Texas Education law
A Texas education law aimed at combating critical race theory has been interpreted by one educator to also require opposing perspective and the Holocaust.
News reports indicate that most people consider that interpretation completely and wildly misinterpreted.
I have copied a portion of the text below which I think pertains to this issue.
(5)AA No teacher, administrator, or other employee inany state agency, school district, campus, open-enrollment charter school, or school administration shall be required to engage in training, orientation, or therapy that presents any form of race or sex stereotyping or blame on the basis of race or sex.
(6)AA No teacher, administrator, or other employee in any state agency, school district, campus, open-enrollment charter school, or school administration shall shall require, or make part of a course the following concepts:
(1) one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex;
(2) an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously;
(3) an individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of his or her race or sex;
(4) members of one race or sex cannot and should not attempt to treat others without respect to race or sex;
(5) an individual ‘s moral character is necessarily determined by his or her race or sex;
(6) an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex;
(7) any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex; or (8) meritocracy or traits such as a hard work ethic are racist or sexist, or were created by a members of a particular race to oppress members of another race.
The legislation is clearly and obviously an attack against any kind of racial historical context instruction in public schools in Texas. It seems less clear that it would apply to teaching of the Holocaust. The bill specifically calls out documents and literature from famous people throughout history but does not even the Holocaust, but rather focuses exclusively on American historical issues.
I personally think bills like this at the state level are egregious and shouldn’t be enacted legislators. They are neither skilled in curruculum development nor experts on the subhects on which they are legislating.
But it doesn’t help to overstate issues into hyperbole when trying to oppose these sort of laws as it was shown by the Holocaust assertion.
https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=87R&Bill=HB3979
Originally published at http://dennisbmurphy.blogspot.com.
