The eyes of Texas are upon you, Thomas Jefferson, and they’re insisting that you scoot on over and make room in your history chapter for enlightenment figure John Calvin.
Last spring, the Texas State Board of Education approved sweeping changes, which, though presented as an improvement to make textbooks more complete, look more like a design for a right-wing takeover.
It’s no surprise that the Great State, headed by Tea Party sympathizer-cum-secessionists, would be moving in this direction. However, it’s not just the left-wing or Texas Democrats who should be outraged. The whole state should be offended that their history is not just being given an addendum, it is being presented with a cover-up. A cover-up of Hispanic casualties and sacrifices during the battle at the Alamo and a cover-up of the existence of other religions and populations that differ from the WASP standard, both of which should have been put to bed long ago.
Along with their unit about the Cold War and a zealous communist witch-hunt, students will also be provided with a vindication of Senator Joe McCarthy stating that his suspicions were confirmed and implying that his extreme actions were justified.
Students will not learn that the mandate of separation of church and state prevents the United States government from promotion of one religion. While this may seem positive to many who espouse a more active role for religion in schools, opening the door to a religious preference in public schools also opens the door for heavy religious discrimination, even among Christians. If school administrators choose to teach classes through the lens of one denomination, the others are left behind–a slippery slope that promises to wage a religious battle perhaps greater than the one that is already being fought in the realm of education.
Adding to the divisiveness of textbook changes is the notion that Texas schools must now refer to the United States as a “constitutional republic” instead of a country with “democratic” values. Even though democratic has always been used in the general sense, conservative textbook “reformers” cannot bear the idea of the left-wing Democratic conspiracy being attached to the values of America.
By Lisa Elizondo
This partisanship at a small level is only a microcosm for the divisiveness that we are seeing at a national level in this time of difficulty when many changes that upset the status quo are being proposed.
As a life-long resident of Texas, I have never faltered in bring proud of my Texan identity, and I still don’t. I am, however, disappointed in the Board of Education for encouraging partisanship in a time when cooperation is especially critical to the success of the state and the nation. Education is the foundation of the future, and using it to foster divisions will likely lead to the ruin of a nation founded on the ideal of power in the hands of the people.
Lisa Elizondo is a junior majoring in American studies.
