There have been several diaries of late addressing the attempts by those on the Right to revise history. In some cases these have been attempts to soften ( change) the history of the Civil War. We've seen attempts in places like Texas to de-emphasize some parts of history and over emphasize others. Tennessee is the latest example:
Tennessee Tea Party Demands School Curriculum Not Focus Too Much On The ‘Minority Experience’
Tennessee tea party activists presented state legislators yesterday with a list of “demands” for the 2011 legislative session, which opened earlier this week, including, “educating students [about] the truth about America.” “Neglect and outright ill will have distorted the teaching of the history and character of the United States,” according to a document the two dozen activists distributed to reporters. “We seek to compel the teaching of students in Tennessee the truth regarding the history of our nation and the nature of its government.”
What exactly do they want?
The material calls for lawmakers to amend state laws governing school curriculums, and for textbook selection criteria to say that “No portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers, or the majority of citizens, including those who reached positions of leadership.”
Fayette County attorney Hal Rounds, the group’s lead spokesman during the news conference, said the group wants to address “an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another.
“The thing we need to focus on about the founders is that, given the social structure of their time, they were revolutionaries who brought liberty into a world where it hadn’t existed, to everybody — not all equally instantly — and it was their progress that we need to look at,” said Rounds
So see we need only focus on the good parts of what the Founders did and understand that the bad parts, well it was the times they lived in and we really can't go back and change that! Hmmm...notice anything similar to the reading of the Constitution last week without the inconvenient truths?
Not really sure what they think was "made up" about Native Americans and Slavery ( here we go with the Civil War revisionism) and how rude of all those minority American citizens to think that our history should be included in the totality of American history.
This is part of a larger and scarier pattern of the Tea Party to influence and control education in this country. We know that the rightest of the right would love nothing more than to eliminate the Department of Education. Just yesterday, Deoliver47 posted a diary that stayed on the rec list the better part of the day that is well worth a read about the Tea Party's attempt to re-segregate schools in NC:
Update:Tea Party Republicans abolish school integration policy
Subsequent to her initial posting, Think Progress posted that the Koch brothers are directly involved in this. You know...the ones who "aren't" involved in the Tea Party?
Fulfilling Father’s Campaign To Segregate Public Schools, Koch Groups End Successful Integration Program In NC
So while we are rightfully focused on Tea Party actions at a national level, let us be equally if not more focused on them at a local level. In each of our states, cities, towns. In our school boards. Because they will make their presence known everywhere. Will we? I confess I haven't. I don't attend my local school board meetings. I need to start.