Texas’ New Mandatory Reading List K-6
Good morning, afternoon, or whenever you read this.
My state is once again failing Texas students. This conflict of curriculum set by the State Board of Education has been ongoing. It has officially passed, meaning that, barring some kind of intervention, this will be in public classrooms with a target date of 2030. There are two major changes: the mandatory reading list by grade level and the K-12 Social Studies TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills). I plan to write about both, but my topic for today is the mandatory reading list. You can check out the official documentation here (which is still being updated) or check out the Houston Chronicle’s list here.
The deliberations took hours, with supporters for the changes claiming the new mandatory reading list projects Texas and American exceptionalism, will keep American children from hating America, and promote a shared culture. Opponents claim the mandatory reading list and new TEKS severely reduce diversity in terms of race, religion, and gender. Texas, it should be noted, is a minority majority state.
I won’t fine-tooth comb each choice, but I will say some general thoughts. I should also mention: Not every entry on the list is bad. There are some legitimately good choices.
I had intended to cover all of the grades in this post, but decided to split it into K-6 and 7-12 to keep the post manageable.
Kindergarten
A fairly common complaint from the proceedings was that the amount of mandatory reading left little room for local decision making, and didn’t always see eye to eye with the TEKS as laid out. There are some good pieces of folklore here, but aside from a few entries, they are overwhelmingly drawn from European tradition.
One interesting thing is that while Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti by Gerald McDermott was originally on the mandatory reading list draft, it was removed in the updated version. Funny how a story from West African folklore seems to have been the only one cut at this level. Hm! Keep that in mind. Langston Hughes is on the list.
There is another thing of note here: many of the stories come from The Children’s Book of Virtues, which was assembled and edited by neoconservative and Reagan administration alum William J. Bennett, as pointed out by Tiffany Perkinz on her substack.
Historical figures as topics include George Washington and Thomas Edison.
First Grade
There’s some interesting things here. This is our first entry of a historical figure from A Book of Americans, a book of poems from 1933. Historical figures at this level include Abraham Lincoln, Daniel Boone (the excerpt from A Book of Americans), Davy Crockett, Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglass, and Pocahontas. Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett are both heavily associated with imperialism of the ‘western frontier’. The Pocahontas entry was originally also from A Book of Americans but it was changed.
Again, a reading list heavily dominated by white men, aside from a few tokens. And frontier mythology, which dehumanizes indigenous Americans. Also, why are we pulling from a publication from 1933?
One discrepancy: while the Houston Chronicle says Jonah and the Whale is at this grade level, other sources say Noah’s Ark was at this grade level, but it was apparently cut according to SBOE’s list of changes.
Second Grade
Another three entries by William J. Bennett: the story of David and Goliath from his anthology The Children’s Book of Heroes; Try, Try Again from his The Children’s Book of Virtues; and The Legend of Dipper, also from The Children’s Book of Virtues. This is a lot of writings by the same conservative author, all published in the 1990s.
Historical figures at this grade level include James Madison, Harriet Tubman, and Susan B. Anthony, Overall, a fairly strong selection of diverse figures in US History. There’s also some great pieces of American folklore such as American kaiju Paul Bunyan, and John Henry. There’s several choices about tolerance and celebrating differences as well, such as Teammates by Peter Golenbock, Stellaluna by Jannell Cannon, The Thanksgiving Story and The Courage of Sarah Noble both by Alice Dalgliesh. These latter two, however, do involve Native Americans but from the perspective of white settlers. What’s more, while good for the time, they were both from the 1950s.
Actually, this is a common theme: all of these books are old. That’s not to say that old books are bad - but it feels like the people who assembled this list haven’t read any children’s literature since they had kids, which is an interesting choice if you’re deciding curriculum.
Third Grade
Watch out, more poems from the fucking Great Depression coming through. A Book of Americans is on this grade level three times, telling us about Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington. There’s also some more classics from Western literature such as King Midas, The Fisherman and his Wife, and tons of Aesop’s Fables. We have some more diversity of characters with Too Many Tamales, and Tomas and the Library Lady. In addition to the biographical studies from A Book of Americans, we also see Benjamin Franklin and Archimedes. Pretty much every historical profile is a man. Not that these men are not worthy of study, but why are women’s contributions to science not being celebrated?
Also, before I forget: Daniel and the Lion’s Den is mandatory for this grade level.
Fourth Grade
Fourth grade sees the return of Langston Hughes, and a near dodge of more William J. Bennett, whose excerpt from The Children’s Book of Virtues seems to have been cut. We have more European folklore in the form of King Arthur and Robin Hood. However, we also have Sundiata: Lion King of the Mali for a mixture of African folklore and history and a selection of great female protagonists such as in Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.
There continues to be an emphasis on male figures in history.
The greatest affront here is that students need to crack open their New International Version of the Bible to read The Necessity of Humility from the book of Luke. Humility is an important lesson to teach children, and the passage isn’t bad. The underlying question is why is this tale being taken from the Bible?. It’s not technically preaching the word of Christianity, but the lesson is a great vehicle for preaching. How is that going to impact Muslim or Buddhist students in our schools? There are certainly secular alternatives.
Fifth Grade
We have some primary sources at this grade level, including Patrick Henry’s Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death speech, The Mayflower Compact, and the Declaration of Independence (as a reader for kids) and some American classics, such as Casey at the Bat and Independence Bell. It also has C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, which heavily pushes a Christian message.
There’s a few things however. The Colonization of Texas: Missions and Settlers and A More Perfect Union: The Story of Our Constitution both gloss over some of the worst parts of their subject matter. It’s a crime of omission. The former glosses over Native Americans to focus from the perspective of the colonists, sanitizes the mission system, and doesn’t mention disease. The latter completely omits the 3/5ths compromise and the role of slavery. Neither book examines black or indigenous perspectives.
As far as biographical readings, we have Paul Revere, Sam Houston, Thomas Jefferson, and Davy Crockett. This is one of the worst as far as diversity, with no women to be found, and an irresponsible exclusion of people of color.
Finally, we have to crack open our copy of the New International Version of the Bible and flip over to Exodus 3 for Moses and the Burning Bush, and Exodus 14: The parting of the Red Sea. These two stories are purely about the demonstration of the might of God, and how faith in God will lead to salvation. Similar to Daniel and the Lion’s Den, this is purely a story about how faith in God is rewarded. These tales, needless to say, shouldn’t have a place in a secular classroom outside of mythology, or as an aside to contextualize literature that includes biblical references.
Sixth Grade
Sixth grade in Texas is either treated as the first grade in middle school (6-8), the last grade in elementary school, or part of a special 5/6 school. This reading list is heavily focused on the American Civil War.
Let’s start with primary sources. We have The Gettysburg Address and General Grant’s General Order 108. Honestly, I like reading these for Social Studies not English. Of course, the way they are intending to screw over US History (as I’ll show in the social studies TEKS), they’re not going to have time to do true source analysis. Not well at least. Which really knocks at the reason for so many of the mandatory readings: to restrict freedom of choice in reading material, both for the student and the teachers. General Grant’s word unequivocally fingering slavery as the cause of the Civil War is powerful, and should be taught in the context of this nation’s ongoing conversation about race. But social studies reading is not the same as English reading.
Brief aside: when I still taught 8th Grade US History, we regularly worked with the 8th Grade English team to coordinate our readings and content to support each other. I still think it’s some of our best work, and a testament to what competent teachers can do with the freedom to coordinate our curriculum like the professionals we are.
Continuing with the civil war, we have a few more entries in Abraham Lincoln, A Man of Faith and Courage: Stories of Our Most Admired President, Across Five Aprils, and The Blue and The Gray. Nothing too bad here generally but, again, lack of non-white perspectives. However, dig slightly deeper into the Abraham Lincoln read. It is specifically the chapter ‘Road back to God’ and the entire book is written as Abraham Lincoln’s conviction being driven by God and his faith. While that may be true, the author, Joe Wheeler is huge in Adventist and conservative circles, and he was an editor on the infamous Focus on the Family. Blatant Christian nationalism.
There’s some great naturalist writings here in All The Creatures Great And Small, The White Heron, and The Peace of the Wild Things. The questionable choice here is the author of The Power of the Dog, Rudyard Kipling. Rudyard Kipling was the jingoistic author of The White Man’s Burden. In light of so many other details and dogwhistles within this list, you can’t afford the benefit of the doubt.
Finally, the Bible reading for this grade is Do Not Be Anxious from the Book of Matthew. This is from the English Standard version. Another one about having faith in God. I spoke on this in detail in my fifth grade entry. It’s the same stuff.
Conclusion
This one went on long, but I had so much to say. There is some hope if you disagree with what this is doing for public education and it’s not too late to undo this. These plans won’t get implemented until 2030 and probably won’t drag more states down for a few more years. This is one that, if there is a political realignment or a blue wave, could be averted. But you need to pay attention to your local politics to see who is showing up, because they are steering the ship.
I’ll finish this later this week, probably. I’m off to dissociate for a bit.
Thank you for reading, if you made it this far~