![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
acroyearDisputed Va. textbook wasn't reviewed by history experts:
The Virginia committee that approved a textbook that says thousands of African Americans fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War - a claim rejected by most historians - consisted of three elementary school teachers and no specialists in history, a state official said Thursday.
The Virginia Department of Education has long claimed that its textbooks are vetted by review committees "made up of content specialists, teachers and other qualified persons."
That didn't happen with "Our Virginia: Past and Present." Instead, the state chose three teachers to review the book, according to Charles Pyle, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Education.
The teachers ruled that the textbook was "accurate and unbiased," recommending it for distribution this fall to fourth-graders across the state.
Pyle said the state relies on paid volunteers to serve on its textbook review committees, and no content specialists agreed to serve on the fourth-grade social studies committee in 2009, when "Our Virginia" was being reviewed.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-10-22 03:29 pm (UTC)"a textbook that says thousands of African Americans fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War"
I will argue that African Americans did fight for the Confederacy during the Civil War. My old massuese, a black man, does Civil War re-enactment, and fights on the side of the Confederacy because he has documented proof that his great-great-great... grandfather fought and died for the Confederacy, along with other African Americans. This is often left out of history books.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-22 07:13 pm (UTC)http://civilwargazette.wordpress.com/2008/03/13/did-blacks-fight-in-combat-for-the-confederacy/
seems a pretty objective overview.