Texas board to vote on K-12 social studies guidelines that could affect students nationwide

Texas board to vote on social studies standards

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas State Board of Education was to vote Friday on new standards for teaching social studies and other lessons that could affect students nationwide, after several days of debate on how much to emphasize Christmas and which historic figures to include.

Board members reconvened Friday and resumed discussion on amendments to the state’s required curriculum. The debate has been contentious at times as the guidelines will dictate what about 4.8 million students from kindergarten through 12th grade must learn in social studies, history and economics over the next decade.

They also will influence textbook publishers who develop material for the nation based on Texas, one of the largest markets. The board is set to adopt final standards in March.

Before the board met, there had been arguments over how much prominence to give the Texas makeup entrepreneur Mary Kay Ash and civil rights leaders such as Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall. Most of those issues were settled by the time the board started culling through the proposed changes.

Debating the required curriculum grade by grade Thursday, the board discussed everything from including Vaisakhi, the Sikh new year, alongside Christmas to the merits of teaching Aesop’s Fables and whether first-graders are old enough to learn about holding public officials accountable.

In vote after vote, the board added more names to the list of historic figures elementary school students would be expected to learn.

“We’re choking our kids with a list of names,” board member Pat Hardy, a Republican from Fort Worth, said as astronauts James A. Lovell, Ellen Ochoa and Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low were added to the third-grade list.

Jose Antonio Navarro, a Texas revolutionary and contemporary of early Texas leader Stephen F. Austin, was added to the kindergarten curriculum in response to a public push for more examples of notable Mexican Americans.

Other discussion centered on whether first-graders are old enough to learn about the accountability of public officials.

“It ought to be in every single grade, so maybe by the time they get out of high school they understand that we need to hold our elected officials accountable,” said board member Geraldine Miller, R-Dallas. “Maybe that’s the problem, that we’ve got to start early.”

“I would like to know how in the world a first-grader can hold public officials accountable?” countered board member Mavis Knight, D-Dallas. “I don’t think it’s appropriate for this grade level.”

The amendment passed, and the topic could soon become required for first-grade classrooms.

The board also debated the merits of having second-graders read Aesop’s Fables, which will be included in the curriculum. After an initial recommendation and ensuing outcry, the board chose not to remove Christmas from a list of religious holidays and observances in a sixth-grade world cultures class.

Another flashpoint was expected over how much emphasis should be given to the religious beliefs of the nation’s founding fathers. Some activists want to highlight their Christianity, but others insist curriculum must emphasize the constitutional separation of church and state.