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●   Texas board votes to eliminate Hillary Clinton, Helen Keller from history curriculum

●   Once again, Texas’s board of education exposed how poorly we teach history

After a thorough review of every grade level, the work groups recently presented their recommendations, which were approved after some amendments in an initial vote by the board. The suggested streamlining, which by definition would necessitate omitting some important figures from the curriculum, has drawn national attention and much misguided criticism. Two sections in particular drew critics’ attention.

The recommendations for U.S. history in high school regarding the contributions of significant political and social leaders would drop Hillary Clinton and Barry Goldwater from a listthat included Andrew Carnegie, Thurgood Marshall, Billy Graham and Sandra Day O’Connor. For third-grade social studies, the recommendations regarding figures who exemplify good citizenship suggested leaving Helen Kelleroff a list that included Clara Barton and Ruby Bridges.

It is difficult to see partisanship, as critics alleged, in the recommended removal of Hillary Clinton if another target was the conservative icon and 1964 Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, notable as the first candidate of ethnically Jewish heritage to be nominated by a major American party. Removing American Red Cross founder Clara Bartonor civil rights stalwart Ruby Bridgesinstead of the deaf and blind author and activist Helen Keller would have prompted the sort of complaints stirred by that suggestion.