Humanist Teacher Corps

Assessing State Standards

Dear Humanist Teacher Corps members,

As you likely know, we recently sent an open letter to the Texas State Board of Education urging them not to rewrite the state's social studies curriculum in a way that would portray the United States as having biblical foundations or to minimize the country's tradition of separation of church and state and religious pluralism. In the letter we wrote that "any social studies curriculum that Texas adopts, in order to meet the highest standards of academic excellence and historical accuracy, must refer to America's secular heritage and our tradition of religious pluralism." In conjunction with the letter, the American Humanist Association also launched a petition calling on the state board to maintain historical accuracy and integrity.

The reaction was huge. The petition was signed by over 2,300 persons--a record for the American Humanist Association--and both the letter and the petition garnered much attention, including from members of the Texas State Board of Education! It's clear that we're gaining influence and that people care deeply about the integrity of our public schools.

It's important that the Kochhar Humanist Education Center (KHEC) stay in the frontlines to continue this fight--but we need your help! My concern about maintaining the historical accuracy in classrooms certainly doesn't end with Texas. Far too many individuals who sit on state boards of education have attempted to inject their own narrow religious beliefs into public schools, and we need to combat their efforts when and where it happens.

Thus, the KHEC is undertaking a project to review K-12 social studies content standards in all 50 states. We are specifically reviewing the extent to which social studies curriculum portrays the United States as a Christian nation at its founding, or as it exists now.

We need your help over the next several months to review any of the K-12 social studies standards in your state (which are available at each state's department of education.)  We also are planning to review science standards.  It's our hope that with your help we can complete this research by the end of 2010.

If you're able to help out, please e-mail me at rbhaerman@americanhumanist.org to let me know which of the K-12 social studies or science standards you wish to review. I'm particularly seeking educators who can assist with this work, but all help is welcome!

Thank you very much for considering this important initiative; your work is central to the success of the KHEC!

Sincerely,

Bob Bhaerman, Ed. D.
Coordinator, Kochhar Humanist Education Center
American Humanist Association