Denver students protest against U.S curriculum censorship- by Jonell Williams, 2nd Period

  

     On Tuesday and Wednesday over a hundred students from at least seven Denver-area schools lined the streets in protest against a proposal by the Jefferson County School Board. The proposal called for a review of the Advanced Placement U.S history curriculum to "'promote citizenship, patriotism, ...(and)respect of authority' and not 'encourage or condone civil disorder , social strife or disregard of the law.'" On top of protests, many students walked-out on Monday and over 50 teachers called in sick on Friday. In response to the student and teacher protests, Julie Williams (the board member advocating the history review) stated that, " 'Again we believe that exposure to the curriculum itself , not inflammatory rhetoric , will convince most parents that a review committee is a very good idea.'" In addition, the School board President Ken Witt said that the review is suppose to expand community involvement and community voice and that the review in this light, is not censorship. "'That's the opposite of censorship. This is exactly what these students would want, I hope." 

     First of all, if the committee wants to encourage active participation and "community involvement" how would taking away information that does not exactly put the U.S in the best light, help? It's as if they are promoting ignorance to keep people together. Also, not exposing students to important events in the past such as slavery and the U.S bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would give the image that our country has never made a mistake before. History should be about learning from our mistakes and others, how will covering up our past mistakes help us move forward in education and life?  Secondly, when did history become about promoting a country? No history curriculum should be bent to favor any side, including and especially the country telling its own history. History should be a fair account of past events, issues and struggles, which does include talking about and studying "inflammatory rhetoric" to see why would someone, or a group of people think that way. Students need to be exposed to these many points of view, so he or she can ground these opinions and gain perspective on the issue at hand. The purpose of the article is to inform, and bring attention to the violation of rights the Denver students are facing and what they are doing to fight back as American citizens.  

http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/24/living/censoring-history-schools-denver-protest/index.html?hpt=us_c2