But what they can no longer do is control knowledge. Not in the 21st century, not in the age of the digital, electronic “press.”The State Board of Education doesn't want the work of César Chávez in the books? Start a Wiki on the Internet with his accomplishments and a study guide and curriculum, and use that in the classrooms.
The conservatives of the state board want to include items in the texts that extol the accomplishments of Newt Gingrich and the Moral Majority? Build a Web site accessible to teachers and students that speaks of the works of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.
What can they do? Take a teacher to court as if this were 1920's Tennessee?
Apparently the majority of the Texas State Board of Education hasn't noticed the revolution in their midst. The power of the press is no longer private and corporate. The power of media is now grass-roots, collaborative and accessible.
Let them burn books and think they're accomplishing something. We can always build an Internet portal and share the link.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
School Book Purge is Ill-fated
There is a major debate and controversy in Texas right now over the state's social studies/history standards, which are used to dictate what kids are to study, and usually influence what gets covered in textbooks sold to the schools. At issue is the State Board of Education's decision to remove a number of Latino historical figures that have contributed to the building of Texas and the United States.
Victor Landa, a columnist for the San Antonio Express News, made some poignant observations about how technology--the kinds of technology we have been discussing in this class--is providing a means around these attempts of the majority to dictate what constitutes sanctioned knowledge and what can be taught in schools. Below is part of his column. Click here to read the full column. I'd love to know your thoughts about this issue!
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Teachers that are thinking about setting up underground history classes outside of the school walls should keep standards like the TEKS in mind. A good way to receive low marks on a performance evaluation is too not teach to the TEKS. I speak from my experience as a young naive social studies teacher in Houston back in 1999. During one of my first history department meeting, I was told we don't teach native american history at the school. It floored me a bit, to think that this group of students would never learn about the first people to populate north American, I couldn't believe I was part of such a terrible conspiracy. My department chair told me it wasn't on the TAKS test so we won't waste time covering it, but I always have felt their is a more sinister reason for it being left out.
ReplyDeleteA teacher may be helping the information revolution, and their pesonal cause by creating underground sites, but they need to keep in mind they could be risking losing thier job.
Really though, I don't think we should be so shocked by all of this, it happens all over the world. Like I said, it already has been happening in Texas schools. Governments limit information citizens can see. When I lived in Japan I was always amazed at how little Japanese knew about WWII, until I found out about their history book controversy. The national govenrnment there censors and omits sensitive information about WWII (Nanking, Bataan death march,unit 731)from public school history text books, and have for years.
Japanese textbooks controversy .
Chris,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reality check! How sad indeed that a state that evicted all but a few of the Native Americans would resist its history being taught (though I think its covered a little in other grade levels). Its scary sometimes just how much Texas tries to police the curriculum. There's still the principle of teachers closing their doors, pulling the shades, and teaching what they know is most important. I think a blog or a wiki could serve the same purpose (perhaps administrators could be put on the "block list" :-D). And some TEKS are generic enough that you can justify teaching just about anything under them. Big difference between what the TEKS call for and what's on the actual TAKS test. The TEKS are supposed to drive the curriculum, but as we all know, its really the narrow contents of the TAKS which gets tested. We cover this issue a lot in the Assessment class (BBL 5053).
And thanks for the Japanese example. In Cambodia, same thing--very little has been taught about the Cambodian Genocide, though there are efforts underway now to change that.