Tennessee Tea Party Groups Issue Demand On How Textbooks Portray 'Minority Experience In History'

A coalition of Tennessee Tea Party groups has formulated a list of "demands" focused on the state's educational curriculum and political agenda that they want the state's legislature to heed this session.

As far as their educational concerns, the panel writes that they want to "compel the teaching of students in Tennessee the truth regarding the history of our nation and the nature of its government," a failure that they claimed had been brought about by "neglect and outright ill will," The Memphis Commercial Appeal reports.

Hal Rounds, spokesman for the group, recently claimed at news conference that there was "an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the Founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another."

As a result, the Tea Party organizations argue, there should be "no portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers, or the majority of citizens, including those who reached positions of leadership."

"The thing we need to focus on about the Founders is that, given the social structure of their time, they were revolutionaries who brought liberty into a world where it hadn't existed, to everybody -- not all equally instantly -- and it was their progress that we need to look at," Rounds explained of his interpretation of the legacy of the Founding Fathers.

The issue of revising curriculums to teach history in a manner that encourages the glossing over of the uglier factors of the past has popped up in other states over the past year.

In Texas, an ultra-conservative faction of the Texas State Board of Education succeeded in pushing through a drastic overhaul of the state's textbooks and educational agenda. Among those proposals was an effort to replace instances of the "slave trade" with "Atlantic triangular trade."

In Tennessee, Tea Party groups have also waded into the ongoing debate over health care reform, attempting to make efforts to repeal the measure a matter of state policy. The Commercial Appeal reports that members of conservative movement call the measure "an insult to Constitutional principles."

Comments

[MarcEdward]

11:29 AM on 01/18/2011

If German school children can learn about the Holocaust, than American school children can learn about the bad things about the USA.

[elan4444]

01:32 AM on 01/18/2011

Let's hope the tea party remains in the minority. Ignorance is alive and well in Tennessee.

[Jack Mahoney]

05:21 PM on 01/17/2011

I think it's quaint that the TP folks think their followers read books.

[Prometeo]

04:17 PM on 01/17/2011

Let's see how the people in Tennessee react to this. It would be a great idea to put it on a ballot and let the majority decide. That would be interesting and historic.

[Oniweeki]

09:20 AM on 01/17/2011

I'll bet they don't want to talk about Andrew Jackson's refusal to enforce Supreme Court decisions. Thus cheating the Cherokee out of their land and their near extermination on the "Trail of Tears".

[TexasTreader]

11:54 PM on 01/16/2011

PC thugs are trying to saddle modern America with guilt for a crime that none living has committed. We can agree that slavery was a horror rightly eliminated in this country but that seems to be where agreement stops. Too bad, too. A lot of good people are wasting their lives waiting for reparations that will NEVER come.

[Saxton]

08:45 AM on 01/17/2011

So why was it okay to pay reparations to Japanese Americans after WWII? Why is it okay to justify the suffering and humiliation of one group over another?

[TexasTreader]

11:49 PM on 01/16/2011

I wonder what history books in West African countries teach about the slave trade. Do they get as much guff as we do? Why or why not?

[LiberalJackAss]

02:00 PM on 01/19/2011

I don't know that you'll be able to find many history books in West Africa. Or just books. But anyway, do you really wonder? Really?

[Ryan57ford]

05:52 PM on 01/16/2011

Kids are going to be very confused when doing a book report lets say on the Native Americans, and the text book says "they got along great and they told the white people they could have their land because they were so awesome." and what they find on the internet that talks about wiping out entire tribes and spreading disease throughout the Americas.

[Ron Broxted]

05:32 AM on 01/16/2011

America is a great country, but it needs to face up to it's less savory aspects. Free Leonard Peltier.

[MarcEdward]

11:27 AM on 01/18/2011

Correction - America was a great country. Now we are a has-been nation on our way to 3rd world status. 
A nation that re-elects a "president" who starts unprovoked wars, tortures, and trashes the constitution is in no way "great", unless you're talking about how morbidly obese Americans are.

[wolfdogNM]

12:28 AM on 01/16/2011

This is called Historical revisionism, and in many ways it is far worse then cencorship. This would be more dembing down and whitwashing over of US History. This will prevent students from really learning from History. Now what is that old saying; Oh yes, "Those that don't learn from History are doomed to repeat it."

[scottymac11]

09:12 PM on 01/15/2011

"The thing we need to focus on about the Founders is that, given the social structure of their time, they were revolutionaries who brought liberty into a world where it hadn't existed, to everybody -- not all equally instantly -- and it was their progress that we need to look at," Rounds explained of his interpretation of the legacy of the Founding Fathers.
During the time of our founders wasn't slavery abolished by most of their peer countries? The concept of civil rights for all people was hardly unheard of. Our guys were behind the curve where racial slavery is considered. Our founders had a choice. They chose the easy way out and often forced others to do nation building for them. But Tennessee Tea people have not distinguished themselves as scholarly devotees of a proper education

[ProfGiles]

09:01 PM on 01/15/2011

One of the best ways to control a society is to control education. It should surprise no one that those like the Tea Party who want to drastically alter American society would also want to drastically alter what is taught in schools. They want to revise history and substitute their own myths about the founding fathers. They want to teach children about a past that never existed in order to further their own political agenda. Worked for Mao.

[suleimom]

08:35 PM on 01/16/2011

Very true!

[Harriet Warnock-Graham]

09:37 AM on 01/17/2011

We who are educated, do not call that education but propaganda. Those who have personal libraries need to hang on to their hard copies of objective knowledge sources.

[Skunkman]

08:03 PM on 01/15/2011

The Founders didn't have slaves, women had equal rights & the settlers were
kind to the Indians. I have to cut my post short the men in the white coats just
brought my straight-jacket from the cleaners. Take care. :-)

Good night HP posters:

Mike

[JoeyDee2]

11:34 AM on 01/17/2011

The TP would make good inner party members in Orwell's 1984 as The Ministry of Truth rewrites history. You better believe what you just wrote or they'll be sending you off to Room 101. So, watch that thoughtcrime!

[Skunkman]

05:07 PM on 01/17/2011

Hi JoeyDee2: I see I have a new favorite poster. I've been to room 101 with
the rat mask included. :-) Well JoeyDee It was a pleasure to read your reply.
Once in a while we in HP get too serious & truth mixed with humor & intellect
is the right medicine. I will be looking forward to your posts. Take care.

Fanned & faved


Mike

[Skunkman]

05:14 PM on 01/17/2011

Hi JoeyDee2: I answered your reply but it disappeared. It should reappear. :-)
Well you were fanned & faved. Take care;

Mike

[trussia1]

07:39 PM on 01/15/2011

Well, TN's kids will still have to take SATs to get into college. With this "new program" I'm not sure they could score enough to get in any college other than Liberty U. I like another posters idea of parents picking up their text books so they can learn what is actually being taught. Did this idea come from a person who barely graduated from highschool and uses a chalk board on tv to give "history lessons" beacause it sure sounds like the Beckster to me.

[Ryan57ford]

05:53 PM on 01/16/2011

They will test high on the entrance exams for Glenn Beck University though!

[LiberalJackAss]

02:03 PM on 01/19/2011

"TN's kids not getting into any college other than Liberty U." Well then at least something positive would come out this......

[peterz]

06:33 PM on 01/15/2011

wow....No matter how often i read stories like this I get a surreal sensation, like I'm lost in some weird funhouse...where up is down and black is white...and cause and effect have mutated into something squishy and vague....

[Harriet Warnock-Graham]

09:39 AM on 01/17/2011

I believe that we are living in a kind of dark age regarding the liberal arts.

[peterz]

05:06 PM on 01/17/2011

I agree...