Remember how, last week… before the Canadians became our enemies and we began diverting American resources toward the production of North Korean propaganda films… we were talking about how, in order to undo all of the damage that’s been done to the fabric our civil society over the past several years, we’d have to invest heavily in the teaching of civics and history for decades? Well, at the same time we were having that discussion, Republicans here in Michigan were apparently attempting to do the exact opposite, rewriting our state’s K-12 education standards in order to make it even more difficult for teachers to provide meaningful context about the situation we now find ourselves in.
According to an article published today by the Center for Michigan, this effort on the part of conservatives to rewrite Michigan’s social studies standards is being led by Republican State Senator, and gubernatorial candidate, Patrick Colbeck, who, as you might recall, demonstrated his ignorance of history not too long ago when he made the case that, “the KKK was founded as an anti-Republican organization not an anti-black organization.” [“It just so happened that the majority of Southern blacks were in fact Republican,” Colbeck has said at the time.]
Apparently Colbeck, joined by well-known conservatives representing far-right organizations like Citizens for Traditional Values, the Thomas More Law Center, and the Great Lakes Justice Center, have been aggressively attacking our state’s social studies standards these past several months, without the input of any Democratic legislators, let alone civil rights activists with subject area expertise. Among other things, the Center for Michigan is reporting that Colbeck’s group is pushing to remove from the standards any mention of gay rights, Roe v. Wade, climate change, and “core democratic values.” They are also, according to the report, stripping any mention of the KKK, and significantly downplaying the role of the NAACP during the civil rights era.
Here, to give you some sense of how extensive their edits thus far have been, is an excerpt from their most recent draft, which shows their suggested revisions.
And, here, from the article in Center for Michigan’s Bridge Magazine, are a few more examples of changes being proposed by Colbeck and his group of rightwing ideologues.
• The one reference in the current standards to the Ku Klux Klan is cut, with the KKK relegated to a single mention in a list of optional examples high school history teachers can consider using when teaching about social issues between 1890 and 1930.
• Five existing references to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People have been cut, with a lone reference remaining in a section on the 1920s on its “legal strategy to attack segregation.”
• The two references to gays and lesbians in the current standards, in sections dealing with the fight for rights for minority groups, have been deleted.
• Both references in the current standards to Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case legalizing abortion, are removed.
• A high school standard about the expansion of civil rights and liberties for minority groups cut references to individual groups, including immigrants, people with disabilities and gays and lesbians. The new proposal includes teaching “how the expansion of rights for some groups can be viewed as an infringement of rights and freedoms of others.” Colbeck told Bridge he added that phrase.
• References to climate change are cut in the proposed standards, with the impact of man on global warming limited to an optional example sixth-grade teachers can use when discussing climate in different parts of the planet. (The standards retain a more generic reference to teaching how “human actions modify the environment.”) In notes Colbeck sent to the state board, the former aerospace engineer argues that climate change is “not settled science.”
So, in short, they’re attempting to rewrite our history, not only suggesting that racism was not a problem in the United States, but erasing the very existence of marginalized groups in America.
Colbeck, you might be interested to know, took to Twitter today to respond to the Bridge Magazine article. Focusing specifically on his suggestion that references to the KKK be “scrubbed,” Colbeck laughably explained that it was done out of respect for Democrats, who, several generations ago, held the leadership positions in the racist organization now held by conservatives like himself.
[For what it’s worth, this ridiculous tweet of Colbeck’s has since been removed.]
The good news is, despite the work being done by Colbeck and others, Michigan’s social studies standards have yet to officially change. In fact, we’ve just entering into a public comment period, where we, as citizens, are able to weigh in. So, if you have the time, please reach out to your elected officials, or, better yet, attend one of the five upcoming Michigan Department of Education meetings on this subject. [I’ll list them in the comments section, but you’ll also find them by following the link to the Bridge Magazine article.] This can be stopped, but it’ll take an overwhelming effort on the part of those of us who still believe in the importance of truth and the value of relating honest, factual history to our children.