by DCG
LOL.
From NY Post: Call it a case of the blind deleting the blind.
Texas educators have booted Hillary Clinton, Helen Keller and other historical figures from state social studies classes, which require students to learn about “significant social leaders in the United States.”
Clinton being the first woman to run for president and Keller’s accomplishments as a deaf and blind person apparently don’t qualify.
“Military and first responders are best represented,” the state’s Board of Education’s advisory committee recommended prior to a vote on the change Friday.
High schoolers in the Lone Star state had studied Clinton under a “citizenship” section of its curriculum, which focuses on trailblazers such as Andrew Carnegie, Thurgood Marshall and Sandra Day O’Connor, according to the Dallas Morning News.
And third-graders learned about Keller, a prolific author and political activist who earned a college degree despite her handicap.
But the board’s advisory committee determined she “does not best represent the concept of citizenship.”
At least two committee members said the group concluded that there were too many historical figures for Texas kids to study, so they graded candidates based whether they triggered a “watershed change” and if they were from an “underrepresented group,” the paper reported.
Clinton scored a 5 out of 21 points. Keller scored a 7 out of 20.
“There were hundreds of people,” said Misty Matthews, a committee member and teacher, about the volume of historical figures kids are required to learn. “Our task was to simplify… we tried to make it as objective as possible.”
There board made no specific comments about Hillary Clinton. Students are still required to learn about Bill Clinton.
Removing the former first lady and secretary of state will save teachers 30 minutes of instruction time, and axing Keller will save 40 minutes, the advisory committee estimated, according to the paper.
While Clinton and Keller were scrapped, evangelist and Baptist pastor Billy Graham – who was also recommended for removal by the committee – was spared. So were references to Moses, and his “influence” on America’s founding documents.
The board wants students to continue explaining how the “Arab rejection of the State of Israel has led to ongoing conflict” in the Middle East, a requirement the committee recommending eliminating.
The board will cast its final vote on the curriculum re-do in November.
DCG