The state of Texas is in the midst of a mandatory, every-ten-year review of its social studies curriculum for public schools.  This is important to the whole country because textbook publishers develop material based on their largest market, Texas.

The biggest news from this process is that the sixth grade curriculum-writing team removed Christmas from a list of religious holidays.  The standards currently require sixth grade students to be taught the significance of Christianity's Christmas and Easter, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and the Jewish holidays of Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah.  The committee proposed removing Christmas and Rosh Hashanah and adding Dwali, a Hindu festival.

This is not just the war on Christmas. In a note, explaining the change, team members wrote that the examples include the key holiday from each of the major religions.  They're deleting Christianity and Judaism from the list of America's predominant faiths. 

I doubt this recommendation will stand because Texas parents are getting wind of it. Their complaints flooded into Austin where the State Board of Education met last week to take a look at the proposals. But it's one of many heartbreaking changes being recommended to the Texas social studies standards.

This is happening because the sixteen curriculum writing teams are overloaded with representatives of the educational establishment and underloaded with the type of citizens the legislature specifies: parents, industry representatives, and employers. 

One of the few volunteers from the "average citizen" group is Bill Aames, a well-read grandfather from the Dallas suburb of Richardson.  Bill says there are two agendas at work:  One is to paint the United States in as negative a light as possible.  The second....and this explains the demotion of Christmas...is to add as much multicultural content as possible, with little regard for the significance or proportionality of contributions. 

 Hence, this attempt to erase Christianity's role in the establishment and strength of the United States of America. Aames reports that in the 8^th grade History of the Revolution section, the proposed curriculum removes the instruction to "describe how religion contributed to the growth of representative government in the American colonies." In the High School requirements for teaching History Since Reconstruction, the new curriculum adds political groups that have been influential, like NAACP, LULAC, NOW.  But it makes no mention of the Christian and conservative groups like Christian Coalition, Family Research Council or the Heritage Foundation.

 A modern Texas historian wrote "The ultimate goal of teaching history is to make students feel they are part of the story."  No it isn't.  If that were the real goal, these educational change-agents would be failing at their task.  Christian kids compose by far the largest contingent of public school students.  But Christianity's contribution to America's founding and success is being systematically stripped from the curriculum.

 Concerned Texas parents will get Christmas back into the lesson plan.  But that will only be the beginning of the battle.