A group of nine educators in Texas is proposing a change to the state’s curriculum that would result in slavery being referred to as “involuntary relocation” during second grade social studies instruction, according to the Texas Tribune.
The educators submitted the idea to the Texas State Board of Education as part of Texas’ efforts to develop new social studies curriculum for the state’s more than 8,000 public schools.
The changes to the curriculum come one year after lawmakers passed a law to keep topics that make students “feel discomfort” out of Texas classrooms.
A part of the proposed draft obtained by The Texas Tribune says students should “compare journeys to America, including voluntary Irish immigration and involuntary relocation of African people during colonial times.”
Board member Aicha Davis, a Democrat pushed back at the proposal to the board arguing that the wording is not a “fair representation” of the slave trade.
“I can’t say what their intention was, but that’s not going to be acceptable,” Davis told The Texas Tribune.
The board, upon reading the language in the suggested curriculum, sent it back to the group for revision.
“For K-2, carefully examine the language used to describe events, specifically the term ‘involuntary relocation,’” the state board wrote in its guidance to the group.
Annette Gordon-Reed, a history professor at Harvard University told the Tribune that using “involuntary relocation” to describe slavery means the country is moving in the wrong direction and diminish what actually happened during that time.
“Young kids can grasp the concept of slavery and being kidnapped into it. The African slave trade is unlike anything that had or has happened, the numbers and distance,” Gordon-Reed said. “Tell children the truth. They can handle it.”
