OK Schools Chief Hires Raft Of Christian Nationalists To Overhaul Social Studies Classes In The Name Of Jesus

July 10, 2024 Christianists, Extremists

Tulsa’s NBC affiliate reports:

The Oklahoma State Department of Education announced a “complete overhaul” of the state’s social studies standards on July 9.

State Superintendent Ryan Walters said the new approach will “ensure the social studies standards are chronologically sound, reinforced, and reiterated through a student’s primary and secondary education, will empower schools to teach from primary sources, and will inspire in students a love of country and a proper understanding of the American founding.”

This includes Walters’ recent move to require the Bible to be incorporated in the classroom. The new standards were announced in a press release that said these new standards will ensure “social studies reflect accuracy and not political slanted viewpoints.”

The Daily Beast reports:

Superintendent Ryan Walters plans to overhaul Oklahoma’s social studies curriculum with the help of a committee that includes a laundry list of right-wing think tank veterans and influencers—including Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, whose work on the presidential policy proposal document Project 2025 has gone viral in recent days.

Also included on the list is conservative radio host and media personality Dennis Prager, whose empire of educational YouTube videos—named Prager University despite its lack of accreditation—has been likened to ultra-nationalistic propaganda shown in authoritarian countries like North Korea and China.

Walters promised his revisions to the social studies curriculum will “eliminate DEI, indoctrination, and return teaching back to the basics in Oklahoma.”

Right Wing Watch reports:

David Barton, who has repeatedly misrepresented his academic credentials and personal history, had his book on Thomas Jefferson pulled by his own publisher in 2012 after it concluded that “basic truths just were not there.”

Undaunted, Barton has soldiered on, repeatedly declaring that Christians who share his far-right worldview are supposed to be choosing our elected leaders and ruling the world because everything must operate according to biblical principles.

Barton falsely insists that our Constitution and entire system of government are based on the Bible and thus asserts that everything from the minimum wage to the income tax to the teaching of evolution are unconstitutional because they supposedly violate Biblical teachings.

Barton also believes that there should be literally no limits on the Second Amendment, meaning that average citizens are entitled to own tanks, fighter jets, and even nuclear weapons..

Last year Ryan Walters hired LibsOfTikTok creator Chaya Raichik to help oversee public school libraries.



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