Bill Ames has declared war on the committee charged with rewriting the state’s social studies curriculum, saying the heavy use of liberal teachers is putting a left-leaning slant on class lessons, especially in revisions to American history.

Ames may well be the lone voice for conservative values on this nine-member writing committee, and he has not hesitated to use his pulpit to talk about attempts to erode respect for the United States’ role in the world.

“The liberals want (students) to see as negative a view of history as possible. They want to poke at it from all sides,” Ames said in an interview last week. “It’s like a death by a thousand cuts. I am the balance, the only balance, in that equation.”

Ames is critical about the process to select writing team members, asking pointedly in his column today whether the Texas Education Agency contacted teacher unions directly for representatives to serve on the curriculum committees and whether non-teachers were actively recruited to be a part of the process

Bill Ames reveals in an article linked below how various left-leaning groups in Texas might have came together to hijack the social studies review process in order to promote their agenda of indoctrinating Texas’ public school students with a negative, politically biased view of America.
Read about it here: http://ramparts360.wordpress.com/category/education/

The State Board of Education will be hearing

Ames has some salient advice for citizens who want to get involved:
• First, find out who your SBOE representative is. To find your SBOE representative, and contact information, copy and paste the following link into your browser. http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/ Then enter your zip code, and select District Type = SBOE.
• Second
o Tell your SBOE representative that the purpose of education is the transmission of academic knowledge and skills to the next generation – not to make radical changes in the attitudes, values and worldview of students.
o Tell your SBOE representative to create the view of history that is based upon our great State’s & Nation’s founding principles.
o Tell your SBOE representative to stress the Western heritage model of history, along with its leadership role in science, medicine, economics, agriculture, the arts, technology, religion and government.
o Tell your SBOE representative to focus on American Exceptionalism – that is, the United States occupies a special niche among nations.
o Tell your SBOE representative that you want factual, unbiased, balanced social studies standards that include events and individuals that are both significant and represent traditional, American Judeo-Christian values.
o Tell your SBOE representative to produce standards that teach our youth to be proud Americans, and that America is a great country that has an overall positive history.

SBOE meeting scheduled for November 18-20, during which time extensive public testimony is to be considered. Social studies is on the Wednesday agenda. “We Texans have a choice. We can act, or we can allow a few activist educators to determine what Texas students will be learning in the classroom for the foreseeable future.” said Ames.

The social studies standards will be set in March 2010