The Muse Has Landed! At the SBOE Meeting

Just got here. The place is packed and there is an overflow room. Lots of Latinos here. A long list of folks are testifying. It's public testimony day. Tomorrow the Board deliberates and amends the standards, and Friday they are likely to adopt new Social Studies TEKS.

I'm sitting beside TFN communications director, and TFN Insider blogger, Dan Quinn. He's been live blogging the public hearing all day. Here are some highlights from his posts this morning:

Former Education Secretary Rod Paige:

26 – Rod Paige, former education secretary under the second President Bush, is up.

9:27 – Paige: “We have allowed ideology to drive and define the standards of our curriculum in Texas. It has swung from liberal to conservative.” (We’re waiting for evidence that the Republican-dominated board and then-Gov. Bush’s education commissioner in 1998 adopted “liberal” curriculum standards.) The swing has been too broad, Paige says.

9:29 – Paige wants the board to reconsider how the standards cover the history of slavery and the civil rights movement: “I’m of the view that the institution of slavery and the civil rights movement are dominant elements in our history and shape who we are today.”

9:30 – Paige acknowledges comments from board members that the standards should be “fair” (“balanced,” we have heard). Yet, he says, history isn’t fair; it is what it is. The standards should teach the facts, he says.

9:37 – In making decisions about which historical figures to include in the standards, Paige says rely on established historians.

9:37 – Board member Terri Leo: Did you read the standards? Paige: Yes. Leo suggests that complaints about who is or isn’t in the standards is based on liberals who don’t think enough “progressives” are in the standards.

9:42 – Paige suggests that board member remember that not all events that have shaped our nation were positive. “Some,” he says, “were negative.” Of course, many board members have argued that social studies classes too often focus on negative aspects of American history. (One of Don McLeroy’s proposed standards tomorrow, for example, would have students compare positive portrays of America by immigrants with the views of Progressive Era reformers who saw serious problems challenging the nation, including racism, inhumane working conditions and the inability of women to vote.)

9:45 – Paige calls for the board to delay final adoption of the standards and continue work on the revision.

Board member shenanigans:

10:59 – David Bradley takes the opportunity to bash national standards. This has nothing to do, of course, with the debate today over Texas standards.

11:05 – Board member Ken Mercer seems to be suggesting that students taking the SAT won’t be tested on social studies — as if that’s an excuse to adopt bad standards because that won’t hurt Texas students’ to compete with kids from other states. Bizarre.

11:32 – Board member David Bradley calls separation of church and state a “myth.” He notes that the Ten Commandments adorn federal buildings like the Supreme Court.

11:37 – Board member Cynthia Dunbar: “tremendous confusion” about how the First Amendment should be implemented in relation to religious freedom. It’s hard to disagree — people like Dunbar and Shackelford have worked hard make it confusing.

And, here we are at this point:

3:56 – We’ve heard from little more than 10 percent of the more than 200 people signed up to testify today. No word yet on whether the board will cut off testimony at a certain time.

And, I've just heard a testifier dismiss slavery as insignificant in the most idiotic fashion imaginable. SBOE Board Member Lawrence took her to school and around the block a couple of times hitting her over the head with facts about slavery, to which his fellow Board member Tincy Miller replied (to the testifier in an American flag shirt, not to Allen), "I wish you had been my history teacher." WOW.

This is a bizarre atmosphere. It's painful to hear some of this.

Read Dan's recap on TFN Insider!