This article tells us that “public school students in Texas would be required to evaluate efforts by global organizations to undermine U.S. sovereignty in one of a series of changes that conservatives on the State Board of Education made Thursday to new social studies guidelines.” Holy moly, I didn’t learn anything about that in my classes. “U.S. sovereignty”? What kind of fascist talk is that? And are they suggesting that something could be wrong with global organizations? No wonder Texas acquired a reputation for boobery.
Check out this, too: “With little discussion from Democrats on the board, conservatives also added language that would require students to discuss solvency of ‘long-term entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare.’” Why people would want to poison young minds with doubts about Social Security and Medicare, I don’t know.
Let me cite one more passage: “Other proposals would tone down criticisms of the Red Scare and Sen. Joe McCarthy’s anti-communist hearings of the 1950s.” In an essay about my education many years ago, I quipped that, for us kids in Ann Arbor, American history consisted of slavery, Japanese internment, and McCarthyism. All of these are important to know about, of course — but there’s, like, you know . . . more.
Anyway, I hope the Texas schools will at least make clear to their wards that it was Texas that killed Kennedy.