Back is Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” speech. Back is Roe v. Wade. Back is climate change, and the word “democratic.”
A new proposal incorporating those revisions was presented to the Michigan board of education last week. A vote on its adoption is scheduled for June 11.
The draft of the K-12 social studies standards released last May drummed up months of controversy and unleashed a large public outcry when references to those subjects—as well as several other historical moments—were removed as possible examples for teachers to discuss with students.
The third and latest proposal also brings back references to the government’s role in guaranteeing freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and freedom of the press. So too are references to Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad, women’s rights’ activists, and the suffrage movement, as well as emerging civil rights of immigrants and the LGBTQ community.
