Oklahoma Votes Overwhelmingly To Remove AP U. S. History

[stromboli]

http://thinkprogress.org/education/2015/02/17/3623683/oklahoma-lawmakers-vote-overwhleming-ban-advanced-placement-history-class/

An Oklahoma legislative committee overwhelmingly voted to ban Advanced Placement U.S. History class, persuaded by the argument that it only teaches students “what is bad about America.” Other lawmakers are seeking a court ruling that would effectively prohibit the teaching of all AP courses in public schools.

Oklahoma Rep. Dan Fisher (R) has introduced “emergency” legislation “prohibiting the expenditure of funds on the Advanced Placement United States History course.” Fisher is part of a group called the “Black Robe Regiment” which argues “the church and God himself has been under assault, marginalized, and diminished by the progressives and secularists.” The group attacks the “false wall of separation of church and state.” The Black Robe Regiment claims that a “growing tide of special interest groups indoctrinating our youth at the exclusion of the Christian perspective.”

Fisher said the Advanced Placement history class fails to teach “American exceptionalism.” The bill passed the Oklahoma House Education committee on Monday on a vote of 11-4. You can read the actual course description for the course here.
For other lawmakers, however, Fisher is thinking too small. Oklahoma Rep. Sally Kern (R) claims that all “AP courses violate the legislation approved last year that repealed Common Core.” She has asked the Oklahoma Attorney General to issue a ruling. Kern argues that “AP courses are similar to Common Core, in that they could be construed as an attempt to impose a national curriculum on American schools.”

Advanced Placement courses are actually developed by a private group, the College Board, and are not required of any student or high school. They are the primary way that student can earn college credit in high school. Taking advanced placement course can save students money and are generally seen as a prerequisite to admission to elite colleges. A representative from the College Board called the claims by Fisher and others “mythology and not true.”

In August last year, the Republican National Committee blasted the Advanced Placement U.S. History test, claiming it “deliberately distorts and/or edits out important historical events.” The RNC said a new framework for the exam “reflects a radically revisionist view of American history that emphasizes negative aspects of our nation’s history while omitting or minimizing positive aspects.” The College Board countered that the framework had not been changed since 2012.
Efforts by conservative school board members in Colorado to make the Advanced Placement U.S. History course “more patriotic,” prompted a walk-out by students. Under the changes proposed in Colorado “students would only be taught lessons depicting American heritage in a positive light, and effectively ban any material that could lead to dissent.” In South Carolina conservatives asked the College Board to exclude any material with an “ideological bias,” including evolution. Similar efforts are underway in Georgia and North Carolina.

Wow- talk about mind control. These people are trying to turn America into a feudalistic, dark ages society with dumbed down students incapable or critical thinking at any level. This is scary.

[SGOS]

I grew up thinking that cover-ups were covert things.  The idea was to cover up a bad thing, but not let people know you're doing it.

[stromboli]

We are in serious trouble as a nation when this type of shit occurs. I fear for my grand children.

[Solitary]

And yet it is said, "The truth shall set you free." I guess some people like being slaves to lies, like the one that got us into war that is still going on. Solitary

[Desdinova]

Get the bonfires ready.  Next they'll target any library books that they don't like.  We are sliding down the slippery slope.

[dtq123]

Excuse me as I vomit in the toilet. This is more gross than having the plague, and that was bad.

[kilodelta]

Fucking hell. Let's stop education at learning how to put our toys away in kindergarten.

[Atheon]

Gotta kepe peeple frum bieng edjamacated, or thay wont vote for Jebus.

[Contemporary Protestant]

I just took AP US history, its watered down big time, so I'm surprised Oklahoma thought it was too much

It mentions Slavery, Nicaragua, but fails to go into how Vietnam shouldn't have happened, or the fact that the United States is imperialist at its core

[SGOS]

This might be a way to cut funding to education.  Republicans are always big on that.  The claim that "AP is not patriotic enough" might just be cover.  Or it could be just a random shot at education, so that Oklahomans know the legislature is on their side and isn't going to take any shit from something that might sound too intellectual.  Anyway, the job of schools is to provide football entertainment for the community.  Let's keep our eye on that goal and not be distracted by things like advance placement, which is meant to cater to the elite who think they should run everything.  Besides, that money could be used to entice creationist theme parks to come to Oklahoma.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

We are in serious trouble as a nation when this type of shit occurs. I fear for my grand children.

If the country was homogeneous I'd agree. But it's not.

[Shiranu]

They must of misspelled Texas, only Texas is nutty... :roll:

Serious note though, Oklahoma is terrible, probably on the bottom 5 states in terms of contribution to society and just general fuckery. 10/10, state I would never intentionally live in.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

They must of misspelled Texas, only Texas is nutty... :roll:

Serious note though, Oklahoma is terrible, probably on the bottom 5 states in terms of contribution to society and just general fuckery. 10/10, state I would never intentionally live in.

However, somewhere close to Enid there's a house with stone pillars at each corner of the property. Buried next to one of them is 40 kg. of hash. One of these days I gotta get out that way.

[GrinningYMIR]

Its a damn shame, I actually took that class and loved it in High School

[Munch]

Hugh Jackman made me think Oklahoma was a bright, fun happy place full of progressive people...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNEUtN21cuU

Then again, Judy Garland made me think kansas was the same..