If it's not the Highlander Folk School or Nancy Ward, it might be the Battle of the Bluffs or Diane Nash.
In considering new state social studies standards, currently being reviewed by the public, some historians, lawmakers and others have decided they don't like what has been proposed to be deleted from previous standards about Tennessee history.
State history is taught as part of a broader history and geography curriculum in grades K-12. Although some grades concentrate more closely on aspects of the subject, state history is woven into what is taught in practically every grade.
The proposed new standards, though, eliminate, among other things, several Tennessee Civil War battles, including Chickamauga (which was in Georgia), the Highlander Folk School, a center in Monteagle where both Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks attended sessions, and Nancy Ward, a Cherokee woman of influence who lived some 200 years ago.
All of those have some historical significance, but the state Board of Education gave an advisory team a job to do in 2015 in reviewing current standards and making the changes they believe should be made. The public, invited to be involved, submitted some 60,000 comments and 16,000 reviews, many from teachers, before the recommendations were made.
The recommendations aren't even the last step, though. They now go to the Social Studies Standards Recommendation Committee, which can make its own changes before it forwards its proposal to the state Board of Education for a final decision. Any adopted changes would be made for the 2019-2020 school year.
If it was up to us, much less time would be spent on the likes of Human Origins in Africa through the Neolithic Age (sixth grade), units on Ancient India and Ancient China (sixth grade), the Islamic World (seventh grade) and Japan, 400 A.D./C.E.-1500s (seventh grade) and more time on American history, civics and government.
It's not that the other things aren't important - they are and should be taught - but it seems a shame public school students often leave grades K-8 with a thorough immersion in world cultures and don't seem to know much about their own country. But that's an argument for another day.
In this case, again, members of the public can let the state know their feelings. The new standards are available online, and they must be reviewed twice more before going into effect.
But we think those protectors of Nancy Ward and the Highland Folk School protesteth too much. Good teachers impart not only information found on state standards but other nuggets of history not mentioned in the standards and interesting facts they have learned in their own exploration of history. They also offer opportunities for additional learning through speakers, recommended books and interactive online resources.
Indeed, when the content is as jam-packed as it is in the Tennessee standards, according to the online reviews from teachers, little is left to the teacher's creativity. But it is often that creativity that leads to the most learning.
For instance, which would be the most valuable, learning the names and approaches to slavery of Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Angelina and Sarah Grimke, Sojouner Truth and Harriet Tubman and parroting it on a test, or having a live roundtable discussing those approaches with class members taking the parts of the aforementioned individuals?
The names of the individuals might be forgotten after the test, but a student is likely to remember taking part in an impassioned discussion.
The sniping at this point reminds us of politicians in state legislatures or Congress defending projects in their districts. The U.S. Center for Feral Cat Research might be important to the legislator who introduced the bill and to the legislator's constituents, but it is not the sword the legislator should fall on to keep a budget from being passed.
If the Highlander Folk School is not listed on the standards, it can be mentioned in a general discussion of King or Parks. If the Battle of Chickamauga is left off, it should be mentioned by any self-respecting Southeast Tennessee instructor. To not do so in the midst of so historic a Civil War area would be unthinkable.
We want to believe the advisory team has done its due diligence to keep standards high for state students while finding needed opportunities to streamline the curriculum. We should thank them for their work instead of worrying which nugget of history they did not list as a state standard.