Re-writing history: time to mess with Texas
Posted March 19th, 2010 by Tom DeWolfCategory: History Tags: Education, History textbooks, Texas
Tom DeWolf is a regular guest contributor and the author of Inheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave-Trading Dynasty in U.S. History. This entry is cross-posted from Tom’s blog, and the opinions expressed are his own.
We are a Christian nation founded on Christian principles. The way I evaluate history textbooks is first I see how they cover Christianity and Israel. Then I see how they treat Ronald Reagan — he needs to get credit for saving the world from communism and for the good economy over the last 20 years because he lowered taxes.
— Dr. Don McLeroy, chairman of the Texas Board of Education
One of the goals of those involved with Coming to the Table and Traces of the Trade/Inheriting the Trade is to rewrite history. More accurately stated, we are committed to supporting efforts to update school curricula to include all of the rich stories throughout our history that went into the making of the United States; many of which have been hidden and/or buried–the result of which has been that many generations of students have been given a false picture of our nation’s history, and consequently, a false picture of who we are today.