Liberals hate it, too

It's not just conservatives who think the proposed history curriculum is a bad idea.

A story on Fox News this week unleashed a flood of criticism on the state Department of Public instruction, but Holly Brewer, an associate professor in N.C. State University's history department, said critics cross the political spectrum.

The proposal to limit the 11th grade American history course to the last 132 years would shortchange students, she said.

"We will become a national laughingstock if this goes through," Brewer said.

She has been writing the state Department of Public Instruction in protest, she's circulating a statewide petition, and a friend started a Facebook page, "History did not begin in 1877!"

"There is no discussion of slavery anywhere in the curriculum
proposed," she said.  "Teaching about slavery is very much a liberal
issue."

The history proposal would push pre-Reconstruction history to the middle and elementary grades, which Brewer said is inadequate. 

"They have to deal with issues in high school when they can talk about things in a complex manner," she said.

The State Board of Education is revising curriculum in all subject areas. Curriculum writers are accepting comments on the history proposal.