If Texas legislators want change, attitude needs work

During this year, we witnessed a variety of changes – changes that people said would go into history books. Barack Obama is America’s first African-American president and Sonia Sotomayor is the first Latina Supreme Court justice. To keep up with the times, making social studies classes and textbooks culturally balanced and accurate is a worthy change.

According to the Dallas Morning News, Texas Hispanic groups are demanding revisions to the state’s education standards in response to the ever-growing Hispanic population. Read full article here.

Rep. Norma Chavez, D-El Paso, who represents the House and Senate Hispanic caucuses, criticized the State Board of Education’s draft of social studies curriculum in a public hearing on Wednesday.

“It is as though Hispanics don’t exist in many of these standards,” Chavez said. “Mexican-Americans did not just all of a sudden pop up at the border.”

Texas legislators are embroiled in a serious debate over a reasonable change. Revising social studies and history classes and textbooks to include more Hispanic figures would appease Texas Hispanic political groups and give students a more diverse, well-rounded education. Sounds like a win-win except both sides are nit-picking the quota of Latino historical figures that should be covered in Texas public schools.

In the article, Pat Hardy, R-Weatherford, member of state board, said, “You seem to be saying that because 40 percent of our (Texas) population is Hispanic, then 40 percent of all of the historical characters need to be Hispanic. You are asking to include different people just because they are Latino.”

That’s not the case according to Chavez. She told board members that there is no exact number of historic Latinos that must be added to social studies classes, but right now, only 16 of the 162 figures that must be in classes are Hispanic.

“What we are saying is that you are not looking at the entire history of this state and accurately reflecting what should be included,” Chavez said.

The issue is not about the numbers like the state board is making it out to be. What these Hispanic legislators want are classes that broaden students’ view of Texas history.

Marcelo Tafoya, a district director for the League of United Latin American Citizens, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “We have given so much of ourselves as Hispanics to this beautiful state. Yet they’re willing to ignore the deep history that we have.” Read Star-Telegram article here.

The state board is scheduled to have its first round of votes over the curriculum in January with a final decision made in March. The result will dictate the standard for the next 10 years for history and social studies courses, textbooks and standardized tests in all elementary and secondary schools. Still, Hardy told the Austin American-Statesman that regardless of what the board decides, individual teachers are free to add other historical figures in their lessons. The standards say which historical figures must be taught, but others can be included also – that is the important notion to grasp. Read full American-Statesman article here.

Teachers can assign projects, speeches or book reports on a multitude of historical figures including Latinos, and students can choose who they want to research. During a week in Black History Month and Hispanic History Month, teachers can design lessons and activities for students that highlight important events and people in African-American and Latin American history.

Kindergarten and first grade may be a little young to start teaching about various civil rights activists and war generals. Those teachers might read children’s books about people of all cultures and all time periods to their students instead.

There are ways to compromise and get what one wants without causing a scene. However, the Star-Telegram said Chavez told the board she may go to the House Appropriations Committee and ask colleagues to review the Texas Education Agency if Hispanics are not included in the new curriculum.

Instead of making threats and sharply criticizing the state board, Hispanic lawmakers should calmly address their concerns and promote reasonable, feasible ways to put more Latino history in public schools. Their overall idea is good – picking a fight with state board members is not.