AP History survives funding cut in Oklahoma. Here's why.

[Roland99]

Source: Christian Science Monitor

Responding to a wave of public pressure, a conservative lawmaker in Oklahoma has backed off a bill that threatened to cut funding for Advanced Placement US History courses, unless they were revised to reflect the concept of “American exceptionalism.”

“It was very poorly worded and was incredibly ambiguous…. We’re going to clear it up so folks will know exactly what we’re trying to accomplish, and it’s not to hurt AP,” Oklahoma Rep. Dan Fisher (R) told The Oklahoman Wednesday. The new bill will simply ask the state education board to review AP history, The Oklahoman reports.

...

HB 1380 enumerated several categories and more than 50 documents that should form the basis for US history classes, including:

The US Constitution
The Ten Commandments
The sermon known as "A Model of Christian Charity" by John Winthrop
The document known as the "Declaration of Sentiments" by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
The Decision to Go to the Moon speech made by John F. Kennedy
The letter "Letter from Birmingham Jail," written by Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Address to the Nation speech made by George W. Bush on Sept.11, 2001

Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2015/0219/AP-History-survives-funding-cut-in-Oklahoma.-Here-s-why

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The goddamned fucking Ten Commandments??

In a US History course?!?!

W T M F ?!?!

[blkmusclmachine]

1. See, OK isn't ALL stoopid.

[Fred Sanders]

2. The social media at work...bet he got a virtual earful.

"On social media and in calls to legislators’ offices, students, educators, and other concerned citizens laid out their objections to the possibility that students might lose the opportunity to earn college credits. They also defended the AP courses as offering a balanced understanding of US history.

“We all love our AP classes, and depend on them to challenge us, prepare us, and ultimately, provide us with the chance to excel and gain college credit,” wrote high school student Moin Nadeem in a petition he placed on Change.org that has since received more than 16,000 online signatures."

Strange how none of the traditional media posted any objections........

[CBHagman]

10. "None of the traditional media posted any objections"?

Strange how none of the traditional media posted any objections........

Is the Tulsa World traditional enough?

[url]http://www.tulsaworld.com/site/about.html[/url]

The first issue of the Tulsa Daily World appeared on the afternoon of Sept. 14, 1905. The banner across the top of the front page declared: "Tulsa, Chosen Home of Prosperity and Opportunity, is a Busy City in a Busy Universe." The paper cost 5 cents per copy.

The Tulsa World was owned by the Lorton family from 1917 to 2013. Three generations served as publishers of the paper during that time: Eugene Lorton, Maud Lorton, Robert E. Lorton and Robert E. Lorton III. It was purchased by BH Media Group in 2013, which is a Berkshire Hathaway Co. The Tulsa World has been Tulsa's only daily newspaper since the afternoon daily, the Tulsa Tribune, closed in 1992. The World is the second-largest newspaper in Oklahoma.

From its editorial writers on Rep. Fisher's bill:

[url]http://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/editorials/tulsa-world-editorial-effort-to-ban-ap-history-in-oklahoma/article_43581b08-7c3f-5e01-85ee-167d7a0cc26d.html[/url]

Members of the Oklahoma Legislature shouldn’t try to write school curriculum. It politicizes the classroom and leaves their own ignorance on the table.

That’s certainly what happened earlier this week when a state House committee OK’d a bill that would bar the use of state money to pay for Advance Placement U.S. history courses.

Rep. Dan Fisher, R-Yukon, an ordained minister and a member of the Black Robe Regiment, says AP history should be kicked out of Oklahoma schools because it emphasizes “what is bad about America” and omits “American exceptionalism.”

False and false. Rep. Fisher fails today’s exam and so does the Common Education Committee, which approved his House Bill 1380 on a 11-4 vote

In fact the AP history bill was discussed not only in Oklahoma media outlets but nationally and internationally. Objections aplenty hit the airwaves and print, within the state and without.

[url]http://www.newsweek.com/oklahoma-teachers-are-not-too-pleased-about-bill-ban-ap-us-history-308129[/url]

[url]http://kfor.com/2015/02/18/oklahoma-student-starts-petition-to-keep-ap-u-s-history-courses/[/url]

[url]http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2015/02/18/oklahoma-republicans-vote-to-eliminate-funds-for-ap-us-history-course[/url]

[url]http://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/bruceplante/bruce-plante-cartoon-rep-dan-fisher-rewrites-his-ap-history/article_65f0e56b-8924-5016-9349-ca47046a28a4.html[/url]

[url]http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-oklahoma-kids-20150217-column.html[/url]

[url]http://www.theguardian.com/education/commentisfree/2015/feb/18/oklahoma-ban-advanced-placement-history[/url]

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

14. "because it emphasizes “what is bad about America” and omits “American exceptionalism.” "

So we shouldn't discuss what's wrong with American so we can fix it? One of the very bad things about America is the whole idea of "American exceptionalism" . We have too many people like "Rep. Dan Fisher, R-Yukon, an ordained minister and a member of the Black Robe Regiment" who are so full of themselves if I ran into him somewhere I'd get some syrup of Ipecac and try to throw-up right in his smarmy face.

What a combination of relief and wellbeing that would be!

[guillaumeb]

3. the whole Constitution

or just the parts that the GOP agrees with?

Is the 14th Amendment in the Oklahoma version?
How about the 19th Amendment?

Is there something about southern water or a mineral in the soil that causes insanity?

[skepticscott]

4. No, just religion

Look no further.

[guillaumeb]

6. makes perfect sense

since the First Peoples were here first, do they get to pick the religion?

[rurallib]

5. didn't Moises give the ten commandments to Dan'l Boone

at the Cumberland Gap after the Sermon and Mounting?
And then they were posted at the Jefferson Memorial with a Bowie knife?
Sounds American to me.

[skepticscott]

7. I thought Daniel Boone

was the one in the lions den.

[adieu]

8. How about the Tulsa riots of 1921

where whites went into Tulsa and burned and destroyed the black population's wealth? At that time, Tulsa was the Wall Street of black America.

It's in your fucking state, you asshole.

[JCMach1]

15. or KKK control of State Government in Oklahoma in the same time period...

[central scrutinizer]

9. Very Orwellian

He who controls the past controls the future and he who controls the present controls the past

[melm00se]

11. just a list of source documents

is insufficient to condemn a curricula. How it is being taught and in what context would be the key here.

The 10 Commandments is one of the most influential documents in Western Civilization.

While I personally would not have included it, if I were teaching a class that included them as a required "source", I would point out the issues with numerous translations from ancient hebrew on through to modern english.

I would also point out that while aspects of the 10 commandments certainly influenced the development of western law (similar to the way that the Hammurabic code does), there is no direct lineage from the 10 commandments to the US Constitution.

If I were challenged by a student (or parent), I would ask them to compare and contrast the US Constitution and the 10 Commandments and identify where the direct linkage is.

When studying history, it is important to include aspects with which you don't necessarily agree (from an ideological perspective). If that is not done, the study is incomplete and thus flawed (whether the historian is absolutely correct or not).

[NuclearDem]

12. Spoken like someone who took an AP History course and took it to heart.

While I have no doubt the OK legislature slipped the Ten Commandments in there for religious purposes, analyzing documents from throughout history and finding out how they play into modern and historical context is a cornerstone of the AP History courses.

[melm00se]

13. Thank you

Not AP history student (although I was one decades ago) but Masters candidate in World History

[Paladin]

16. Whether its New York or Oklahoma, parents don't want their kids' education dumbed down.

Welcome to the real world, Dan Fisher. Just because you're an obvious shit-for-brains, doesn't mean you can impose your low standards on other people---not without some significant blowback.