JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. – Are they pupils or are the pawns in a political game?
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Hundreds of students from at least five Jefferson County high schools in Colorado walked out of classes to demonstrate against the school board’s proposal to review a proposed history course last week.
Students claimed they did not want history that focused on citizenship, patriotism and respect for authority. At the heart of the controversy is the College Board’s Advanced Placement U.S. History course. Over the past few months, conservatives have criticized the new framework for studying history. The Republican National Committee adopted a resolution condemning it. The resolution says it “presents a radically revisionist view of American history that emphasizes negative aspects of our nation’s history while omitting or minimizing positive aspects.”
Jane Robbins of the conservative advocacy group American Principles Project, told the Huffington Post that she thinks the course is a “leftist revisionist slant on history.”
A member of the more conservative Jefferson County School Board recently proposed the district review the course to make sure materials “promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free-market system.” That’s when the students took to the streets with their placards and chants.
Naturally, the College Board, headed by President David Coleman who was one of the main architects of the Common Core, defended the student walkout. It states, “These students recognize that the social order can—and sometimes must—be disrupted in the pursuit of liberty and justice. Civil disorder and social strife are at the patriotic heart of American history….” Sounds like the main thing that’s being disrupted is the Jefferson County high school students’ education.
The Denver Post reported a vote on the curriculum committee—and that’s just the citizen committee that was to give their input on this curriculum, not the curriculum itself—was delayed. Board member Julie Williams said she was surprised by the reaction to the curriculum review.
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However, one education policy analyst thinks there may be something else going on in addition to the pushback against reviewing this radical history curriculum. Ben DeGrow of the Independence Institute told EAG News, “All signs point to this being anything but a spontaneous student-organized walkout.”
He says this issue is conveniently dressed behind a a discussion the school board had about a proposed citizens’ committee to exam the curriculum to see if it was well-rounded to give students a fuller picture of America’s history. In reality, DeGrow thinks the fingerprints of the teachers’ union and they’re unhappiness with the board’s new performance-based pay system idea appears to be driving this whole situation.
DeGrow says the conversation about American history is one the community should engage in. Students need to get a full picture of America’s story from the Founding Fathers to the good things America has done as well as the warts and to be able to think about those things critically, But based on the things coming from these students, he says they’re obviously being fed misinformation and not being taught to think critically about this situation. And that’s really unfortunate.
The teachers’ union, DeGrow says, claims that bringing a citizen committee in to exam this controversial curriculum would be censorship when actually quite the opposite is true. Unfortunately, he says students have bought into the lie that this is about censorship and that’s what they’re out on the streets protesting.
He believes, at least as far as the Jeffco situation is concerned, that this is a struggle by the union to maintain their power.
“The union is essentially afraid of losing their power,” he said. “When they dictate a collective pay scheme that rewards every teacher based on seniority and how long they’ve occupied the classroom, rather than factoring in the value that those teachers have had to the students, that gives the union power. But when it’s a performance-based system, like the school board has started moving the district toward, then it’s rewarding individual teacher professionalism and excellence, and that diminishes the union’s power and they don’t like that …
“There’s no other way for the students to have reached the conclusions they’ve reached in a coordinated manner that they’re [demonstrating] and so soon after this has all unfolded without some prompting behind the scenes. And the most likely suspect has to be the teachers’ union,” he noted.
The union has organized a series of “sick outs” – where so many teachers call in sick on the same day that classes are canceled. That’s occurred on at least three days in the past few weeks.
However, things could backfire on the union. DeGrow says if it can be shown that the union is responsible for this kind of behavior, it’s going to undermine their credibility with the community.
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