Despite a massive crowd and a huge series of protests by area High School students, a suburban district in Colorado has maintained its position that the AP History Course needs revision; apparently, the subjects chosen for coverage in the text focus more on the rocky, less glamorous and less patriotic areas of America's past, and the Board there wants more input into the subjects to be studied. From the article.
"At issue is a new approach to AP History this year that focuses more on examining historical documents and discussing the nation's history, rather than memorizing facts. The course also gives more attention to the period before the arrival of Christopher Columbus as well as slavery and women's roles. Some conservatives say the course was influenced by a movement in academia to de-emphasize the United States' uniqueness and treat it as one nation among many.
The latest move won't satisfy the students and others who packed the hearing room and also watched the meeting on a big screen outside in the parking lot with popcorn. Students, teachers and other critics of the board plan a protest after school Friday. They said they will hold signs and demonstrate on a major street that runs the length of the school district. The students turned in two cardboard boxes of a Moveon.org petition they said was signed by over 40,000 people across the country."
I wonder, because the text is aiming to be more inclusive of the not so flattering aspects of our history, if the text will include mention of the USS Liberty? Probably not. That story never makes it into textbooks....Or what about the Democratic administration of FDR's internment camps for the Japanese? wonder it that will make the cut? I wonder it the history course will make mention of the fact that the Republican Party of the 1850s wanted slavery ended, and pushed for that. and that the Republican party of the 1950s and 1960s was the party that supported civil rights over the objections of Southern Democrats? Will they cover all the non-flattering stuff, or just the non-flattering stuff that does not make them cringe. This will be interesting to watch.
