Archive for July, 2010

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Texas Sex Ed: No Laughing Matter

July 2, 2010

This week the Huffington Post featured 14 posters from bygone days apparently aimed at deterring young folks from premarital sex. While the rather peculiar messaging on these old-time posters might provoke a brief smile, that approach to sex education is about as effective as the so-called abstinence-only programs used in most Texas public schools today — and that is no laughing matter.

In 2009 the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund’s groundbreaking study, Just Say Don’t Know: Sexuality Education in Texas Public Schools, provided conclusive, research-based evidence that Texas is failing families and students when it comes to providing the complete and reliable information young people need to make responsible life decisions. Currently, the Education Works! campaign with our coalition partners is providing a vehicle for concerned Texans to support comprehensive sex education in public schools. This approach, which encourages abstinence while also providing evidence-based information on contraception and disease prevention, is urgently needed in a state with one of the highest teen birthrates — and the highest rate of multiple births to teens — in the nation.

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Posted in sex education | 3 Comments »

Coming Soon to Texas Classrooms?

July 1, 2010

We continue to marvel at the nostalgia some — such as certain members of the Texas State Board of Education — seem to have for the Confederacy of the American Civil War. This is 2010, after all. Isn’t it about time to let go of the misguided notion of the  “Lost Cause”? This nostalgia, after all, is the product of a political perspective that sees southern history in some glorified way that grossly distorts reality.

For example, in new social studies curriculum standards adopted in May, the Texas state board deliberately downplayed the central role that slavery played in causing the Civil War. The new standards also require students to study the ideas in Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ inaugural address. That address is full of excuses for southern secession but includes not one word about slavery despite the abundance of historical evidence showing that the bitter divide over slavery led to secession and war. State board member David Bradley, R-Beaumont Buna, even won approval for a standard requiring that Texas history students learn about the state’s Confederate war heroes and Civil War battles.

Now we see the conservative magazine Human Events is promoting what it bills as a “myth-busting” book — The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War. According to the magazine, the book offers “a rousing guide to the great war that shaped America — and to the spirit of the Old South that we need so much today.”

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Posted in civil war, David Bradley, social studies | 7 Comments »

TEA Posts Final Social Studies Standards

July 1, 2010

From a TFN e-mail to supporters of our Just Educate campaign this morning:

The Texas Education Agency has finally posted on its website the new social studies curriculum standards for public schools. Click here to read the new standards approved by the State Board of Education (SBOE) on May 21 for kindergarten to Grade 5, Grades 6-8 and high school.

In January, March and May, far-right SBOE members made scores of ill-considered and nakedly political changes to initial drafts of the standards written last year by teachers and scholars. For example, the new standards outrageously suggest that separation of church and state isn’t a key principle of the Constitution, downplay the role of slavery in causing the Civil War and promote right-wing paranoia about international cooperation by the United States.

These deeply flawed standards might be official now, but that doesn’t mean the fight to protect the education of Texas schoolchildren from ideological agendas is over. The Texas Freedom Network’s Just Educate campaign is focused on reforming the process for deciding what millions of students learn in their classrooms.

You can help by taking action today!

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Posted in curriculum standards, social studies | 30 Comments »

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