Race, Civil War will challenge Texas history teachers this fall

As the school year approaches, the national debates about race relations and the Civil War era have landed in North Texas classrooms.

In the Fort Worth school district, parents recently protested the depiction of the Civil War era in new textbooks, and North Texas teachers are considering how to handle potentially volatile teaching moments on race relations.

The issues blew up nationally after nine African-American worshippers were killed at a Charleston, S.C., church this summer. The suspect is self-described white supremacist Dylann Roof, who posed in photos with the Confederate battle flag, also known as the Rebel flag. The photos led to a nationwide outcry to eliminate the flag and the nickname “Rebel” from public areas such as government buildings and schools.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to have a conversation —conversations within our community to look at our resources and make sure that we are moving forward in a fair and balanced way,” said Michael Sorum, deputy superintendent for leadership, learning and student support for the Fort Worth schools.

Texas students will start classes in August with new Texas history and social studies textbooks largely chosen from a list approved by the state. They include Texas history and U.S. history books published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill Education, Pearson Education and Discovery Education.

Parents and activists who recently protested to the Fort Worth school board are concerned that new social studies textbooks inaccurately depict the period when African-Americans were forced into slavery, among other problems.

Vincent Haynes, a member of Independent PAC, a Fort Worth political action committee that promotes issues related to the African-American community, characterized the district’s history curriculum as a snapshot of how “white supremacy has indoctrinated itself in this land.”

Robert El, who spoke at a public forum at a Fort Worth school board meeting along with a handful of other parents and local activists, said, “We give our babies to the school district in hopes that the district will do their utmost and best to uphold their solemn duty to educate our children … so they can rise to the pinnacle of their potential.

“This can’t happen if we allow individuals to introduce materials that have been proven to be nonfactual.”

Texas’ learning requirements and the new textbooks were controversial before the Civil War era became a flashpoint this summer. One concern is how Texas students are taught about the causes of the war, said Dan Quinn, spokesman for the Texas Freedom Network, a public education watchdog group that issued an analysis of textbooks proposed in Texas last year.

“The textbooks make clear that slavery was a clear cause of the war, but they muddy the waters,” Quinn said. “They have this mixed message.

“The rupture was over slavery. Every other issue was an outgrowth of the divisions over slavery. Historians have said this.”

Texas textbooks must reflect material students are required to know as outlined by the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, which lists what students should learn in social studies and history classes in each grade.

Quinn said the State Board of Education, which approves standards and textbooks in Texas, is to blame if Civil War history isn’t presented accurately to students.

But Pat Hardy, a member of the state board from Fort Worth, said the textbook issue is being dragged out again by the Texas Freedom Network to generate a new controversy on the heels of the South Carolina tragedy. She said the state standards have been in place for five years and textbooks were approved last year. Additionally, she noted, districts don’t have to buy the state-approved textbooks.

“What is this stinkola all about?” Hardy said.

She disagrees with critics who argue that Jim Crow laws, the Ku Klux Klan and various other civil-rights era issues are not in the books.

“I checked the books, and they have all the stuff in there,” Hardy said.

History lessons

Texas standards call for building knowledge about U.S. history as students move up in grades, educators said. Accordingly, not every aspect of the Civil War is taught in any single grade.

“All three of the most popular grade eight textbook products begin their coverage of the Civil War with slavery and then move into states’ rights,” said DeEtta Culbertson, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency. “The same publishers’ high school products teach about Jim Crow laws and the Ku Klux Klan.”

One eighth-grade textbook, United States History: Early Colonial Period through Reconstruction, has a section on the South seceding from the Union. The textbook, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, guides teachers to a main idea box that states, “The dispute over slavery led the South to secede.” The same textbook, which was adopted by Fort Worth schools, also discusses how states’ rights was an issue leading to the Civil War.

One high school history textbook, United States History Since 1877, published by McGraw Hill Education and also approved by Fort Worth schools, states in one chapter: “In the end, all attempts at compromise between the North and the South over slavery failed. The outcome of the 1860 election triggered the first shots of the long, bloody Civil War.”

Still, some Fort Worth parents worry that slavery will be omitted from lessons or downplayed.

“When children are robbed of the truth, they don’t know who they really are,” said Frances Webb, a member of a parent advocacy group in the Fort Worth district.

She worries that five years from now, “Do we just omit slavery out of American’s history overall? … My children deserve to know the free commerce [the state of Texas] made off of my ancestors.”

Sorum said the district’s textbook selection process relies heavily on classroom teachers. Additionally, a diverse committee representative of the district reviews the book options. Then, the board approves the textbooks with a first and second reading during public meetings.

Sorum said this district has been working with Independent PAC for many months and invited members in January to the textbook reviews.

“We have been actively working for the last year with three members of the group that spoke to ensure that our curriculum accurately reflects the history of the world as well as the U.S. and Texas,” Sorum said.

The textbooks are one resource, Sorum said, explaining that lessons also include local curriculum that builds on state requirements. Sorum said the district welcomes ongoing discussions about history education.

“That’s one of the big values of a local curriculum,” Sorum said. “It can constantly be upgraded. … A paper-and-ink textbook is static.”

Teaching moments

Issues exploding in the news can surface in classrooms across many disciplines, but especially history, said Chad Taylor, president of the Texas Council for Social Studies and a world history teacher at Marcus High School in Flower Mound.

For example, slavery has been a topic in Taylor’s world history classes, when students learn about European and African history.

“Slavery is not just an American issue; it is a world issue,” Taylor said.

Educators said the discussion of race-related news events in the classroom could result in controversies themselves if they are handled poorly. When handled well, they make valuable teaching moments, they said.

Taylor said the events that unfolded nationwide after the Charleston church shootings are “practically guaranteed to end up in the classroom.”

He said teachers can set the tone for educated debate by being impartial and respectful.

“We should be able to have those conversations in the classroom, but we should maintain neutrality and hear both sides,” Taylor said. “It should be about the students’ points of view. The teacher should be a moderator allowing the conversation, allowing the discourse, but not allowing the conversation to escalate to a fight.”

In Beverly Smith’s classes, headlines about the Ebola outbreak, the protests in Ferguson, Mo., and the use of child soldiers in world conflicts have served as learning moments. She is a history teacher with more than 30 years’ experience and is the secondary social studies curriculum coordinator for the Lovejoy school district, north of Dallas

“It is true that would be a teachable moment opportunity,” Smith said of this summer’s headlines. Themes about freedom and personal responsibility begin in her district with the lessons tied to Freedom Week at the beginning of the school year, she said.

“Teachers are not here to indoctrinate,” Smith said. “They are here to teach a balanced approach. We want students to think.”

This story was originally published August 1, 2015 at 7:45 PM with the headline "Race, Civil War will challenge Texas history teachers this fall."