Professor Richardson is aghast at recent currents in Texas education, specifically the new law known as S.B. 3:
But they should get that information in a specific way: through the Declaration of Independence; the United States Constitution; the Federalist Papers, including Essays 10 and 51; excerpts from Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America; the transcript of the first Lincoln-Douglas debate; and the writings of the founding fathers of the United States; the history and importance of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964; and the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Nineteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.
While they managed to add in de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America—and I would be shocked if more than a handful of people have ever read that account of early America—there are some pointed omissions from this list. The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees Black voting, didn’t make it, although the Nineteenth Amendment, which grants women the right to vote, did. Also missing is the Voting Rights Act of 1965, although the Civil Rights Act of the previous year is there.
And more, much more. You should go read it.
Which leaves me to wonder if other States in the Union should pass laws requiring that students transferring from Texas should be required to undergo a remedial course in social studies. Just to make sure they understand that there are opposing views of what’s important in social education.
Ah, I’m such a troublemaker.
