textbooks

Dept. of Ed Charges Georgia Book Removal May Violate Civil Rights

A review by the department's civil rights unit concludes that Forsyth County, Georgia may have created a hostile learning environment for Black and LGBTQ students through its book removal policies. 

CA's Newsom Demands Info on Florida Textbook Revisions

“You don’t get to rewrite history in a back room. You don’t get to erase basic facts around segregation, the holocaust, or Rosa Parks’ story. The extremists in Florida and textbook companies that are colluding with them are about to be exposed.”

Excerpts from a Civics Textbook I Assume Would be Welcome in Florida

by Alexandra Petri

"American history is full of many heroes, whose accomplishments we will have no problem telling you about in the state of Florida! They fought for justice, which was brave of them, if a little redundant, because there was no specific injustice to fight against."

How Textbook Publishers are Censoring the Story of Rosa Parks to Sell Books in Florida

The conservative Florida Citizens Alliance, a group allied with the DeSantis administration, has called for rejection of 28 of the 38 texts its members reviewed. One publisher's editing of the story of the Montgomery Boycott illustrates their power. 

Florida's AP Fight Latest Battle in a Very Old Education War

by Bethany Bell

The state's rejection of the proposed curriculum as "indoctrination" stands on the foundation laid by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to establish the Lost Cause myth as the center of history education in the South for generations. 

50 Years Ago, "Anti-Woke" Crusaders Came for My Grandfather

by Max Jacobs

In 1972, "Search for Freedom" was rejected for adoption in Texas classrooms after conservative activists launched a national media campaign to attack it as unamerican and corrupting. The author's grandfather wrote the book. 

Partisan Politics on a State Standards Revision

by Stephen Jackson

The South Dakota Department of Education discarded the recommendations of a work group of scholars, educators and elected officials in favor of a second group appointed by the governor, including political allies and an emeritus professor from Hillsdale College, seriously undermining rigor in the state social studies curriculum. 

The Complicity of Textbooks in America's Racism

by Eric Foner

Donald Yacovone is an inheritor of the legacy of WEB DuBois, slogging through the nation's history textbooks to identify the propaganda of white supremacy, says reviewer Eric Foner.

Texas District Removes Graphic Version of Diary of Anne Frank

“It’s disgusting. It’s devastating. It’s legitimate book banning, there’s no way around it,” Laney Hawes, a parent of four children in the Keller district, told JTA about the order. “I feel bad for the teachers and the librarians.”

The Context of the New History Wars is Our Missing Sense of a Shared Past

by Jonathan Zimmerman

Grievances over secular issues like teaching racism have replaced Christian concerns over evolution and prayer in the battles over curriculum. Have advocates of progressive curricula opened the door to this attack by undermining a shared national historical narrative? 

Kathleen Wellman on How the Religious Right Hijacked History

"These textbooks, unlike the work of historians, dismisses much of human history and denigrates most human accomplishments. Only human efforts undertaken to support 'biblical truth,' meaning evangelical Protestantism, are godly and have any value; all others reflect sinful 'humanism'."

When a Right-Wing Attack on Textbooks Was Stopped

by Jonathan Zimmerman

A McCarthy-era attack on a leading civics textbook fell short because of both organized resistance and the unpopularity of the ideas behind the ban. Supporters of academic freedom today can potentially draw on both of those elements, too. 

Lessons from the History Textbook Wars of the 1920s

by Bruce W. Dearstyne

Historians helped defuse a national tempest over allegedly unpatriotic textbooks in the 1920s by explaining the nature of professional historical research, interpretation, and dissemination, and insisting on the right and duty of professionals to exert expertise. That kind of work is needed again today. 

Glenn Youngkin's No-Guilt History of Virginia for Fragile White People

With help from historian and Virginian Ty Seidule, Post columnist Dana Milbank asks who is served by recently proposed state laws restricting the teaching of controversial historical topics. 

Texas Social Studies Curriculum Review Led by Scholar who Called Biden Election a "Literal Coup"

Stephen Balch, a founder of the conservative National Association of Scholars, is part of the panel advising Texas on its curriculum standards. He has amplified Trump's false claims of election fraud among other controversial positions. 

Will Texas Legislature Repeat 1962 Hearings on What Schoolkids Read?

Texas’ House Textbook Investigating Committee held hearings across the state in 1962, which were suddenly halted after they became so rancorous and the lawmakers received threats.

Five Things Missing From Asian American History In Texas Schools

KERA spoke to educators including historian Madeline Hsu about what Texas students are missing out on when it comes to Asian American history. They said the lack of diversity, notable figures and modern-day connection are some of the key issues.

We Found the Textbooks of Senators Who Oppose The 1619 Project and Suddenly Everything Makes Sense

"If The 1619 Project is an attempt to rewrite history, which version of history does the GOP fear is being altered?"

Are Campus Bookstores Undermining Student Learning?

by Elizabeth Stice

Today’s undergraduates are increasingly being cornered into ongoing financial commitments for everything, while they never take possession of anything. Rejecting digital book programs run by campus bookstores outsourced to third parties could help reverse this trend.

The Silence of the Ellipses: Why History Can’t be about Telling Our Children Lies

by Sam Wineburg

The fairly recent elevation of Crispus Attucks as a hero of the American Revolution obscures the complexity of his role in the Boston Massacre and illustrates the pressure for textbooks to conform to a triumphal American narrative rather than engaging with the complexity of the past.