Texas Insider

1:41 pm CST - November 19, 2009

Chávez Comments to Education Board on Curriculum

TEKS Social Studies on Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Chairwoman Lowe, Vice Chairman Allen and members, thank you for this opportunity to speak to you on Item 10 of today’s agenda: Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Social Studies K-5/

In September, State Representative Eddie Rodriguez, on behalf of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, came before the Board to speak about the concerns that the Caucus had regarding some of the criticisms and recommendations made by a couple of the Social Studies Expert Reviewers concerning Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall.

At that meeting 8,000 plus letters were presented to the Board as evidence that there is overwhelming support by Texans and citizens across the United States, for Cesar Chavez to be included in Texas history books, specifically, for Chavez to be included in the 5th grade social studies curriculum.

Unfortunately, today in the “Historical Figures in Social Studies TEKS Draft proposal”, published in the SBOE website dated October 17th, 2009, Cesar Chavez is not included as “required to be taught” in the 5th grade but is listed only as what “maybe be taught” to 5th graders.

YET, there are 23 REQUIRED HISTORICAL FIGURES for Grade 5, but THERE ARE NONE….ZERO…..NIN GUN Latino historical figure required to be taught in the 5th grade.

What you are demonstrating with this document and recommendation, is that the comments of the 44 member Mexican American Legislative Caucus, representing Latinos across the state of Texas, was ignored.

Now, it is no longer just about Cesar Chavez. It is about an entire community!

Latinos make up 40% of Texas and we have made great contributions to this state and to our nation. Unfortunately, Your document does a poor job of reflecting this. Let me provide a summary of your document.

Of the required historical figures to be included:

There are 162 required historical figures grades kindergarten to 12th grade. Of the 162, there are only 16 Latino historical figures included.

There are 2 total required historical figures for Kindergarten; however, there are Zero Latino historical figures in Kindergarten

There are 4 total required historical figures for Grade 1, however,
There are Zero Latino historical figures in Grade 1

There are zero required historical figures for grade 2, and
There are Zero Latino historical figures in Grade 2

There are 15 total required historical figures for Grade 3, however,
There are only 3 Latinos historical figures including 1 Latina

There are 19 total required historical figures for Grade 4, however,
There are only 4 Latinos historical figures

There are 23 total required historical figures for Grade 5, there are ZERO Latino historical figures for Grade 5, this mind you, after you received 8,000 letters on behalf of Cesar Chavez as a significant historical figure.

There are 22 total required historical figures for Grade 7, and there are only 6 Latino historical figures for Grade 7.

There are 23 total required historical figures for Grade 8, and there is only 1 Latino historical figure for Grade 8.

There are 23 total required historical figures for World History and yet, in the world and world history, Latinos represent ZERO HISTORICAL FIGURES according to your reviewers.

There are 27 total required historical figures for US History, and yet only 2 Latinos – - – Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta.

There are 19 total required historical figures for Government, and yet there are ZERO, ZERO, ZERO…NONE, NO LATINOS IN GOVERNMENT are required historical figures?

What happened to Irma Rangel – - – the first Latina elected to the legislature in the history of Texas, Congressman Henry B. Gonzalez the first Latino elected to Congress from Texas, Mayor Raymond Telles of El Paso, the TRUE first Hispanic Mayor of Texas, Mayor Henry Cisneros the second Hispanic Mayor in Texas, and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under Clinton, and Dr. Jose Angel Gutierrez among others….

Are not their contributions important to recognize and empower young students, especially Latino students in search of role models who come from similar backgrounds?

And finally, there are 3 required historical figures for Economics, 2 for Psychology, and 5 for Sociology and yet there are ZERO Latinos in these categories as required historical figures.

I applaud Board Member Mary Helen Berlanga for raising the issue to the public.

There are letters from the Texas House of Representatives Mexican American Legislative Caucus and Senate Hispanic Caucus that will be presented to you later.

Thank you for award me the opportunity to move my comments on Item 10 ahead of the schedule so I can catch my plane.

As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, it is my intent to ask interested members of our committee to review the agency.

5 Comments

Noah Webster
6:22 pm CST
November 19, 2009

Why not teach about chavez in Mexico, and let America teach about it’s own history. We will cover Santa Anna if we need to and how he murdered those guys at the Alamo.

By the way they have free health care in Mexico according to the Mexican Constitution, why don’t you guys move back home, and improve the social studies curriculum in Mexico??

I wonder how many American historical figures you guys could make the Mexicans teach about in their country??

Edna Terry
6:26 pm CST
November 19, 2009

In 1952, Chavez met Fred Ross, who was part of a group called the Community Service Organization (CSO) formed by Saul Alinsky

This is where I have a problem with Chavez. Saul Alinsky dedicated his book, Rules for Radicals, to Satan, as the first and greatest example of a rebel. His book goes on and basically is a rule book for how to undermine this country’s government.

What pesticide was “No Grapes No Uvas” protesting? If it was Propargite, those accusations were ill-founded.

I want the whole story on Chavez.

There are better stories to tell and greater people to emulate.

Daniel Shep
11:38 pm CST
November 19, 2009

Chavez should be in our schools. Like it or not, he is a major part of politics today. I agree with Edna Terry, tell the whole story.

Kerry Ledford
9:53 am CST
November 19, 2009

I read that State Representative Norma Chavez is are encouraging the State Board of Education to include more Hispanics in the new state history curriculum standards. She says that Hispanic children “ want to see people like themselves.” This makes me wonder why she is making such an issue out of ethnicity.
A person has many traits, such as their height, weight, eye and hair color, body shape, shoe size, hat size, state of health, quality of eyesight, shape of nose, taste in clothing, criminal record, religion, sexual orientation, age, etc. I could go on and on. You might say that a person’s ethnicity is important because it is part of who they are. But so are those other traits, and I normally don’t see them being made an issue of. What about school children who are diabetics? Do the state history standards include notable diabetic Texans, so that those children can “see people like themselves”? Or what about children who are shorter than average? I don’t recall learning about short Texans in school. A person does not need to be defined by their ethnicity any more than by any other trait.
To me, a person’s accomplishments, their behavior, and their capabilities are much more important than their ethnicity or gender. A person’s behavior and accomplishments make them who they are, regardless of their ethnicity. Their behavior determines what they will accomplish and whether they deserve mention in a history textbook.
So let’s no longer be divisive and discriminatory. Let’s look at each person as a unique individual, rather than using a trait that doesn’t matter, such as their ethnicity.

Oscar
10:24 am CST
November 19, 2009

Cesar Chavez was a Mexican American who served in the U.S Navy whom was also civil rights leader.

His story and his struggle deserve to be told. It is sad that people would not want to tell the story of a great human who did great humane things for all humanity.