The Texas Board of Education worked late into the night Thursday on proposed revisions to the social studies curriculum, making it through Grade 8 but not yet into the most contentious debate, over high schools standards. Full sympathy and respect go to the Texas Freedom Network blogging crew for live-blogging what sounds like a truly tedious and probably depressing display of policy-making in action.
According to TFN coverage, there were a few areas of debate centering on religion. (If this interests you at all, you should definitely read their excellent work, 2 posts following the event throughout the day and night – 1, 2) Here's a recap of their entries with relevance to religion:
The Board passed motions to add the African-American minister Richard Allen to the list of first-grade standards, and a group of military chaplains to the list of heroes third-grade students should learn. They denied a motion to add "religious revivals" to the “causes and effects prior to and during the American Revolution," and one that would have narrowed the religious holidays studied in a sixth-grade World Cultures class. In the end, Christmas, Diwali and Vaisakhi were all saved.
AP has more. Stay tuned for Friday's debate which should venture further into areas of church-state concern, and should offer an initial vote on curriculum revisions.
