Honig Defends Textbooks of ‘Real History’ : Education: Schools chief says children will lose if proposed volumes aren’t adopted. Criticism has been wide-ranging.

State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig on Wednesday strongly defended proposed new history and social science textbooks for California elementary and junior high schools against wide-ranging criticisms from religious and minority groups.

“The outcome is very important,” Honig said in an interview. “We finally have history books that are idea-driven, that are exciting, that have some real history in them. If we now don’t adopt the books, then publishers are going to go back to developing bland books without real contact and our kids will suffer.”

The state Board of Education will hold a public hearing on the books today and is expected to take final action next month.

After a lengthy review process, the state Curriculum Commission recommended only one set of books for state board approval: a kindergarten-through-eighth grade series published by Houghton Mifflin. The commission found that only this series, plus a single eighth-grade book published by Holt, Rinehart & Winston, met the requirements of the history-social science curriculum guideline the board adopted three years ago.

The Houghton Mifflin textbooks differ from most by discussing the important role religion has played in American history, as well as discussing such controversial topics as the treatment American Indians received at the hands of early settlers.

The series has been attacked by a wide variety of critics, including Jews, Moslems, fundamentalist Christians, blacks, Asian-Americans and homosexuals.

At a Burbank news conference Wednesday, Assemblywoman Gwen Moore (D-Los Angeles), speaking for the Legislative Black Caucus, called on the state board to delay approving the books for at least 90 days so that “stereotypes and inaccuracies” can be removed.

Tillford Patterson, a Moore aide, said Moore and other black legislators have been “overwhelmed by the public outcry” over the textbooks and have concluded that “something must be wrong with them.”

Patterson said the legislators want the authors of the Houghton Mifflin series to meet with black scholars “who have a different perspective” and work out an acceptable solution.

Four black members of the Legislature--Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), Assemblywoman Theresa P. Hughes (D-Los Angeles), who chairs the Assembly Education Committee, Assemblyman Curtis Tucker Jr. (D-Inglewood) and Moore--were present at the news conference.

Honig said, “We’ve tried to work out these differences but there are some who just don’t want to work them out.”

Honig said there is a “vast philosophical gulf” between his belief in a “unified history” for all students and the views of some black critics, who would prefer that students be taught separate ethnic histories for such groups as African-Americans, Asian-Americans and Latinos.

“A lot is at stake here,” Honig added. “Do we try to keep the society together or do we split up into tribal warfare? . . . Ethnic issues are important issues but they aren’t the only issues. Martin Luther King is an important historical figure but not just because he was a black man.”

Jewish organizations have also faulted the series, believing that the books do not treat Christianity as critically as they do Judaism and also that they encourage the belief that Jews played an important role in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

“We applaud the changes that have been made” since the books were approved by the Curriculum Commission, “but we still have some very important concerns,” said Annette Lawrence, education director of the Jewish Federation Council of Los Angeles.

At a Capitol news conference Wednesday, Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, chairman of the Anaheim-based fundamentalist Traditional Values Coalition, said the new books “are, in some ways, a step in the right direction.” But he complained about the treatment of Christianity and said there is not enough discussion of “family values.”