Dumb Is As Dumb Does

I worked 35 years in and around the Texas public school system. One of the current themes over those 35 years was just how whacky the Texas State Board of Education when it came to deciding the direction the Lone Star state’s K-12 system would go. After 35 years, nothing they do would really surprise me.

Until now.

According to the Houston Chronicle,

“The State Board of Education [in mid-September] approved a revived plan to focus classes more on Texas history and remove distinct courses on world history and cultures.”

“The Republican-led board voted, 8-7, to greenlight a framework for social studies classes, which it had rejected only days earlier. The plan, favored by conservative activists, scraps the current sequence of social studies courses and replaces it with a five-year chronological approach beginning in third grade. It greatly reduces the amount of time spent on world history and boosts state history, which will now be taught across six grades and become the focus of a new 8^th grade standardized exam.”

“Four Republicans on the board had previously joined Democrats…in support of an alternate plan that would have maintained two years of focus on world history as well as Texas history. But two of those Republicans…ultimately flipped to vote…for the more Texas-infused plan.”

“…The more conservative-aligned plan, which was endorsed by groups like the Texas Public Policy Foundation and Daughters of the Republic of Texas, was the final plan up for consideration as the board concluded its quarterly meeting.”

“The framework only determines broad focuses at each grade level, not individual lessons or topics…. The board will now embark on a year-long journey to flesh out specific lessons and draft curriculum in consultation with education experts. If approved, the final curriculum is scheduled to enter schools in 2030.”

“’Both of them were logical, both of them included two years of Texas and throughout the week, I voted for both,’ [one of the board members said. ‘I don’t think the framework really impacts what the actual content will be.’”

“Still, the plan has big implications for the proportion of Texas, U.S. and work history content that will be presented to students. Texas will be the focus of 45% of class time from third to eighth grade, up from the current one-third. World history and cultures, currently taught across fifth and sixth grade, will account for less than one-fifth of social studies instruction.”

“Eighth graders will focus at least 80% of their time on Texas history. That means the successor to the current eighth grade STAAR test, which lawmakers scrapped earlier this year, will need to be written around Texas history.”

“Some [board] members, especially Democrats, had expressed concern that beginning with ancient history in the third and fourth grade, which would cover pre-history to the year 1500, would delay lessons about the history of minority groups in America and present topics like ‘The Birth of Western Civilization’ and ‘Growth of Empires’ they say are too complex for younger students.”

At the exact time our young learners need exposure to, dare I say, globalism, Texas and other states are turning inward by asking their young learners to spend more time on their state history than the world’s. And we wonder why the world is moving away from America – culturally and politically.

We’ve experienced isolationism before, and most historians will argue that it didn’t work out well for America or the world. It’s disappointing America isn’t interested in helping the world with its problems. That was always seen as the responsibility of a world power. Now it seems China is filling that void America is leaving around the world.

Texas has decided their young learners should be exposed to “cowboys and Indians” more so than the world’s great religions and the historical dangers of autocracies.

Disappointing for sure.

Friday News Roundup tomorrow. Til then. SVB