Guest post – Texas Change in History Books – What The Media Left Out

in Blogs News by jodywilber — July 15, 2010 at 9:17 pm | 2 comments

On March 11, 2010 the Texas Board of Education voted to remove Thomas Jefferson from the “Great Enlightenment” thinkers section of US History books. Instead, they inserted John Calvin who was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. This of course brought everyone to the ground. What could these crazy Texan people be thinking? I mean really, in a world that has disintegrated into teenagers on drugs, smoking pot, and getting pregnant, inserting something, or someone religious like John Calvin into the history books of high school students is just absolutely crazy. Yes, that is sarcasm. Yet seriously, the one thing I notice that almost all the media left out was that Thomas Jefferson was not removed completely from the textbooks. Founding Father, check. Third President of the United States, check, Framer of the constitution, check. So what was the reason for the big ordeal, the big fight?

Over the years many “Great Enlightenment” thinkers have been changed or removed from textbooks. Was this about Thomas Jefferson, or John Calvin? I offer the opinion that this change was about John Calvin, and the hatred that many have towards any type of right centered religion. Yet, as a teacher of American Literature, I would like to point out that the Enlightenment period was about searching out different ways of thought and religious styles and that included, yes, Calvinistic thought. I am pretty positive that the few paragraphs on John Calvin in the new textbook are not going to cause a religious revival. They will, however, provide a different way of thinking, a new enlightened way of thought, for students to agree or disagree with, not to be conformed by.

Thomas Jefferson is my hero. He is my favorite character in history. I hope I never see the day we completely remove this founding father from our children’s textbooks. But, I also hope I never see the day where we stop looking at what is best for our kid’s, in what they are learning from the textbooks they are forced to read.

Andrea Millhouse is a content writer for Online Schools and Online MBA who gives advice on the pursuit of education and living a healthy life. She also is a contributing writer for a site that helps students determine the best online nursing program for them. In her free time she enjoys hanging out with her kids and planning lunch dates with her friends. Andrea loves to read any great book and is hooked on politics. You can find her at a Borders anytime she is not with her kids.

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