Earlier this week, the Texas Board of Education approved changes it wants included in the Social Studies textbooks used in Texas schools. According to The New York Times, the changes appear to put a more conservative slant on the curriculum, emphasizing the role of conservative leaders and conservative movements in the 1980s and '90s, such as “Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.”

Dr. Don McLeroy, the outgoing board member who spearheaded the effort, reportedly claimed the changes were necessary because, “We are adding balance. History has already been skewed. Academia is skewed too far to the left.”

In addition, the changes challenge the notion that the Separation of Church and State has been a foundational tenet of American polity, instead choosing to emphasize the idea that the United States was founded as a Christian nation. “I reject the notion by the left of a constitutional separation between church and state,” said another board member, David Bradley, again according to The Times. “I have $1,000 for the charity of your choice if you can find it in the Constitution.”

Admittedly my own political persuasions lean pretty far left, but I have to believe regardless where one falls on the political spectrum, these developments are disappointing. More than anything, they appear to indicate that the Texas Board of Education gives its students little credit for having any ability to think (or investigate the Constitution) for themselves. Their zeal to revamp the curriculum via textbook fiat appears to reflect the view that whatever appears in a textbook will be both the beginning and end of what Texas students should learn and depart the classroom believing.

While of course it’s true that designers of curriculum, especially in history classes, make anguished decisions about what should constitute the appropriate course of study, any history teacher I know - to borrow a Texas-sized expression - who’s worth his or her spit, premises the entire course with a discussion of how any study of history is based on interpretative analysis, that the most vital aspect of learning about history is never the acquisition of knowledge about what supposedly happened. Instead, what’s most important is cultivating an understanding about how to approach historical study through a prism of intellectual curiosity, a lens that wants to entertain multiple perspectives in order to ascertain the complexity of the human experience. 

Thus, many Social Studies classes feature spirited debates about various historical events or sociological topics - do great men make history or does history make great men, for instance; or, was America wrong to refuse to bomb rail routes to concentration camps because they supposedly weren’t military targets - and the crowning assignment of the year is often a research paper that asks students to explore in-depth a topic of their own choosing and to come to their own conclusions. What teachers then assess isn’t the particular point of view a student proffers, but whether that student has supported his or her conclusions with reasoned argument. In that way, the study of history differs little from the study of science, math and literature. The ultimate objective is not to teach students what to think, but how to understand or solve problems, how to pose questions, how to think for themselves.

For goodness sakes, my third-grade daughter who barely studies Social Studies at all, already is learning to comprehend the significance of the difference between primary and secondary sources. Her teacher has already encouraged the understanding that what’s included in a textbook is only one point of view and provides only a superficial exploration of topics that are likely, upon further examination, to prove more complex.

Not to drown readers in edu-speak (how’s that techno-pedagogy thing working out for ya?), but a well-accepted theory of cognitive learning developed in 1965 by an educational psychologist named Benjamin Bloom and known as Bloom’s Taxonomy, places the acquisition of knowledge at the lowest level of intellectual behavior. That’s not to say that acquiring knowledge isn’t important, it is; it’s at the base of things. But it’s also just the first step, the higher levels of thinking skills move through stages of understanding that knowledge, applying it, analyzing it, synthesizing it and evaluating it. According to Bloom then, the whole point of education isn’t to skew knowledge acquisition to the left or right, but to create opportunities for students to analyze and evaluate whatever they’re learning in order to foster higher-level intellectual activity.

In other words, any educational experience worth its spit wouldn’t seek to indoctrinate its students with a series of facts, but instead would equip them with the skills to assess for themselves the logic and coherence of any argument.

That, of course, would be how we cultivate an informed democratic populace, the kind likely to vote small-minded decision-makers out of office.

*NOTE - For a Creative Writing-style take on exploring beyond the surface, I’ll be teaching a workshop for adults on what I call Archaeological Writing this Saturday (3/20) from 10am - 2pm @ the Neutral Zone. The workshop is in support of local publisher Dzanc Books (who sponsors Writers-in-the-Schools programs in local schools) and cost $50. More information and registration procedures can be had at the Dzanc web site @ http://www.dzancbooks.org/dzancday/. *

** Also, if you’re interested in hearing what the next generation of powerful young writers in this community have to say, you can hear them dig deep tonight at the Pioneer Poetry Slam (Thursday 3/18), @ the first ever Skyline Poetry Slam on Friday 3/19; and the spectacular Slam Finals on Thursday 3/25. The preliminary slams are at the smaller theaters or auditoriums in the respective high schools and are free and open to all students and the general public. The finals cost $5 for students and $7 for members of the general public. All events start @ 7pm. The Finals will be packed so get there by 6:45 if you want a seat. **

Jeff Kass teaches Creative Writing at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor and at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, and directs the Literary Arts Programs at the Neutral Zone, including the VOLUME Youth Poetry Project, which meets every Thursday night at 7pm. He will post new blog entries every Thursday morning throughout the school year.