Thursday, January 14, 2010

Taking Chavez off the Curriculum

Texas to Replace Hispanic Leaders

At this website, they were streaming the meeting live yesterday in which they were discussing replacing leaders like Chavez with Texas Rangers. It really does seem unfortunate that these large populations of Hispanic students might not have representation of historical role models, other than those conquered by European colonizers.

From the memo I received explaining the situation:

Today, Jan. 13, the state board will take a preliminary vote to adopt new standards for social studies texts. These new standards, according to the UFW would eliminate all Hispanics since the conquest of Mexico in the early 16th Century.Cesar Chavez, arguably the most important Hispanic civil rights leader of the 20th Century, is among the historical figures to be eliminated. One of Lowe's so called "experts" said that Chavez "lacks the stature...and contributions" and should not be "held up to our children as someone worthy of emulation." Alsoeliminated are a number of key Texas history makers such as Irma Rangel, the first Hispanic woman elected to the state Legislature.

Board members and their appointees have complained about an "over representation of minorities" in the current social studies standards. This is ironic as Hispanics will soon comprise the majority of all Texas public school students.

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