We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Thomas Jefferson, in the Declaration of Independence (1776)
That Jefferson--too radical! The thinker most associated with American independence and what government should consist of is no longer going to be part of the public education of children in Texas. He has purportedly been replaced with John Calvin, a man more in keeping with the moral and ethical values of Texas.
Apparently, educators have a poor understanding of how much K-12 history is going to affect what children know and how they think. Additionally, they are apparently unconcerned about how they compete for postitions in college, or how they perform on examinations. Texas is in the bottom third of the U.S. in any measure of the quality of K-12 education--performance on national exams, graduation rates, funding for education. The proposed changes will do nothing to improve it--but that is clearly not the point. Eliminating the parts of history you don't agree with doesn't make them go away, and it is potentially dangerous. What we don't acknowledge and understand we may be destined to repeat.
Children in Texas will be left to learn about Jefferson on the streets, or more probably, on the internet. Who is the man on the nickel, and why don't we learn about him in school?
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