Hundreds of Colorado high school students walked out of school Tuesday to protest a
conservative history curriculum their town's recently elected far-right school board is proposing:
The school board proposal that triggered the walkouts in Jefferson County calls for instructional materials that present positive aspects of the nation and its heritage. It would establish a committee to regularly review texts and course plans, starting with Advanced Placement history, to make sure materials "promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free-market system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights" and don't "encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law."
The student walkouts followed a sick-out by teachers that closed two schools. From what the students were saying, it sounds like they're
already learning some solid history:
They waved signs declaring, “It’s world history, not white history,” and talked about Cesar Chavez and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. [...]
“As we grow up, you always hear that America’s the greatest, the land of the free and the home of the brave,” [Arvada High School senior Leighanne Grey] said. “For all the good things we’ve done, we’ve done some terrible things. It’s important to learn about those things, or we’re doomed to repeat the past.”
A #JeffcoSchoolBoardHistory hashtag on Twitter had some
sharp ideas for the curriculum,
like "If only Rosa Parks followed orders & sat where she was supposed to, Bengazi never would have happened." But it wasn't all fun and mockery:
THis #JeffCoSchoolBoardHistory thread is hilarious. Wait a minute... my kids are in JeffCo schools. Not so funny.
— @CraigHughesinCO
The new far-right school board majority has drawn praise from the Colorado branch of Koch brothers front group Americans for Prosperity. Because teaching kids to quietly take whatever's handed down from above, especially if it comes from your boss speaking as the voice of the free market, is a shared goal of the Koch brothers and this proposed curriculum.
