Texas Textbooks: Where do we go from here?
As we knew it would, the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) last week approved new standards for the state’s social studies curriculum. I am hardly alone in lamenting a blatantly ideological process designed to influence what Texas kids learn for the next decade. (Here’s another good post. Also see the #savehistory hashtag for recent tweets on this subject.) It’s obvious that the board members who voted for the changes sought to imprint their side of today’s conservative/liberal culture clashes on the next generation of kids. I am embarrassed and ashamed of our state, and I say that as the owner of the kind of 21st-century, information industry small business that Texas tries so hard to attract.
In my last post on this subject, I wrote that this battle over textbooks obscured some bigger problems in public education in the state. In a comment to the post, Ed Darrell, fairly enough, took me to task for not taking a formal stand against the SBOE’s efforts. Few people have done more than Ed to fight the good fight against the SBOE’s politicization of Texas science and social science standards. Even though it’s obvious that no comment by me would have stopped the passage of these new standards, I take Ed’s criticism seriously. But the question now becomes: what now? How do those of us who disagree with the new standards–educators and publishers alike–respond in such a way to influence what and how our kids learn in this new environment?
One way, perhaps the chief one, is to follow a nascent trend that is already at work among influential educators around the country: deemphasize the textbook and move toward a document-based, inquiry-based system of learning. Let the kids examine primary sources of all sorts, construct their own questions about how to think about past events, and work toward their own conclusions. If the SBOE thinks that Joseph McCarthy has gotten a raw deal from historians (and cursed “liberal textbooks”), then let kids examine the documentary evidence themselves, from all sides. There are so many primary sources now available on the Web, and so many interesting sites and engaging tools, that this would be the right choice even if there were no political shackles being placed upon teachers and kids by an irresponsible SBOE. It’s simply a better and more effective way to teach and learn history.
So, as a publisher of history education materials, we are asking ourselves the obvious related question: How do we provide tools and materials to support this new form of history education? With MilestoneDocuments.com, we have only begun to answer the question. We’ve gathered, culled, curated, and analyzed a range of primary sources from US and world history (yes, including SBOE pet subjects from cultural conservatives), and our various teacher’s activities and study questions for students all emphasize a “compare/contrast” style of learning. Later this summer we’ll be rolling out new teaching tools for history educators at our site. But in general, we are thinking day and night about where we go from here, and we couldn’t be more excited about the opportunities and challenges in front of us.
Now, I know that it’s naive to think that the traditional top-down textbook/lecture environment is going to end anytime soon. Most public schools in Texas (and elsewhere) will continue to use this teaching style for the foreseeable future. The damage done by the SBOE is real, and its impact on our kids will be felt. Nonetheless, we have to find ways to minimize this damage, and I am optimistic that the changes already happening in history education can do just that.
Are there other ways that you see to prevent partisan intrusion in educational standards, whether it’s from the right or the left? I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments.
May 27th, 2010 at 9:46 am
Dear Neil and the Schlager Group staff,
The publication of your Milestone Documents series could not have come at a better time. Our nation seems more divided now than at any time I can remember in my adult life, and the perpetuation of this divide is a disturbing trend.
Neil, your call to “deemphasize the textbook and move toward a document-based, inquiry-based system of learning” deserves serious attention. By presenting pivotal moments in our history within their complex context, Milestone Documents can help readers understand that our multitudinous differences–and the realization that those differences deserve respect–fueled this country’s very formation.
As a lifelong learner, a nonfiction editor, and the mother of a high school student, I urge teachers to nurture thoughtful inquiry in our young people. Encourage their questions, and help them to see that the answers to those questions can only be found through artful, level-headed compromise. It will take a new generation of open-minded thinkers to navigate the often messy and complicated mix of opposing worldviews, varying motives, and clashing beliefs that make our nation what it is. Utilizing unbiased tools like Milestone Documents can give teachers an edge in fostering informed, balanced, and reasoned thought among their students. Kids can’t sift through the muck without the facts.