Over 700 Jefferson County High School students are staging walkouts and protests over proposed changes to the Advanced Placement History curriculum. According to Colorado Public Radio:
Last week, a school board member proposed that advanced placement history classes be required to promote free enterprise and patriotism and be required to avoid classroom materials that encourage social strife or civil disobedience. Two high schools in Jefferson County closed Friday after dozens of teachers called in sick in protest.
According the online petition to be delivered to the School District:
Jeffco Public School Board has just proposed a change of curriculum stating that, “Materials should not encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law. Instructional materials should present positive aspects of the United States and its heritage.”
This means that important parts of our history such as the Civil Rights Movement, Native American genocide, and slavery will not be taught in public schools. If these important lessons are not taught, children will not learn from them, and what will stop them from happening again? This is a severe form of censorship intended to keep the youth ignorant and easy to manipulate. I’m hoping to get enough signatures to prove that this is a public issue, so, please, if this is important to you, please sign. Do not let our youth grow up in ignorance; we all deserve the truth!
You can sign the petition here.
You can read more articles at The Denver Post, CBS Denver (with video), and Colorado Public Radio.
Thanks to theseacaptainsdaughter for dropping a link in my inbox.
One of the people that is trying to get these changes made said the following.
While the narrative may be “historically true,” he argues, “progressives are going to be the heroes in this narrative.”
My response? So fucking what?!?
Actually, people should really read the article you just linked to. It’s basically a retired history teacher who’s apparently *just horrified* that kids might learn how to do research and think critically about American history.
Tag: protest
Over 700 Jefferson County High School students are staging walkouts and protests over proposed changes to the Advanced Placement History curriculum. According to Colorado Public Radio:
Last week, a school board member proposed that advanced placement history classes be required to promote free enterprise and patriotism and be required to avoid classroom materials that encourage social strife or civil disobedience. Two high schools in Jefferson County closed Friday after dozens of teachers called in sick in protest.
According the online petition to be delivered to the School District:
Jeffco Public School Board has just proposed a change of curriculum stating that, “Materials should not encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law. Instructional materials should present positive aspects of the United States and its heritage.”
This means that important parts of our history such as the Civil Rights Movement, Native American genocide, and slavery will not be taught in public schools. If these important lessons are not taught, children will not learn from them, and what will stop them from happening again? This is a severe form of censorship intended to keep the youth ignorant and easy to manipulate. I’m hoping to get enough signatures to prove that this is a public issue, so, please, if this is important to you, please sign. Do not let our youth grow up in ignorance; we all deserve the truth!
You can sign the petition here.
You can read more articles at The Denver Post, CBS Denver (with video), and Colorado Public Radio.
Thanks to theseacaptainsdaughter for dropping a link in my inbox.
Holy shit, this is some Orwellian bullshit going on here. Signal boost.
Colorado Students Protest Proposed Censorship
My old high school is one of the schools participating in these walkouts.
The school board is proposing an alteration to the curriculum of history and health courses, to focus on “the positives of American history while avoiding material on civil disorder and social strife” (aka pretty much all of American history). Their defense? It would only really be for AP History, which the new superintendent for the district claims is “an elective.”
Also, the same board has implemented a new salary plan for teachers that no one wanted. Teachers across the district fought tooth and nail against it. While he claims it is benefiting many teachers, independent reviewers have confirmed it is a flawed system.
Now, this is not the first major problem with the school board in Jeffco. Three new members were elected last year, Ken Witt, John Newkirk, and Julie Williams (all republican). These three violated the law the literal second they were inaugurated back in November 2013. They, without the knowledge of the other two existing board members or the general public, hired an out of district private attorney (who, by the way, is getting paid more than the current highest paid jeffco teachers via the new salary program).
PLEASE get angry about this.
So my brother (taller boy in the back) is protesting his high school’s decision to “promote patriotism and the free-market system and downplay civil disorder in the curriculum [of AP history classes].” (x) In the video, the reporter only focuses on the schools participating in the protest (it covers the largest district in the state of Colorado) and that the superintendent wants students to come to him with their questions instead of protesting during class. She goes on to discuss, more than once, that “most” of the teenagers protesting don’t know what they’re protesting. My sister (not pictured) is also part of the protest movement, and was interviewed by the reporter. She stated quite clearly their position on the matter, but the interview wasn’t aired. This is so toxic in the fact that this reporter was blatantly under-representing the knowledge that these students had on the matter and invalidating their opinions on their own education.
Random Toughts 