NATION : N.Y. Attacks Bias in Textbooks
New York state’s board for setting education policy voted today to change the way history is taught to include more about contributions by nonwhites.
The Board of Regents voted unanimously to appoint a team of scholars who will try to wipe out examples of bias from history books and classroom curricula.
“We have to understand better than we now do the diversity of the country,” said state Education Commissioner Thomas Sobol.
The action came seven months after a task force, appointed by Sobol and dominated by nonwhites, released a report that said much of what schoolchildren learn in New York is based on “hidden assumptions of white supremacy.”
The report, titled “A Curriculum of Inclusion,” suggested that many courses minimize the contributions of minorities and largely ignore the wrongs committed by whites against nonwhites.
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