More CO BoE nonsense: "U.S. Ended Slavery Voluntarily"

[smock]

See? SEE? This is why history is important!

www.coloradoindependent.com/149589/state-board-of-ed-member-u-s-ended-slavery-voluntarily


Colorado’s latest education official to condemn high school history course standards wonders why those who wrote the curriculum missed what seems to her an obvious point — that the United States voluntarily ended slavery.
Pam Mazanec, a Larkspur businesswoman who sits on Colorado’s Board of Education, posted on a Facebook discussion thread her concerns that questions asked on the Advanced Placement U.S. history test “portray the negative viewpoint as the correct answer.”
“As an example, I note our slavery history,” she wrote to a woman who teaches AP U.S history. “Yes, we practiced slavery. But we also ended it voluntarily, at great sacrifice, while the practice continues in many countries still today!
“Shouldn’t our students be provided that viewpoint? This is part of the argument that America is exceptional. Does our APUSH (AP U.S. History) framework support or denigrate that position?”
Mazanec’s comments were posted Saturday evening on the Facebook page, Speak for DSCD, described as “a place where teachers and parents are encouraged to speak freely about their issues, questions and concerns in the Douglas County School District.”
She did not respond to several attempts to reach her for comment.
History teachers and civil rights activists question the state Board of Ed member’s understanding of slavery in the United States and the civil war that ended it.
“The idea that the United States voluntarily gave up slavery is an outright misrepresentation of history. The United States engaged in a civil war to end slavery. There was nothing voluntary about it,” said Stephanie Rossi an AP U.S. history teacher at Wheat Ridge High School. “I’m just flabbergasted at anyone who would make that claim. Flabbergasted.”
Patrick Demmer, a pastor at Denver’s Graham Memorial Community Church and longtime civil rights activist, said Mazanec’s take on slavery shows “she’s willfully ignorant at best or she is racially disingenuous at worst.”
“She shouldn’t be on the education board.”
“What her comment and that whole movement is trying to basically do is repaint history in a way that takes away the ugliness and the hurt and abuse that the African American in America suffered and endured to get to where we are right now,” Demmer said.
Mazanec took office in January 2013 as one of the state’s seven education board members. She represents the 4th U.S. Congressional District – all of eastern Colorado. She’s an ardent advocate of school choice and, as the state board’s website reads, “interested in improving civics education.”
“Pam understands that a well-educated citizenry is vital to Colorado’s economic future and America’s national security,” according to her state bio.
Her criticism of the new AP U.S. history curriculum comes as the Jefferson County School Board made national and international news for proposing to review the AP instructional material and, as suggested by school board member Julie Williams, with an eye to replace it with a curriculum that avoids encouraging “civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law,” and instead promotes positive aspects of the nation’s history. Students and teachers have walked out in protest.
Mazanec’s Facebook post admonishing the AP and college level history courses that “downplay our noble history and accentuate the negative view” suggests she’s in-line with Williams’s agenda.
Mazanec’s posted message to a teacher named Jennifer said she had read the AP sample test and is concerned about “an overly negative view of our history and many of our historical figures (if mentioned).” “I think our students deserve to have all perspectives – include the negative viewpoints on the motivations, but also the positive viewpoints,” she wrote.
Rossi, an employee of Jeffco schools, warns of the dangers of viewing – let alone teaching – history as a zero-sum game.
“To me, history is not a collection of positives or negatives. It’s not a math equation. It’s a story. It’s a story about humans overcoming difficult circumstances. It’s a story of humans making horrific mistakes. And then it’s a story of human beings saying ‘Wow, we can’t do that again,’” she said.
Mazanec’s slavery comments “trivialize the experiences of slaves” and “cheapen the professionalism of history teachers.”
“It’s shameful,” Rossi said.
“To say the United States voluntarily gave up slavery is like saying that Germany voluntarily surrendered at the end of World War II,” added Anton Schulzki, a 32-year veteran teaching U.S. History and the AP coordinator at William J. Palmer High School in Colorado Springs.
Schulzki is a director of both the Colorado and National Councils for Social Studies and he has blogged for The Colorado Independent. He notes that the United States was one of the last industrialized countries to end slavery – not exactly a happy fact in the nation’s history. Still, he said AP History “actually addresses the whole notion of American exceptionalism and recognizes what’s extraordinary about this country.”
Schulzki attended last month’s state education board meeting during which members discussed the AP curriculum and whether it threatens American values.
“History itself is political. We all know that. What’s happening right now is people are politicizing the teaching of history. That should be everyone’s concern.”

[sunterp]

I just saw this and hopped over here to see if it was posted. WTF is wrong with this idiot? Can she be removed? I am going to need someone to give this BOE a very detailed history lesson about slavery and the Civil War.

[NewOrleans]

Oct 3, 2014 13:28:54 GMT -5 smock said:

“As an example, I note our slavery history,” she wrote to a woman who teaches AP U.S history. “Yes, we practiced slavery. But we also ended it voluntarily, at great sacrifice, while the practice continues in many countries still today!"

Slaveowners sure were noble and self-sacrificing. 

[meshaliuknits]

[Cicero]

What, you didn't learn that congress woke up one day and magnanimously decided to pass the 13th Amendment? I feel sorry for your children.

[EllieArroway]

Well duh. The Civil War was about states' rights. It had nothing to do with slavery!

[Velar Fricative]

That's it. Just change all the history textbooks in Colorado so that they say nothing but "AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!" a million times.

[blink]

Wait, there was a civil war? I thought that was just lies the government told us, like 9/11.

[pixy0stix]

ugh. Guess it's letter writing time. I thought this was in relation to the school district, not all of CO.

[cville]

C'mon, you all didn't hear about the "Let's All End Slavery Convention of 1865"? What kind of subpar education did you receive?

Everyone got together in D.C. and drank mint juleps while toasting to their progressive racial views. It was delightful. In October, I think.

[hopecounts]

Oct 3, 2014 13:37:35 GMT -5 sunterp said:

I just saw this and hopped over here to see if it was posted. WTF is wrong with this idiot? Can she be removed? I am going to need someone to give this BOE a very detailed history lesson about slavery and the Civil War.

Heck all you need to do is watch Roots or North and South and you know better then this.

[sparrowsong]

“I think our students deserve to have all perspectives – include the negative viewpoints on the motivations, but also the positive viewpoints,” she wrote.

This is the same crap that falls out of the mouths of the simpletons trying to protect their children from science. As if that all school is, from history to science, a bunch of "opinions" and "viewpoints" and it's up each student to find the ones they like and that don't make them uncomfortable. Facts - schmacts.

[litebright]

I'm heading to another protest in an hour or so. I'll try to post pics later if people are interested.

I am so upset and angry about this whole fiasco that it is hard to get it out of my head sometimes. I realized last night, after they went ahead with forming the curriculum committee** despite the huge outcry from the community (the whole community, including parents and non-parents and students; not just the teachers' union, the way they claim) that they feel no allegiance or accountability to the people of this district.** Their constituency is the political gods and extremists that got them elected with 30-some% of registered voters participating -- the RNC*** and its desire to gut public schools, unions and APUSH for *gasp* considering women's and minorities' experience of American history, at least from what admittedly little detail I've read on the curriculum (I took APUSH and loved it, but it was a long time ago). Why is this so threatening? Why don't they want critical thinkers? Employers certainly do, at least in jobs that pay well and require any amount of intelligence!

There was never a chance that they might reconsider the committee in light of the community's outrage. They are expected not to listen to their community but to double-down on the political changes that they are being expected to make. They would be seen as failing by their conservative cronies if they had actually backed down in response to the public. I've covered a lot of public boards,

What's scary is that another state BOE candidate of this ilk is on the ballot this November. If we can't stop the spread of this madness, I'm afraid our whole state educational system will be at risk -- and frankly, it's already severely underfunded and scraping along IMO.

**They added one student and one teacher to the committee as a show of "compromise" but made sure any dissenting voices will be in the minority.

*** Don't even tell me that this was a "non-partisan" election. They didn't label themselves Republicans, but they were known as Republicans and endorsed by the RNC in CO and Republicans were encouraged to support them because of their party affliation.

Oh, and sparrowsong, APUSH is just where they started. I believe it's also in their proposal -- or at least I remember reading in board documents -- that they want "theories taught as theories" (read: put evolution on equal footing with creationism) and that elementary level health classes are also on their agenda to consider -- I can see where that's going, abstinence only education.

God, I don't want to be Kansas, where evolution is in or out of the classroom depending on which party is in power at the state BOE. Or Texas, where they've already taken out APUSH in favor of their own state-approved curriculum.

I commented on one of the anti-BOE FB groups that I'm pretty sure property values in the Boulder County school district went up another 20% after last night.

[secretlyevil]

See what happens when we let states have control over things?

[summer]

This was my face the whole time I was reading this article

[josieposy]

Seems relevant to the discussion.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI9ImScQGAo&sns=em

[MrsAxilla]

litebright - what's the candidate's name?

[litebright]

Oct 3, 2014 19:36:22 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

litebright - what's the candidate's name?

Laura Boggs. 

If you're a Republican and the Post says you should be censured, you are cuckoo for cocoa puffs. 


www.denverpost.com/ci_16914646

[sushi]

Oct 3, 2014 15:22:57 GMT -5 blink said:

Wait, there was a civil war? I thought that was just lies the government told us, like 9/11.

There was no civil war. It was the war of northern aggression (my friends' textbooks literally called it that. No joke)

[taratru]

I'm ASHAMED of my state right now. Seriously.

Did you guys see that Chris Christie was here with our Republican candidate for governor reading to classes at a charter school in Douglas County? But they "aren't campaigning." Riiiiiight.

[aurora]

Maybe it's not a failure to understand history. Maybe she doesn't understand vocabulary. Specifically the word "voluntarily."

[Deleted]

CO ladies, we need to somehow arrange to be in the same coffee shop as this lady at some point. Because if we can overhear it, we can become part of it.

[Deleted]

Oct 4, 2014 10:27:28 GMT -5 aurora said:

Maybe it's not a failure to understand history. Maybe she doesn't understand vocabulary. Specifically the word "voluntarily."

Right. Just for future reference, the largest loss of American lives in our country's history = "voluntarily."

I HAVE to be allowed to bump into this woman.

[pixy0stix]

I'm just going to write a letter calling for her resignation.

[Deleted]

Oct 3, 2014 21:21:18 GMT -5 asdfjkl said:

Oct 3, 2014 18:17:39 GMT -5 summer said:

This was my face the whole time I was reading this article

Oh good.  I was hoping we'd do this.  This was me:

I'll raise you by showing you what I was thinking:

[Deleted]

Oct 3, 2014 15:09:14 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

That's it. Just change all the history textbooks in Colorado so that they say nothing but "AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!" a million times.

I'd suggest showing Team America: World Police but it would probably get banned.

Maybe The Patriot but I wouldn't want kids getting the idea that Mel Gibson is either good looking or sane.

[Deleted]

Oct 3, 2014 20:30:59 GMT -5 sushi said:

Oct 3, 2014 15:22:57 GMT -5 blink said:

Wait, there was a civil war? I thought that was just lies the government told us, like 9/11.

There was no civil war. It was the war of northern aggression (my friends' textbooks literally called it that. No joke)

Try American War Between the States

historiceffinghamsociety.com/2014/08/24/presidents-message-august-2014/

“Antebellum Effingham County was not made up of the large picturesque cotton plantations which you normally think of when you mention the Old South. Instead it was made up of smaller, more modest farms averaging about 750 acres in size of which only 90 acres was improved farmland for planting crops with Indian corn being the main crop. Other crops were sweet potatoes, rice and cotton. The census of 1860 showed the population of Effingham County to be 4755. There were only 471 families that made up the free population. There were 313 total farms in the county. The census of 1860 shows the population to be 2572 whites, 18 free blacks and 2165 slaves. Farming was the predominant occupation. The average price of farmland was $3.00 per acre. The people of Effingham County did not live in luxury and grandeur; but, lived a simple rather uneventful way of life.” Taken from “Those Gallant Georgians Who Served in the War Between the States” written by Jimmy E. Arnsdorff.


In 1861 all of that changed. On January 6, 1861, Effingham County sent two men to Milledgeville to declare our county’s intent to secede from the Union. Those men were Edward W. Solomons, married to Rebecca Ann Bevill from the Springfield area, and Albert G. Porter, married to Evaline Reiser from the Clyo area. These men cast a yes vote as they signed the Georgia Ordinance of Secession. On January 19, 1861 Georgia seceded from the United States of America and later helped form the Confederate States of America. Between 500-600 men left their homes and families to join various units to protect their land and the principles for which they stood.


Today Effingham County is made up of 53,293 people. We continue to send our husbands, sons and daughters into battle. And, we still stand up firmly for the principles of life for which we believe. We have been remembering the 150th anniversary of the American War Between the States. We learn from the mistakes of the past and build a better future for our children and ourselves when we acknowledge the opportunities we have today to make peace – not war.


The HES Board has been planning new opportunities to showcase our county history. The City of Springfield, Springfield Revitalization Committee and the Springfield Merchants Association will join the Historic Effingham Society in a Christmas extravaganza. An upcoming Olde Effingham Christmas program is planned for Saturday, December 13, 2014. This will be an exciting program to highlight our buildings with Christmas decorations and enactment of past people/events. Read about this event later in the newsletter.

Thank you to all who have continued to support the HES museum and living history site with your gifts, your presence and your service. As a completely volunteer effort to preserve and protect the history of Effingham County, every dollar, every deed and every day you come to offer your help does make a difference in our ability to remain viable. A special thank you to Beverly Poole who has continued to be

loyal to the museum, even in the face of her and husband Bill’s recent sickness. Thank you Beverly!


Oh! What a Heritage is Ours!


Norma Jean Morgan


Never trust a woman who looks at alladis in the mirror and thinks, yup, this is working.

[Cicero]

Oct 3, 2014 20:30:59 GMT -5 sushi said:

Oct 3, 2014 15:22:57 GMT -5 blink said:

Wait, there was a civil war? I thought that was just lies the government told us, like 9/11.

There was no civil war. It was the war of northern aggression (my friends' textbooks literally called it that. No joke)

This is a big southern thing. Which makes zero sense given that they were the ones who fired the first shots, and were hence the aggressors.