Conservative activists have begun a push to change the textbook standards used in schools across the state of Texas to express their particular views of American History in a way similar to what anti-evolutionists accomplished in the ’80’s and ’90’s.
In a long article on Religion Dispatches, Lauri Lebo details a number of their ideas. For instance, Anne Hutchinson, an early Puritan in Massachusetts Bay who was expelled from the colony over disagreements in biblical interpretation and the crime of starting a rival bible study in her home is described by the Rev. Peter Marshall and David Barton as being “not a significant leader who didn’t accomplish anything except getting herself exiled”. As such they recommend that any mention of Hutchinson be removed from textbooks used in Texas.
Further on, the two take on the record of recently Judge Thurgood Marshall (a devout Episcopalian who was recently added to the Episcopal Church’s calendar) and Cesar Chavez:
“Both Barton and Phillips recommended that César Chavez (labor organizer and civil rights leader) and Thurgood Marshall (the nation’s first black US Supreme Court justice who, as a young attorney, successfully argued the public school desegregation case of Brown v. Board of Education) be removed from textbooks because they aren’t worthy role models for students.
And then:
Perhaps most concerning, Barton also stresses the teaching of the Declaration of Independence and wants to see the state standards stipulate that the document is synonymous with the Constitution.
It’s interesting to note that nowhere in the Constitution is there a reference to God; but in the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson refers to a creator, as well as ‘the laws of nature and of nature’s God.’
From this, Barton says we can adduce—and children should therefore be taught—the five following principles:
1. There is a fixed moral law derived from God and nature; 2. There is a Creator; 3. The Creator gives to man certain unalienable rights; 4. Government exists primarily to protect God-given rights to every individual; 5. Below God-given rights and moral law, government is directed by the consent of the governed.
Barton goes on to write that these five points are key to what he calls ‘American Exceptionalism’:
Students must understand that American Exceptionalism is the result of the five distinctive ideas set forth in the first three lines of the Declaration and subsequently secured in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.”
The reason this is a national concern is due to the fact that Texas represents one of the largest markets for textbook publishers. As such the publishers tend to only offer books to national markets that are compliant with Texas guidelines.
Read the full article here.