As diarist MNDem999
pointed out last month, three Republican legislators in the South Carolina House have introduced the
Second Amendment Education Act of 2015.
The bill, two of whose originators are members of the Koch-founded and -funded American Legislative Exchange Council, sets aside each Dec. 15 as "Second Amendment Awareness Day." If the bill passes, schools would have to sponsor poster contests for that day, with awards given to the best submissions. The bill also requires that teachers in elementary, middle and secondary public schools spend three consecutive weeks each year studying the Second Amendment.
As one might expect given ideological predilections of those who introduced the bill, that study wouldn't be based on a balanced curriculum. Instead, it mandates that, 30 days after the statute passes, "the State Superintendent of Education shall adopt a curriculum developed or recommended by the National Rifle Association or its successor organization."
As Ian Millhiser writes, three weeks is an extraordinary amount of time to spend on such a narrow subject, particularly for elementary school students:
Many high school history teachers publish their course syllabi online, and a ThinkProgress review of Advanced Placement United States History syllabi reveals that teachers typically spend far less than three weeks teaching pivotal events or major aspects of American history.
One South Carolina charter school, for example, devotes just two weeks to “The Slave System and the Coming of the Civil War” and only a week and a half to World War II in its Advanced Placement United States History course. A Maine private school devotes two weeks to “Slavery and Sectionalism” and another two weeks to “World War II and the Origins of the Cold War.” A Kentucky high school devotes only two weeks to the “Roaring 20’s, Great Depression and New Deal,” a period that thrust America into an historic crisis and transformed the nation’s view of the role of government in society.
Three weeks on the Second Amendment. And what of other amendments, like say the First, Fourth, Fourteenth? Do they each get three weeks?
Given the ALEC association, if the South Carolina bill passes, it won't be long before similar legislation shows up in other states.
