A fifth-grade teacher in Mesa, Ariz., is speaking out against her district’s adoption of a new U.S. history textbook that neglects to mention (among other things) Alexander Hamilton, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death” declaration, according to The Arizona Republic. “These are like the core things that are just etched on the American psyche,” says Laurel Moore. Mesa district officials have responded that the book, titled History Alive! America’s Past, sufficiently covers the state’s recently revised standards in U.S. history and that, in any case, teachers will be given supplementary materials to fill in any information that’s passed over. Bert Bower, the president of the organization that produced History Alive!, adds that the book is intended to be supplemented by Web sites that are cited in the curriculum. Moore, however, questions whether all teachers—especially novices—will have time to dig up and effectively incorporate the supplementary materials.
A version of this news article first appeared in the Web Watch blog.