Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 12, 1995 TAG: 9510120053
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
National history standards, challenged by conservatives as too gloomy and politically correct, should be rewritten to emphasize the founding fathers, the Constitution and America's opportunities, a group of historians and teachers said Wednesday.
``They contained a lot in them that deserved criticism,'' said Albert H. Quie, a former Minnesota governor and Republican congressman who led the panel organized by the private Council for Basic Education.
The voluntary standards also should focus more on American scientific and technological breakthroughs, the panel said. And they should drop biased language and lesson-plan examples that critics said came too close to pushing a national curriculum.
Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., who criticized the standards in his presidential campaign, hadn't seen the recommendations, a spokeswoman said.
But at least one conservative group said they did not go far enough.
``At the heart of the problem is the fact that, if you have national boards determining these things, then politically correct, anti-American standards could happen again,'' said Jennifer Marshall of the Family Research Council.
The Bush administration and the nation's governors - alarmed by declining test scores - in 1989 first proposed encouraging states to have all students meet national academic standards.
Since then, math standards have been adopted by many states and schools.
But the history standards, developed by a University of California, Los Angeles, panel under a Bush administration contract, were roundly denounced when they came out last fall.
Conservatives said they overstated negative parts of American history, such as the Ku Klux Klan and the 1950s rise of McCarthyism, while neglecting Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington.
President Clinton's education secretary, Richard Riley, agreed.
In one section, the independent panel found, the standards call for students to study the religious beliefs of American Indians and blacks in early America, but fail to mention the beliefs of European settlers. The group recommends adding that.
``We focused on seeing whether the general underlying statements of principles were sound,'' said Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, a Harvard University professor.
The UCLA group said it would examine the proposals and work to put out a new edition. ``We have an obligation to do that,'' said UCLA history professor Gary Nash.
by CNB