Add religion and revisions to schools and remove state books
As students begin new grades, classrooms in some states are becoming a battlefield of what is to be taught and what is being excluded.
In some states, students starting a new grade may get caught in the middle in the fight over what teachers should teach and what materials to remove from the classroom.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court has allowed controversial educational changes to move forward in the state, refusing to stay with a group that asked a group of parents, teachers and religious leaders in July to stop implementing the new standards.
In a revision of the K-12 curriculum, high school students will be asked to “identify contradictions” in the 2020 election results.
“They’re going to do deep dives and know all the data, all the information, all the graphs, and all the graphs, including those elections,” said Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s public leadership superintendent.
The election fraud claims made after President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden were dismissed or retracted in more than 60 trials.
“They (the standard) don’t have words like ‘analysis’ or ‘comparison and contrast’,” said Sandra Valentine, a mother and educator of five in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “So they’re just telling you what to think and you’ll be tested for what they’re thinking of you.”
Sandra’s youngest daughter, Jade Valentine, is 14 years old and heads into her high school freshman year.
“You really get people in Oklahoma to listen to them, see what they think, see who’s listening,” Jade said. “And who won’t?”
Book removal at a school in South Carolina
In other states, they are removed, not added to campus.
Statements like Florida and Utah have been in place for several years, but South Carolina currently has 22 most state-mandated book removal or restrictions in the country, according to the ACLU.
The list includes praised titles such as “Half the Yellow Sun” by Chimamanda Ngoji Adichie, “The Wallflower Perks” and “The All Boys Are Not Blue” by George M. Johnson.
Ivie Szalai reviewed and submitted 96 books at local schools in Beaufort County, South Carolina.
Watch the video above and ask more about the book removal, changes and revisions.
“The books I submitted for review were chosen solely for sexually explicit content that appears unsuitable for minors, regardless of race, sexual orientation, or character or author’s identity,” Zarai wrote in an email.
Szalai told USA Today that after the recent policy changes, he resubmitted several books for review. The policy states that parents need to have their children enrolled in public schools. So, after her latest submission, her youngest child recently graduated from the district, so she may not be allowed to do any more.
Courtney Thomas, the advocacy director at ACLU in South Carolina, said the book ban would have concrete consequences for students.
“Frequently, books that are banned or removed from classrooms or libraries often talk about the stories and living experiences of the most marginalized students in our school district,” Thomas said.
Religion in a Texas classroom
In South Carolina, Oklahoma and Texas, schools fight for religious expression.
The Senate bill, which comes into effect on September 1, requires classrooms in all public schools in the state to display 10-inch 10-inch posters on the wall.
The law makes sense to Jonathan Coby, policy director for Texas Value, a faith-based nonprofit.
“The Ten Commandments are important as historical documents because they have a major impact on the development of Western legal systems, moral philosophy and cultural traditions,” Coby said.
The Ten Commandments Bill was temporarily suspended by judges in some school districts who ruled that the law violated the First Amendment separation of churches and states. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says he will appeal the decision.
According to a well-known union, the Texas American Federation of Teachers, the law is one of several concerns about the curriculum of schools across the state.
“Some teachers are afraid to teach about the Holocaust, civil rights challenges,” said Wanda Longoria, a secretary accountant and former teacher at AFT. They fear repulsion from their parents.
Longoria added: “It’s the school’s job to teach you about our history, our struggles, the mistakes we’ve made as a nation, and how we can fix them so that we become a stronger nation.”
