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Hundreds of students from high schools across Colorado’s Jefferson County school district walked out of classes on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week, protesting attempts by rightwing members of the school board to amp up what they consider the “positive aspects of the United States and its heritage” within the district’s history curriculum while minimizing focus on more progressive aspects of history such as people’s movements, the history of struggle, and “social strife.”
Carrying signs that read, “Don’t make history a mystery;” “There is nothing more patriotic than protest;” and “It’s world history, not white history,” students came out in opposition to a proposal-since put on hold-that would establish a committee to regularly review texts and course plans. For example, that plan would look at Advanced Placement history courses to make sure materials “promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free-market system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights” and don’t “encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law.”
“It’s chilling,” school board member Lesley Dahlkemper, who has previously clashed with the conservative majority, told the
Denver Post. “Does it mean [Jefferson County students] will no longer study the civil rights movement, the Boston Tea Party or women’s suffrage?”
A new version of the College Board’s AP History course places an increased focus on women and minorities, which some conservatives have charged is “revisionist.”
“There are things we may not be proud of as Americans,” Jefferson County school board member Julie Williams, who proposed the review committee, told
Chalkbeat Colorado. “But we shouldn’t be encouraging our kids to think that America is a bad place. When [the course questions] our American values and leaves out so many of our founding fathers, that’s concerning to me.”
The student walkouts this week followed “sick-outs” by more than 50 teachers that shut down two high schools last Friday. The teachers were protesting not only the proposed curriculum changes but also a recently approved evaluation-based system for awarding raises.