After Censorship of History Course, Colorado Students & Teachers Give a Lesson in Civil Disobedience

[alp227]

From the Oct. 1 Democracy Now:

After a county school board in Colorado proposed to rewrite the district's high school history curriculum to stop teaching about civil disobedience, students and teachers have responded with acts of civil disobedience of their own. Classes have been canceled twice in Jefferson County as teachers stage mass sick-outs and students walk out of classes. At a protest last week, hundreds of Denver-area high school students held cardboard signs with slogans including, "Don't make history a mystery" and "Keep your politics out of my education." The protests began after the school board announced it was considering reviewing the curriculum of Advanced Placement history courses and adding more material to "promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free-market system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights." The proposed changes also call for the removal of classroom materials that "encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law." In addition, teachers are protesting a pay-grade system that ties their salaries to performance reviews. We are joined by two guests: John Ford, president of the Jefferson County Education Association and a social studies teacher at Moore Middle School, and Ashlyn Maher, a Chatfield High School senior and one of the students protesting the proposed curriculum changes.

Transcript here.

[Nika]

1. Good for the teachers and students

There is nothing like doing non-violent civil disobedience to learn the fundamentals of the hows, whys and benefits of it. I wish them success in their fight against these curriculum changes that are obviously born of conservative dogma.

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. Irony is Civil Disobedience history was almost

erased or ignored in the new history teachings.