How Textbooks Can Teach Different Versions of History
NPR’s Laura Isensee writes on the new textbooks coming out in Texas this year, which some argue downplay issues like slavery as a cause of the Civil War. Eleventh-grade history teacher Samantha Manchac calls the revisions “an attempt in many instances to whitewash our history, as opposed to exposing students to the reality of things and letting them make decisions for themselves.” However, Isensee writes, Donna Bahorich, chairwoman of the Texas Board of Education, is “confident students will still get the full picture of history if teachers, and the new books, fill in the blanks.”