Rewriting History in Texas, Puritan Style - 2009-07-14
The Wall Street Journal reports that as the Texas Board of Education considers revisions to its social studies curriculum, conservatives want the state to stop teaching students about Thurgood Marshall and Cesar Chavez, and provide a more central role for Christianity in American history.
According to the Journal, proponents of the changes say the curriculum “should clearly present Christianity as an overall force for good -- and a key reason for American exceptionalism, the notion that the country stands above and apart.”
A central figure behind the drive? Reverend Peter Marshall, of Massachusetts . So much for the vaunted local control over education that conservatives are fond of crowing about.
Marshall’s 17th century outlook makes us wonder whether he’s an original Puritan, cryogenically frozen and brought back to fight the devils of these strange times. He seems quite committed to returning to an era in which only white male Christians were considered important historical actors.
Marshall told the Journal, “We're in an all-out moral and spiritual civil war for the soul of America, and the record of American history is right at the heart of it.” He also called Thurgood Marshall a weak example of an American who has influenced history and said of Cesar Chavez, “He's hardly the kind of role model that ought to be held up to our children as someone worthy of emulation.”
Click here to email Reverend Marshall and tell him to join the 21st century.
