AS A LIFELONG HISTORY TEACHER I BROKE DOWN WITH TEARS OF JOY! --Irving The spark which ignited the tinderbox was a proposal written by one of the conservative majority on the school board, Julie Williams. In it, she calls for a review of the Advanced Placement history curriculum using the following set of criteria: “Materials should promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free enterprise system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights. Materials should not encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law.” Williams gave an interview with Colorado’s Channel 9 News in which she made a statement that has since become a rallying-cry for the students, parents and teachers protesting against the proposal: “I don’t think we should encourage our kids to be little rebels.” The plan hatched by Walker, along with his sister Emma, was that they – and others at schools across the county – would come into school on Friday dressed as famous historical rebels; figures who were responsible for just the sort of “civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law” that Williams’ proposal seemingly aimed to banish from the classroom. On Friday, Egan Walker, a sophomore at Standley Lake High School in Jefferson County, Colorado, will go to school dressed as Martin Luther. Earley thinks something sinister is at play. “It’s no secret that there’s a very aggressive movement that appears to link back to the Koch Brothers’ Americans for Prosperity that is putting money into local political races.” He pointed to neighbouring Douglas county, where, according to a Politico report last November, Americans for Prosperity spent more than $350,000 on the school board elections. Pictures on the Facebook event show other students, from a multitude of grades at a different schools, trying out costumes and sharing ideas. Suggestions include participants in the Boston Tea Party, members of the Green Mountain militia, anti-internment campaigner and governor of Colorado Ralph Carr, abolitionist and women’s rights campaigner Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B Anthony and activist Molly Brown. theguardian/world/2014/sep/26/-sp-colorado-ap-history-curriculum-protest-patriotism-schools-students?CMP=ema_565
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 14:02:16 +0000
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