I wrote this in March, and have been hesitant to publish it, but thought in light of the fact that Texas rejected in collaborating on national education standards that this was timely.
Two weeks ago the Texas Board of Education sent shockwaves rippling through the scholastic community of the United States, when it voted to reorgonize the social studies circullum being taught to the state’s elementary school children. According to the changes students will be learning more about “conservative values” and less about important non-white historical figures. Say goodbye to Juan Seguin and hello to John Wayne.
The vote not only opens up questions about the state’s educational direction, and its accuracy, but also reveals the socio-economic changes that are rapidly tearing cultural fissures into Texas’ cultural fabric. School children in Texas have gone from being mostly white to mostly non-white in less than a generation. From 1990 to 2000, Texas’ Hispanic population grew by 2 million souls, roughly 30% of these newcomers don’t speak English in the home. The board’s knee-jerk reaction is to change what these children are learning in school to protect against what it sees as a loss of Texas’ cultural heritage.
As a Texan, I was reared on stories of Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and the Alamo. My people have been in Texas since it was wrested from Mexican control in the mid-1800’s. Learning about these historical events was easy in part because they were bedtime stories at home. These stories not only gave my pride in my state but also insight into what it means to be a good citizen; to stand up against despotism and fight for freedom, values that hold a different weight in other countries.
Much like Margret Mitchell, who was ten when the learned the South had been “licked” in the Civil War, it wasn’t until college when I learned of the brutality practiced by Texan soliders at the battle of San Jacinto, practices that made it hard to think that the Texians were just tired of being picked on. As an adult I’ve also learned that history is never one-sided it just sounds that way, since it’s written by the winner. Since the Anglo Texians ultimately won the battle for Texas Independence the Tejanos who fought alongside them were given the peripheral role as helpers, that’s why a white kid like me found those heroes I did learn about in school so easy to identify with. They looked like me, and talked like me, and that made it all the easier for me to say, “If they did it, so can I.”
Today, I teach 5th Grade. I thought that teaching 5th grade would be so easy because I liked 5th grade and that somehow I’d be just like those teachers who taught me. But teaching mostly English Language Learners in Dallas’ Oak Cliff is a far cry from Deepwood Elementary in middle-class Round Rock, Texas. Not only was a appalled to learn that most of these kids don’t know where the Alamo is, I was even more surprised that they seemed not to care. That surpise gave way to hurt and anger. Three years later, I get it. Why the hell should you care about some white folks taking over Texas. To these kids (and I’m sure the rest of the majority-minority children who attend Texas public schools) all the state standards have managed to do is murder their home language (and by extension the culture that goes with it), test them on information that they don’t have means to access outside the school day and then not supply appropriate support to help them get there. They’re too busy learning how to read period to have time to fool with something that happened 150 years ago.
While I totally understand that those who are sitting on the Texas Board of Education are doing this to protect what they see as the “Texan Way,” I must say that they are wrong. Not only does it distort the valuable contributions of non-white Texans, but it robs the children in Texas’ schools today of role models who might actually inspire them to become productive citizens. If they never read or hear stories about important people who look like them, they’ll never get that chance to say, “If they did it, so can I.” Without even a small thing to invest in, these children who already know so little will have no desire to learn more. You see what the Board doesn’t understand is that the history and the values go hand in hand. Education starts early, and it should be interesting and engaging in order for it to be most effective. Taking out a tool that helps educators to inspire their students (especially in abstract areas like Social Studies) will accomplish exactly what the Board is trying to stop. Taking out this tool will breed a generation of students who have no desire to be Texans, no desire to be United States citizens and no desire to be productive members of society. Will Texas really be great then?
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