European Association of History Educators

Source: Hirondelle News; 26 April 2010

Kigali, April 23, 2010 (FH) - Sixteen years after the 1994 genocide which left over 800,000 people dead, mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus, Rwandans have now started contemplating about teaching genocide history to the young generation in primary and secondary schools. Such initiative has already been introduced at the university level.  
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Source: Asia Times; April 9, 2010

In the summer of 2007, 34 Japanese and Korean scholars were selected to participate in the second round of the Japan-South Korea joint history project. Since the release of their report in late March, it is becoming clear that very little progress has been made - many of the same issues from the first round of this project which commenced in 2001 remain unresolved. The first round report was issued in 2005.

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Source: The Washington Post; April 6, 2020

In this era of commerce and trade, it often happens that countries that might once have gone to war play out their antagonisms through other means. The immigration debate plays this role in Mexican American relations. For a time, the trade dispute over soft wood lumber (yes, really) fulfilled this function in Canadian American relations: At stake were different attitudes toward the role of government in industry, Canada's sensitivity to American economic power and many other issues, though you wouldn't know it if you weren't paying attention.
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Source: Haaretz; March 31, 2010

Most high schools in the country teach less than the recommended seven to nine hours of history per week, and the history that is taught focuses too much on the details of the Holocaust and not enough on the War of Independence, according to one of Israel's most prominent historians. 

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Source: Los Angeles Times; March 29, 2010

As Texas shows, school book content must not be left to interest groups. California, take note.Oh, those disingenuous Texans. Pretending to bring ideological balance to history textbooks when what they're really doing is weighting the books so heavily with conservative mores, you'd expect the state's backpack-laden school children to list to the right. If the revisions proposed by the conservative faction of the Texas Board of Education are adopted in May, the state's textbooks will raise the study of the inaugural speech of Confederate President Jefferson Davis to the same level as that of Abraham Lincoln.

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Source: The Harvard Crimson; March 25, 2010

In framing the American mindset toward history, historian Richard Hofstadter wrote that we as a people prefer "a spirit of sentimental appreciation rather than of critical analysis." In other words, under a veil of blind nostalgia, Americans quickly become attached to a particular narrative as the one correct interpretation of a murky past. Challenges to this worldview, then, are often met with the most vitriolic of reactions, as champions of the established historical guard fiercely defend that which they consider "proper" American history.

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Source: Chron; March 16, 2010

AUSTIN — The State Board of Education's Hispanic and African-American members clashed with its Anglo majority for hours Thursday over how to present history to the state's 4.7 million public school children. Much of the conflict centered on the racial balance of the historical figures to be included in textbooks starting in the 2011-2012 school year. Tempers boiled over when sex or religion were added to the mix. Members grew increasingly distraught over the process as they moved toward a preliminary adoption of new social studies curriculum standards, set for today.

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Source: The Rebel Yell; March 16, 2010

Defining requirements would improve quality, reduce bias in teaching. When I was growing up, it always seemed to me that teachers and textbooks were an infallible source of  knowledge. Textbooks, dry and authoritative, weren’t even meant to be read straight through, but consulted for pearls of wisdom that were faithfully jotted down verbatim to earn yet another check-plus. Perhaps that unyielding gullibility is what has made curriculum content so controversial.

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Source: The Associated Press; March 16th, 2010

AUSTIN - The politically shifting State Board of Education opened discussion of new social studies curriculum standards Wednesday with a plea that the Christian "heritage from which our nation was founded" be reflected in the new standards. The board, long led by social conservatives who have advocated for ideas such as teaching Texas children more about the weaknesses of evolutionary theory, has worked on, and squabbled about, the social studies standards for months.
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Source: Dallas News; March 12, 2010

AUSTIN – After getting ripped by the Texas Education Agency, Fox News on Thursday sought to clarify some of its reports on the state's social studies curriculum debate. While not apologizing for the reports, Steve Doocy of the morning show Fox & Friends said the network had been "trying to make it simpler" for viewers to understand the process by reporting that the State Board of Education was reviewing new textbooks.

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