Does civil rights activist Cesar Chavez belong alongside Benjamin Franklin as an example of a model American citizen?
Should Texas schoolchildren be required to identify Rush Limbaugh? How big a place does the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall – most famous for his victory in integrating the nation’s schools – deserve in the history books? The conservative-dominated Texas State Board of Education debates changes beginning Thursday to the social studies curriculum of the state’s 4.6 million K-12 students, and both conservatives and liberals say the other is attempting to rewrite history. The discussions are important because the standards the board sets will be used to develop state tests and by textbook publishers who develop material for the nation based on one of the largest markets, Texas. Past questions the board has wrestled with include the merits of the theory of evolution and whether a woman should be depicted in a textbook holding a briefcase or putting a cake in the oven. The board has been a battleground for social conservatives and liberal watchdogs since Christian conserva
