The back story is included in this article:
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_26601519/jeffco-school-board-curriculum-committee-idea-latest-divisive

The relentless attack on the Jefferson County School Board in CO on Twitter:
http://aattp.org/twitter-users-mercilessly-bash-right-wing-attempt-to-rewrite-history-for-high-schoolers/
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/trending/jeffco-school-board-lampooned-on-twitter-over-proposed-revisionist-history-lessons

9/25/2014 2:45:10 PM

message_topic.aspx?topic=574051

and chill with the !'s

9/25/2014 3:16:21 PM

Screw it


[Edited on September 25, 2014 at 3:26 PM. Reason : adf]

9/25/2014 3:25:46 PM

Hey Guys, our public schools are absolute shit, but lets not try to make any changes to that curriculum.

9/25/2014 3:28:19 PM

Because rewriting history is an improvement?

9/25/2014 3:48:25 PM

Lol

The left has been rewriting history for the past 60 years.

9/25/2014 3:49:02 PM

^Can you give some examples?

9/25/2014 4:17:23 PM

How the fuck are people excusing this?

9/25/2014 5:28:54 PM

Quote :

"respect for authority and respect for individual rights"

Okay.

9/25/2014 6:34:59 PM

^^I still haven't seen specific examples of the revisionism. I'm not for or against it until I see exactly what they're trying to do.

9/25/2014 6:45:08 PM

you don't see how this would be indoctrination?

9/25/2014 7:08:58 PM

history classes shouldn't encourage or discourage anything. they should present facts.

9/25/2014 7:15:52 PM

The facts aren't the problem. It's the teacher or professor that is interpreting those facts to their classrooms.

9/25/2014 8:34:41 PM

Quote :

"Williams' proposal calls for instructional material presenting "positive aspects" of U.S. heritage that "promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free enterprise system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights." Materials should not, it says, "encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law.""

How exactly are they going to present the American Revolution in a way that doesn't condone civil disorder, strife, or disregard for the law? Or sit-ins? Or other civil rights protests? Women's suffrage? Anti-prohibition efforts?

Who determines what are the essentials and benefits of the free-enterprise system? Because what Adam Smith wrote about is at odds with how we do capitalism today...

There's nothing about what this school board is doing that's right... I'm hoping rjumfel is just playing devil's advocate, because this isn't really defensible.

9/25/2014 9:11:04 PM

I am playing devil's advocate, only because that article makes a vague statement as to what they want to change.

And I agree with moron. You can't teach the Revolution without rebellion. You just can't. And I don't see what is wrong with teaching that rebellion is good.

Maybe they are just trying to make some of the modern history books take on our not-so-great moments as a nation less apologetic? I don't know.

9/25/2014 9:31:08 PM

like whitewashing?

9/25/2014 9:46:10 PM

to me this sounds like Plato's theory in The Republic

let's ban all artwork except what's enriching

or, in this case, let's omit/spin certain portions of American history, so that only the positive parts are presented

I mean, I bet it's not that that bad, what they're proposing to do...but if their overall goal is to present history in a "positive" and "enriching," rather than "accurate" light - even a little bit, even a small step in this direction - then fuck that shit, that's horrible.

of course, this same process has probably already been applied to all the history we learned in school...but we don't need any more of it. I like my version of history.

9/25/2014 9:47:36 PM

The US used to present history this way-- the legacy of this blatant propaganda is still in the public school system.

Just look at anything the government did during WWII. It was all blatant propaganda, painting everything America did as great, and everything everyone else did as horrible.

Our education system now is already heavily skewed into portraying America in a very positive light-- to the point the average person doesn't know about Iran-contra, or that we funded both Bin Laden and Hussein at points, and that these events have lead us to be mired in some of the conflict with Iran, and Iraq today.

I'm not sure why these conservatives think teaching the truth about America-- that we didn't become such a rich and powerful country by solely just and fair actions-- is a bad thing. If anything, this ensures we make better decisions in the past, to grow and develop in a more sustainable way.

Think how much money we could be spending on education or space travel or anti-poverty programs if we didn't have to spend so much on defense.

9/25/2014 10:38:12 PM

Quote :

"Our education system now is already heavily skewed into portraying America in a very positive light-- to the point the average person doesn't know about Iran-contra, or that we funded both Bin Laden and Hussein at points, and that these events have lead us to be mired in some of the conflict with Iran, and Iraq today."

I don't know about NCs schools, but this might have more to do with the fact that (at least when I was in school) American history pretty much stopped after WW II. Sure, the basics of vietnam, the cold war, the civil rights movement and so on were covered, but with none of the depth that say Colonial (or heck even pre-colonial) America was covered with.

9/26/2014 12:41:49 PM

I'm just going to tell you all that you need to listen to the dan carlin common sense podcast about this subject.

http://www.dancarlin.com/common-sense-home-landing-page/

[Edited on September 29, 2014 at 6:15 AM. Reason : sdfsd]

9/29/2014 6:12:54 AM

^ I'm going to second the Dan Carlin podcast on the issue.

9/29/2014 9:57:41 AM

Which podcast, none of those descriptions are about school stuff.

9/29/2014 8:26:00 PM

The most recent one. Episode 281 "Controlling the past".

Quote :

"George Orwell famously wrote that “he who controls the past controls the future”. In this show Dan deals with the question of political and ideological culture wars on the teaching of history in K-12 education. Notes: 1.“Denver-area students walk out to protest history education plan they view as censorship” by Matthew Staver for The New York Times (and Associated Press). September 23, 2.Edutopia Article Link 3.Edutopia Audio Link 4.Organization of American Historians http://www.oah.org/ Research Books "

[Edited on September 29, 2014 at 9:28 PM. Reason : description]

9/29/2014 9:27:31 PM