[Barry Brake] A Dad Explains to the Texas State Board of Education Why U.S. History Textbooks Should Cite Moses as Inspiration for Representative Democracy

Annotation from SA Charter Moms: We are proud to share this guest post from Barry Restriction on an result of importance to public educational activity.

I'm sitting in a room in Austin. People are milling effectually talking to each other, readying for a big meeting. When I say "big," I hateful this big: it will make headlines across the U.S. Texas is considering its textbook standards. Since then many other states piggyback off Texas's efforts (like a burger place that just builds nigh McDonald'southward instead of doing their ain market research), we have an outsized role in American kids' education. You lot might have heard that emotions run high most all this. On the docket for today: whether to go along the "streamlined" items out, or put some of them dorsum in—including mentions of Helen Keller, Hillary Clinton, Rosa Parks, Christopher Columbus, lady pilots, Israel and Palestine, Alamo heroes, the Travis letter, and Moses. So, as I said, a big coming together.

I'm looking effectually the room, trying to size upwardly my audience. I meet grey-haired men in American-flag ties, women in hijabs, a blind and deaf girl and her translator, bunches of styrofoam-cup bureaucrats, several young and abrupt ready-for-cablevision lobbyists, and my membranous-eyed married woman, who has come up to Austin with me. We'd gotten up at five:45.

To go upward at five:45 in the morning, I must be motivated. In this case, I was motivated by frustration. The question "Where did America's Founders get their ideas?" has had several answers in the national chat recently. Yeah, because of Judeo-Christian tradition! No, because of separation of church and state! Yes, because the biblical idea of a covenant contributed to our constitutional structure! (That one'due south really in a proposed textbook.) No, because this is all legend and Moses didn't fifty-fifty exist! Yeah, because our laws are based on the Ten Commandments! No, because the Founders looked to Greece and Rome and Enlightenment values, not Biblical ones! And on and on. But non once—non one teeny tiny time—did I hear anyone give the answer I would have given: that the record shows the colonists were inspired by Moses's education to the people to choose their own leaders, from amidst themselves. Information technology'southward not about the commandments: it'due south most cocky-rule.

With a couple of actress minutes before the coming together, I set my timer and get through my entire presentation 1 last time. The board sets a iii-minute limit on every speaker. Every bit any speaker knows, an hour-long speech doesn't accept much preparation; a brusk speech takes tons. Just iii minutes? That means concur the pickles and the lettuce. There's just not time to include everything y'all desire to say, or build a careful and nuanced argument.

A few days earlier, though, I'd gotten another bulletin: because of the ambitious agenda and the number of speakers, nosotros'd merely go 2 minutes. 2! That means no mustard, mayonnaise, or bun. Directly to the meat.

This is hard, considering the Malcolm Gladwells of the world have conditioned u.s. to introduce ourselves, our selves, before introducing our topic. By and large, that's corking communication. It gives people something to concord on to. Audiences like narrative. But as the day progressed, I heard speaker after speaker make the error of setting the phase at length, only to hear the alarm bell—thirty seconds left!—before they'd even settled into what they wanted to say.

Equally I'd prepared and cutting and honed, I'd had to exercise thought triage. What's the master matter hither? What's the best manner to put it forwards, so it actually gets through to people? Deuteronomy chapter i, in a neglected passage, shows Moses telling the people of Israel to cull wise and well-known leaders from their ranks, to take charge over groups of x, fifty, a hundred, and a thousand, plus tribal officers. This is hundreds of years before the commonwealth of Athens or the republic of Rome. I've got to have that. Information technology's the meat. Exodus chapter 18, where Jethro gives him the thought to delegate? Information technology's part of the story, simply we don't need it in two minutes.

I'd felt like I should refute some of the wrong ideas floating around. Our laws aren't in any way based on the 10 Commandments, and nosotros wouldn't desire them to be. Nosotros often fly right in the face of them, starting with the first commandment, which forbids worship of anyone but Jehovah. Simply about our proudest go-to is that anyone in America is costless to worship in any way they want, or not worship at all. Every bit for the others: graven images? Coveting? Keeping the Sabbath? Nope. The Ten Commandments are important, and my wife and I teach them to our daughters, but they're not a basis for American law. As for "covenant" and the "Judeo-Christian" flake, those are vague terms that practise nil to educate our kids on the machinery of democracy.

From the other direction, the fact that many folks think of Moses as fable and not history is a tricky one. A neat number of people are offended by that idea, and think of the Bible as a sort of history book itself. If I make enemies and shut ears, I don't go my message across. But then again, I practise desire to acknowledge the fact that we're talking almost history, and not faith grade.

I worked and worked to phrase it as carefully as possible so equally to keep every bit many people going as possible. In our tribal times, information technology's suicide to starting time off with, "Hello, I'grand your tribe's enemy!" Just I could say something similar, "There's no dirt tablet or archeological find that confirms whatsoever of this one mode or the other. So, not-believers tin can say 'I don't believe that.' Believers tin say 'I do believe that.' Only the colonists definitely believed it, and the question here is not whether in that location's archaeological proof of Moses. It'southward 'where did the colonists get their ideas?'" A overnice manner to thread the needle, I recall.

As for the separation of church and state, I myself am perfectly placed to address it. I'm a traditional Baptist. Our proud history in America is equally deeply religious advocates of separation, going back to Roger Williams and beyond. Whenever a church got state power, no matter which church, they'd always oppress the Baptists, so we've been (until recently) allergic to church-country conflation. I like to say I've seen what the school cafeteria does to spinach. I don't need them serving up religion. I'll teach my own kids what nosotros believe. (And the Catholics and Presbyterians and Jews and Muslims and Hindus and atheists all around usa tin teach their kids.) Meanwhile, it's perfectly . . . uh, kosher . . . to teach all of our kids what the colonists thought. That's a matter of history. It does have a place in the classroom.

Two minutes! I decided to do equally little refuting as possible. Go along it positive. I took ages to cook and cook the handout we were immune to provide, so that information technology was but 1 page. I took groovy care to make information technology equally kind equally possible to all points of view, but as frank as possible almost the facts. I decided to focus on one specific, inarguable example: Connecticut'due south 1638 founding, and Thomas Hooker's direct mention of the Deuteronomy passage as a pattern for representative democracy. It'south black and white history, it's something new and interesting—and not one major textbook in America makes a unmarried mention of it. Non 1.

I intend to change that. With a niggling effort, nosotros can raise sensation with schoolteachers in our circle of influence, even before any of this hits textbooks. You lot and I, citizens in a rich and free land, can become directly to the conclusion-makers and try to persuade them. A living moving-picture show of those long-agone ideas!

That's why I'thou sitting here in Austin, wondering if I've drunk exactly the correct corporeality of coffee. I want to exist awake. (5:45, people.) But I don't want to be jittery and weird.

With some work, I think I can really make a difference hither. We tin get rid of the current textbooks' religious manus-waving and vague pedestaling of Moses, and replace information technology with firm facts about an exhilarating affiliate in human history.

Subsequently I'd made my example, a reporter came up to me to confirm the spelling of my name and enquire who I was with. With? It took me a moment to realize she expected me to be a spokesperson for some organization, some civic or lobbying grouping. Nope. I told her I'm merely a individual citizen. A San Antonio dad with kids in schoolhouse.

If I had information technology to say over once again, I'd eliminate the "just."

That conversation came afterward. Now, it'southward time. I get upwardly to the lectern. Every word and gesture memorized, for maximum eye contact. I turn on the greenish low-cal that's my timed microphone, accept a deep breath, and say, "Allow's talk nigh Moses."

Barry Brake is a composer and dad. He lives in San Antonio with his wife and ii young children.

Read more:

• "Texas teaching lath votes to restore lessons on Hillary Clinton, Helen Keller," Volition Weissert, U.s.a. Today, Nov fourteen, 2018
• "Texas teaching board moves to reinsert Hillary Clinton, Helen Keller into curriculum," Kathryn Lundstrom,Texas Tribune, Nov xiii, 2018
• "Texas board reverses class, votes to go on Hillary Clinton, Helen Keller in history curriculum," Lauren McGaughy, Dallas Morning News, November 13, 2018
• "Texas teaching board keeps Helen Keller, Hillary Clinton in recommended teachings," Andrea Zelinski, Houston Relate, Nov 13, 2018
• "Texas Hits The Books," Laura Isensee, NPR, November 21, 2014

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Source: https://sachartermoms.com/history-textbooks-moses-democracy/

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