Governor Pete Wilson's hand-picked State Board of Education has given unanimous approval to what many regard as terribly distorted and biased standards for history-social science curriculum for the public schools of California. The proposed standards, although protested by Asian-American, Native American, and other scholars and organizations, were approved as expected after a brief flack over a paragraph relating to Jewish history. A Jewish member of the board, according to Nanette Asimov writing in the San Francisco Chronicle for October 10, objected to the deletion of a paragraph dealing with Jewish religious life after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. She won her point, and unanimity was achieved.
This example of "political correctness" did not, however, lead to changes favorable to other ethnic groups or to women, it seems. In fact, San Diego-based board president Yvonne Larsen, according to the Chronicle, "said the board refused to participate in what she called 'political correctness' in adopting the history standards."
But what is termed "political correctness" by some may, of course, be simply an effort to give women and non-Anglo-Americans a chance to share in the history/social science curriculum. As this author pointed out in a 29 page analysis of the proposed standards, women received only about 1/2 inch of thematic attention out of 260 inches, and Asian-Americans, Pacific-Americans, Mexican-Americans, other Latinos, and many other groups were virtually ignored.
Some have argued that "pc" really means "privileged conservatives" protecting a false vision of society, especially in view of the fact that people are beginning to accept the fact that Anglo-Americans cannot act as if they are the only people with a history in North America.
Surprisingly, Asimov of the Chronicle tells us that the history standards' adoption was "far less contentious" than that of the science standards, even though more people testified against the history standards in September in Sacramento than spoke against the science proposals.
Reportedly, Delaine Eastin had pushed for the standards.
"Yesterday, she agreed with Larsen that their adoption represents a turning point for the beleaguered [public school] system. 'This is an exciting time in California education,' Eastin said.... 'These standards are a fabulous base to elevate education,' said ... Larsen.
Standards, according to Asimov, refers to specific lists of concepts and facts, "essentially a blueprint for what children are expected to learn and teachers are expected to teach at every grade level...."
Ominously, to those who fear the alleged racist and sexist character of the new standards, Asimov notes that "state educators now plan to buy textbooks embodying the new standards ... and to build them into achievement tests administered each spring."[underlining added].
Now where does this leave community people, parents, and educators who are upset about the standards' preferential treatment of Anglo-Americans and males ? Strangely enough, Proposition 209, supported by Governor Wilson, would seem to outlaw preferential treatment and discrimination in public education, but Larsen and her fellow board members do not seem to have given any thought to the State Constitution or to Federal laws. They have recently decided to enforce recently-passed Proposition 227 (against bilingual education), which raises the possibility that the board is willing to obey some laws, but not others.
In any case, we are left with only one possibility, it seems to me, and that is to ask the lawyers that we know to undertake a legal case against the board. We must seek to show Ms. Larsen that it is not mere "political correctness" which seeks a place at the table for Asian-Americans and women, but rather it is the fulfillment of the Constitution and of justice.
So let us talk with our legal groups, as well as with individual attorneys, and see if we can't come up with a legal strategy for slowing down the board's plans at least until a truly representative group of scholars can work on the standards.
Let me know if you have any ideas. Also we need to get in touch with the NAACP and other groups which have not gotten involved in this issue.
Finally, we need to start speaking with Governor (!) Gray Davis about appointing some outstanding educators to the board, including the board's first Mexican-American and Native American members. (Sent out Oct. 12, 1998)