Cooper: Don't Fear World History Courses

Tennessee seventh-graders learn about significance of the Quran, the Islam holy book, as part of standards in their world history class.
Tennessee seventh-graders learn about significance of the Quran, the Islam holy book, as part of standards in their world history class.

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Sohn: Teaching world history means world, not America Bill aims to cut teaching of religious doctrine in Tennessee classrooms

Should Tennessee public-school parents be worried their children are being indoctrinated into the religion of Islam through the teachings of their seventh-grade world history and geography textbook, or is the issue raised by some Middle Tennessee parents much ado about nothing?

The state's new social studies standards, adopted by the Tennessee Department of Education for the 2014-2015 school year, say students "will explore the social, cultural, geographical, political and technological changes that occurred after the fall of the Roman Empire and in Medieval Europe" and will study the 15th through the 18th centuries, "including the Islamic world, Africa, China, and Japan, but with a heavier emphasis on western civilization in Europe during the Renaissance and Reformation."

"Educators should approach all teaching of world religions in the context of world history," Ashley Ball, director of communications for the Department of Education, said in information shared with school districts, "and should be mindful of the difference between teaching a religion and teaching about a religion for academic purposes. This means that the intent of the standards is not solely on the religion itself but how the religion impacts world history."

Among those who have expressed concern with the content this fall, parents in White County gathered earlier this week "to continue efforts to inform and engage the community about the pro-Islamic textbooks and materials being forced upon teachers and students by the White County School Board."

A parents group there complained the textbook, "World History and Geography: The Middle Ages to the Exploration of the Americas," contains nearly 50 pages devoted to a sugarcoated view of Islam and the Islamic World" while barely mentioning Christianity.

Breitbart News reported previously that 13 percent of the learning objectives of the current standards (10 out of 75) are devoted to instructing students on both the tenets and history of Islam.

That's true, a look at the standards adopted by the state shows, but Christianity is mentioned in even more of the learning objectives and over a wider part of the course than is Islam. The religions of Judaism, Buddhism, Shinto are also mentioned in the learning objectives.

However, while "the life and teachings of Muhammad" and "the significance of the Quran and the Sunnah as the primary sources of Islamic beliefs, practice and the law" are part of learning objectives, neither the teachings of Jesus nor the significance of the Bible are mentioned in learning objectives. But that may be because Muhammad lived during the time covered in the textbook, about 400 A.D. to the 1700s, and some of the foundational aspects of Christianity were covered in the sixth-grade course.

Using one local classroom as an example, in Jane Hill's seventh-grade world history course at Ooltewah Middle School, roughly two weeks were spent in late August and early September on the roots of, rise of and modern Christianity. And roughly two weeks were spent on the spread of and expansion of Islam and on life in the Islamic world. At the end of the two units, according to the online curriculum, a Christianity/Islam comparison and contrast flip book was completed.

An award-winning teacher in Stewart County who has taught seventh-grade social studies, simply believes the standards are not age-appropriate.

"[They] are not appropriate for seventh grade," Kyle Mallory, who was named Tennessee Teacher of the Year by the VFW in 2014, told Breitbart News. "We need to revert back to the old standards. They were very comprehensive and at grade level. The problem is not teachers. This is a problem of the standards and materials."

That's also part of the idea behind the proposed bill by state Rep. Sheila Butt, R-Columbia, that would prevent anything deemed "religious doctrine" to be taught in Tennessee public school except in the 10th, 11th or 12th grades.

"[The younger students] are not able to discern a lot of times whether it's indoctrination or whether they're learning about what a religion teaches," she said.

Tennessee Department of Education Commissioner Candace McQueen said recently that due to public feedback the state would speed up its timeline for reviewing social studies standards, normally done every six years. But decisions on curriculum and instruction are left up to local districts, schools and teachers, she said.

Good parents should never be shy about examining the foundations of their children's education, so concern about the contents of a textbook in an era where Islam seems to be welcomed and Christianity abhorred is not surprising. But an examination of sixth- and seventh-grade standards indicates Islam is not covered more broadly than Christianity. Further, the indoctrination of any religion seems nearly impossible in a class given the amount of complicated material that must be covered during the entirety of a course.

And if parents are doing their job at home - "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it," Proverbs puts it - the mention of other religions will be not a threat but only serve to strengthen the students' own faith.

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