Don't call the Alamo's defenders 'heroic,' Texas school curriculum panel urges

[Danke]

AUSTIN — A panel advising the State Board of Education on what seventh-graders should learn in their social studies courses has urged deleting the label "heroic" from a curriculum standard about the Alamo's defenders.
The proposed tweak to a directive about what teachers should teach about Texas history and the state's most iconic battle infuriated several state politicians, including Gov. Greg Abbott, who characterized the nonbinding advice as political correctness run amok.
"Stop political correctness in our schools," Abbott, a Republican, tweeted Thursday in response to the story, first reported by Texas Monthly. "Of course Texas schoolchildren should be taught that Alamo defenders were 'Heroic'! I fully expect the State Board of Education to agree. Contact your SBOE Member to complain." @TheTexan

[RonZeplin]

School lessons on the Alamo should cut 'heroic' description, Texas panel advises

State land commissioner George P. Bush took issue with another point of the proposition, which wanted to do away with a mandate for students to describe “the Travis Letter,” penned by Lt. Col. William Barrett Travis in the midst of the fight, the Dallas News reported.

“This politically correct nonsense is why I’ll always fight to honor the Alamo defenders’ sacrifice,” Bush tweeted. “His letter & the defenders’ actions must remain at the very core of TX history teaching. This is not debatable to me.”

G. Pee Bush cares.



Herbie/Prescot Bush 2020? He still wants his second term.

[Zippyjuan]

"I don't like losers who were captured. People who were captured aren't heroes."

[Swordsmyth]

"I don't like losers who were captured. People who were captured aren't heroes."

They all died heroically, they weren't captured and therefore they didn't collaborate like Songbird.

[phill4paul]

"I don't like losers who were captured. People who were captured aren't heroes."

WTF kinda dip$#@! connotation are you implying?

[Danke]

WTF kinda dip$#@! connotation are you implying?

Zip just being Zip.

[Origanalist]

I could be crazy, but maybe they should present what happened and let them form their own judgements.

[Schifference]

Why are all high school kids that enter the military praised? During a graduation ceremony entire audience stands to honor kids commitment to serve in the military. Why are there tearjerking commercials that portray the uniting of a military person coming home to his family?

Stand and fight for your own principles and you are deemed the enemy.

Go overseas and fight for principles unknown and you are a hero.

[TheTexan]

They may not have been police officers, but they were still pretty heroic

[Swordsmyth]

The Texas Board of Education on Friday voted to remove former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from the state’s social studies curriculum.
The move comes as an effort to “streamline” the social studies curriculum in the state, The Dallas Morning News first reported.
The vote, which was preliminary, came after a 15-member, board-nominated volunteer work group created a scale to grade historical figures, determining which were “essential to learn about and who wasn’t,” The Dallas Morning News reported. To determine their choices, the group asked a series of questions about the historical figures' background and legacy.


Clinton scored a 5 on the 20-point scale, while another figure who was also designated for removal, Hellen Keller, earned a 7.
Keller, who was blind and deaf, was known for her political activism, among other accomplishments.
“Eliminating Clinton from the requirements will save teachers 30 minutes of instructional time, the work group estimated, and eliminating Keller will save 40 minutes,” the newspaper reported.
On the other hand, several historical Texas figures -- such as Barbara Jordan, Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin and Henry B. González, among others -- received a perfect score.
"Our task was to simplify. ... We tried to make it as objective as possible,” Misty Matthews, a teacher in Round Rock, Texas, told the publication, which added that high school students in the state were previously required to learn about Clinton, a former first lady and the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee. Third-graders were required to learn about Keller.
In addition, the board voted to add Billy Graham -- the famed evangelist who died earlier this year -- back into the curriculum.
What’s more, “the board also voted to add back into the curriculum a reference to the "heroism" of the defenders of the Alamo (something that had been recommended for removal), as well as Moses' influence on the writing of the founding documents, multiple references to "Judeo-Christian" values and a requirement that students explain how the "Arab rejection of the State of Israel has led to ongoing conflict" in the Middle East,” the newspaper reported.

More at: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/09/14...urriculum.html

[jmdrake]

Obviously Mexico shouldn't have let all those illegal immigrants in from Tennessee.

[Swordsmyth]

Obviously Mexico shouldn't have let all those illegal immigrants in from Tennessee.

Yup.

[Zippyjuan]

They also want to remove Barry Goldwater.

[Ender]

I could be crazy, but maybe they should present what happened and let them form their own judgements.

Exactly.

And get the history correct- seems some new findings do not support the Alamo legend that everyone is taught.