Letters from Linden
by JACK LINDEN
The State Board of Education (SBOE) is considering omitting Thomas Jefferson from the social studies curriculum. Their rationale is that he does not adequately and truly represent the true meaning of the enlightenment. What folly! There is so much wrong with this SBOE that the best thing the State Legislature could do is to negate the entire actions of the board and select scholars to examine books.
The crucial aspect of this idiocy is that the decisions that the board makes affects, not just the students of Texas but, students around the United States. Since Texas has a state-wide adoption, book publishers kowtow to the decisions of the SBOE and publish books that are to the liking of the board. Having a book selected in Texas means that the publisher has a free hand in selling until the next round of adoptions. While that is happening, the students suffer.
The decision by the SBOE seems to have been made on purely religious grounds. There can be no other reason. Thomas Jefferson is considered by people who have done a modicum of reading in American history as one of the great thinkers of not only his time but throughout American history. Omitting him from study is in essence leaving out a crucial part of American thought and intellect.
I wonder if the board can take the gospels of the Bible, translate them into Greek and Latin and create a sound understanding of the religion of Jesus as Jefferson did. Could they create a constitution as Jefferson did for the State of Virginia? Have they read the “Notes of a Virginia Farmer?” I wonder if they have read the tombstone of this great man to understand humility.
Jefferson, as did all the founding fathers, had faults. Yes, he owned slaves and even in death, he did not free them all. His mistress, Sally Hemmings, was not freed even though her children by him were. Yes, he spent extravagantly to the point that he actually sold his personal library to pay his debts. That library became the foundation for what is now known throughout the world as the greatest library in the world, the Library of Congress.
While these people who have no academic background or at best, very little, are now making decisions that will affect Texas and American school children, we are supposed to let them since they are elected officials. While these seven have voted to omit Jefferson, they are followers of those who hold up the Declaration of Independence that Jefferson penned and the Constitution. While Jefferson had no physical part in the writing of the Constitution, his input from discussions with the writers, especially Madison, certainly left an imprint.
Leaving the selection of textbooks for children should not be left to the laity. I am sure that even the most conservative historian would not leave out Thomas Jefferson. If the board wants objectivity, why not have different scholars’ viewpoints of Jefferson be expressed in the texts? I would submit that the students would get a deeper understanding of the man and his thoughts by doing so, than wondering why he was left out of a text.
There are objections to other things that the board has seen fit to include or exclude. The governor has even chimed in saying that a previous person is mentioned as still being governor. That is the problem when you select textbooks in a cycle rather than when the text is outdated. Having contemporary names as leaders or as being influential is suspect at best and at worst, sometimes proven wrong well before a new text is adopted.
If education is supposed to be determined by the community, what Texas has done is to let seven individuals, who are much closer to Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council than they are to the people of Texas or most other areas, decide for them. Let us let scholars in the fields of education that are being studied determine the content of textbooks, not politicians with political agendas.
