Past social studies classroom textbooks briefly did refer to the peaceful protests like "Deaf President Now" as part of the subject on civil rights activities within the United States.
Could you envision the imaginable situations involved paternalistic and audist teachers whose feel that the subjects from tjhe "DPN" to the existence of deaf signers NOT BELONG to the pages of social studies and history textbooks?
That's what happened with the major shockwaves across the nation like ignorant state board members on the revamping of state curriculum standards for teaching history and social studies in Texas. http://www.textbookreviews.org/index.html?content=rev_socl.htm
According to Kenneth G. Samson's BilioMarket deaf blog why the Texas State Education Board chose to leave Helen Keller all alone within the revision of school curriculum for history and social studies classes, why not delete her from the list of undesirable historical figures. Samson pointed out about the whole absuridity of revamping the classroom curriculums without any professional historians and sociologists and other professional means for such feedbacks. Samuel wrote very impressive blog entries from his deaf viewpoint. http://bibliomarket.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/the-list-of-shame-in-texas-%C2%AB-texas-freedom-network/
http://bibliomarket.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/texas-freedom-network-rewriting-history/
From what the Gablers in the 70s objected to the classroom teaching materials about the corruption of Watergate break-ins and criticism of Vietnam War. The Gablers never had any college education. Those people ever came from Texas.
For years, the political conservatives and religious zealots attempted to seize the textbook markets by getting on the state and local education boards to force Texas and California schools to purschase the classroom textbooks to their own likings and whims. So many Christian schools across the nation, could buy textbooks much cheaply than getting them from specialized Christian educational suppliers.
http://www.christianvssecular.com/higher_standards/censorship-complexities.htm
What a big deal about Helen Keller within this subject? Samuel pointed out that Helen Keller was well-known for her socialist causes. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) also had the thick files on Keller and her socialist actitivies from the 1930s to 1970s. Keller had been greatly influenced by her socialist boyfriend. http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/keller-helen/intro.htm
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/17_01/Kell171.shtml
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kenneth-c-davis/helen-keller-socialist-an_b_209599.html
More and more people begin to sense the real dangers of classroom curriculum revisions without balancing facts and historical significances within the latest Texas state education board decisions greatly affected the mentality of entire nation's future citizens. That will affect your quality of life as a deaf person in near future, too.
Our country's educational system ought to strive for balanced classroom curriculms to help the students into independent thinkers and solvers, not the bunch of feeble-minded sheeps running over the cliff.How would you feel that the comphrensive deaf history be banned from the classrooms of the deaf and hearing students to explore and appreciate and understand our own existence as a great nation?
Yes, history sadly often write by victors, not citzens and educators together to develop the apporiate classroom materials for our youngsters from develop critical thinking and analysis skills. That's what Howard Zinn and Jack Gannon done with their history books changed the course of our national consciences.
Don't you recall WHY the portrait pictures of all the President of the United States around the classroom walls of the education of the deaf ? How come didn't any posters or pictures of deaf individuals, who were significantly contributed to the humankind on the deaf classrooms?
Robert Guillory, Gallaudet graduate, once told me that I ought not to be an educator of the deaf cuz of my unwillingness to be fawned by President Ronald Reagan's charms due to his questionable policies for domestic affairs. Preferably teach both sides and pros and cons of historcial events and figures to students to make their own assessments on essay papers, not "multiple choices" or "true or false".
Look at Robert Guillory now. He turned from the rabid Republican to die-hard Democrat! After years of research history throughly on his own. Democrats and other poltiical parties are no saviors anyway.
Too many American students often find their history courses to be real pointless and illogical and ask themselves why bother with the old stuff about our forepeople (forefathers). We must make our social studies and history curriculm to be more liveable and transparent and balanced without letting extreme political ideology seep in our youngsters' mind.
ASLize yours,
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
RLMDEAF blog
