Professor Recalls Revising Ga. Textbooks

ATLANTA - Revising its statewide social studies curriculum is something that Georgia did in 2004.

But unlike Texas, Georgia invited teachers to play a major role in how the standards were revised. One college professor remembers that it wasn't easy, but it was rewarding.

The wrangling in Texas over how social studies will be taught in public schools is a familiar theme in our history.

Clifford Kuhn, a Georgia State University professor, said re-interpreting the past has been a favorite political football for decades.

“I have a textbook from the early 20th century Georgia history which sort of talks about how slavery was a good thing, for instance and this is what every kid in Georgia was reading 100 years ago,” said GSU Professor Clifford Kuhn.

Kuhn teaches 20th century U.S history. His passion for the subject prompted him to jump in the fray when the state released a draft of new social studies standards six years ago.

Kuhn wrote a letter critical of the document.

“If you put too many things in these standards, it becomes a long list to be memorized and I would argue you really get away from true learning,” said Kuhn.

His letter appeared in the Atlanta Journal Constitution and landed him a spot on a team charged with making the curriculum better.

“I was very glad to be involved in the process, it's a very tedious process, it's like making sausage.”

After months of revisions, the team of social studies teachers, board of education members and academics produced a new curriculum that cuts down what Kuhn calls the "laundry list" of facts and focuses more on how history happens and what causes change.

“If we kept thousands of kids interested in history every year, we'd have done our job. I mean it's an imperfect document but it's an advance over what happened there before.”

And Kuhn is keeping his eye on developments in Texas.

“I do find it alarming -- the tendency to whitewash or sanitize history from whatever perspective, left or right and I think we really run the risk of forgetting what teaching is all about, which is about kids and learning.”

For info on Georgia Performance Standards: https://www.georgiastandards.org/  

For info on Social Studies Curriculum: http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/ci_services.aspx