of years before Islam,\u201d said Sarah, an 11-year-old softball player who did not provide her last name. \u201cIt is unfair to label slavery as Islamic without also discussing the Christian role in the slave trade to the Americas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democratic members and some of the board\u2019s content experts also highlighted that the learning expectations in U.S. history now describe slavery as an institution that \u201cexisted in many societies throughout history,\u201d failing to emphasize the race-based nature of American slavery that made it distinct. <\/p>\n
\u201cSlavery is foundational to this country, and for us to not pour energy and time into exploring the influences and impact that slavery had on the development of this country, it\u2019s striking for me,\u201d board member Marisa B. P\u00e9rez-D\u00edaz, D-San Antonio, said. \u201cI think we\u2019re doing a disservice to our students if we\u2019re not spending time on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many teachers have said they felt excluded from the revision process as the board majority placed more value on the input of conservative activists than on their own. Others point to a lack of transparency as the reason for their frustration, noting the difficulty in figuring out who influenced the lessons\u2019 conservative approach.<\/p>\n
The new social studies framework eliminates the current sixth-grade world cultures course, which some educators see as evidence that Texas officials do not prioritize traditions outside of Western civilization. They believe the lack of emphasis will diminish students\u2019 knowledge of the world beyond America. <\/p>\n
Republican members believe the opposite will happen, saying that students need more knowledge of the state and country they live in, as well as the influences that shaped them. <\/p>\n
Kinsey said it was also important for members to cut down the number of learning expectations in each course after warnings from Texas Education Agency officials that the board had proposed too much content.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe intention is not to shortchange anything,\u201d Kinsey told members Tuesday. \u201cBut we have to determine what is essential.\u201d<\/p>\n
Texas schools will begin phasing in the adopted social studies changes during the 2030-31 school year. <\/p>\n
On Monday, Republicans on the board welcomed another member to their majority, temporarily increasing their presence to 11-4. <\/p>\n
Houston Democrat Staci Childs vacated her seat as she campaigns for the Texas House. Gov. Greg Abbott replaced her with Pasadena Republican Tammie Nielsen, who will serve on the board through the end of the year. She remained silent for most of her first week on the board, often voting alongside the most conservative of her Republican colleagues. <\/p>\n
Nielsen and Democrat Coretta Mallet-Fontenot will appear on the November ballot to serve the remainder of Childs\u2019 term.<\/p>\n
__<\/p>\n
This story was originally published by The Texas Tribune and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State Board of Education members on Friday approved a rewrite of what Texas high schoolers learn in social…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5291,163,27,29,28,991],"class_list":["post-429925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-ap-a-wire","tag-education","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-wires-bot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}