Seems that it’s not just the Texas State Board of Education that wants to revise American history to fit a particular ideological agenda. Now Tennessee Tea Party activists are trying to do the same thing in their state. From the Wall Street Journal:
The late comedian George Carlin used to say America was built on a double standard: “This country was founded by slave owners who wanted to be free.”
We wonder how his joke would have sat with members of Tennessee’s tea party, which just presented state legislators with five priorities for action, including amending state laws governing school curriculums to change textbook selection so that “no portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers,” the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported.
Hal Rounds, an attorney and a spokesman for the group, said the goal is to address “an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another,” according to the Commercial Appeal.
“Made up”? Does he think some of the founders didn’t have slaves? That Indians didn’t lose their lands? It’s important that students learn the facts about American history, including the virtues and, when relevant, some of the failings of our founders. Public schools shouldn’t whitewash and revise history to meet the demands of political ideologues.
6 Comments
This revisionist crap has got to cease. What happened, happened. Sweeping it under the rug doesn’t make it go away. We must learn from past mistakes, not try to hide them.
Some folks are reporting that this story is actually an old story printed more than 1 year ago. I am aware of Tea Party activities in Tennessee and Tea Party people. This is not an active agenda in the state that I can tell—never gets mentioned in metropolitan or local newspapers—does not appear in any other local media. It does not just sit on the back burner but on the back burner of the range in the outback guest house. The Wall Street Journal writer should have done better research. This is not an issue in Tennessee. I suspect it died a quick death because Tennessee people seem to be more aware of their state history and Native American lore than folks in other states.
In fact, it looks like what I think is the particular group of loons in question has just recently disbanded about three weeks back… though there yet remain other tea-flavored kooks in Tennessee, who may or may not support this. They don’t seem to be actively pushing this, however.
The news recycling looks to have been triggered by a Huffington Post piece whose author didn’t look closely enough at the 2010/2011/2012 dates.
I have invented a new religion. It’s called “Judyism.” Adherents are limited to people with the name “Judy.”
Whether the article 3 weeks, 3years or 3 decades old, the point is the same, revisionism is asinine.
From some of my conversations w/ Texas SBOE candidates, they feel that the “culture wars” — i.e evolution/creationism + teaching revisionist history — is a troublesome distraction from dealing w/ far more important issues, viz. securing adequate funding, paying outstanding teachers what they’re worth, keeping teaching methods up-to-date and workable, meeting the needs of ALL students,not just college bound, etc. But back on topic, sanitizing history has always been a tactic of communist dictatorships. Need I say more?