The Woodland Park School District in Colorado has become the first school district in the nation to adopt American Birthright, the Civics Alliance’s model social studies standards. CPR News reports:
The board of a small school district in Teller County passed a resolution Wednesday night to use the conservative American Birthright social studies standards that emphasize patriotism and American exceptionalism, just a month after the state board of education rejected them.
Colorado’s school districts possess an unusual amount of authority to set standards—but Woodland Park has just become a model not only for other school districts in Colorado but also for school districts around the nation. States can adopt American Birthright—and so can school districts. Woodland Park is showing the way.
Of course, this means the Civics Alliance has new tasks. Standards aren’t a curriculum, and we want to help Woodland Park devise a curriculum that fits the American Birthright standards. Woodland Park also has to satisfy state requirements, and we want to make sure that American Birthright doesn’t prevent them from doing that. Then, Woodland Park will modify American Birthright however it sees fit, to meet its own needs! That’s what we want—American Birthright to be a model, not a straightjacket.
We also expect there will be counter-attacks on American Birthright. The education establishment, and allied activists, want to crush any educational model that doesn’t forward their propaganda. We will be working to support Woodland Park in the court of public opinion.
But for now, we are simply delighted with this wonderful news from Woodland Park School District. It’s very nice to get their endorsement.
Photo by Kait Herzog on Unsplash
