The new standards in school curricula

For those who accept the truth that has been proven on countless occasions regarding the legitimacy of the 2020 election, prepare to encounter an illogical resistance to facts and the propagation of ludicrous conspiracy theories by Oklahoma public school students.

Because of state Superintendent Ryan Walters and an insecure and fragile Republican-dominated state Legislature, students will now be indoctrinated with the absurd repudiation of an election free from interference that did not re-elect a reckless, overwhelmingly unpopular and woefully unqualified president.

Oklahoma’s vainglorious superintendent has penned new social studies standards that reflect the aberrant petulance of the GOP’s distorted conservatism, which has now been sanctioned by feckless legislators who have willingly surrendered to MAGA subjugation.

The controversial social studies standards, which mandate that public schools teach biblical content and suggestions of “discrepancies” in the 2020 presidential election, required legislators to take action this week to call for further review of the standards by the state school board. Yet, despite a push by Democratic lawmakers and a handful of conscientious Republicans, the topic infused with election-denial language was never brought to a vote, which meant that the standards were automatically added to school curricula.

As reported by Oklahoma Voice, the nonprofit news organization that provides nonpartisan reporting, some of the changes include the addition of language stating there were “discrepancies” in 2020 election results, including “sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states, sudden batch dumps, an unforeseen record number of voters and the unprecedented contradiction of‘ ‘bellwether county’ trends.”

Walters contends that he added new language to the standards after receiving input from the public and from focus groups. In addition, the superintendent involved national right-wing media personalities and conservative policy advocates to craft the social studies standards. Far-right-wing groups, including Moms for Liberty Oklahoma, also gave their support for Walters’ proposal as “strong, conservative, pro-American standards.” Those groups went on to threaten Republican congressional seats if GOP legislators dared contest the social studies standards.

Walters claims the new content wasn’t intended to support or deny the results of the 2020 presidential election, but rather to encourage students to draw their own conclusions.

Walters introduced the new standards in December 2024, and the proposed changes drew controversy over the inclusion of references to biblical stories and the teachings of Jesus. The standards were then approved by the state board of education in February, and were then sent to the Legislature for review and any action. Following a public comment period, some changes were made to the standards, but the school board was not informed of the changes prior to the February vote.

Board members received the final draft of the standards at 4 p.m. the day before the 9:30 a.m. meeting to vote on the proposal, according to email records from the state Education Department. One member, who cast the only vote against the standards, said he didn’t have enough time to read the 400-page document.

Although Walters claims his office “engaged in a thoughtful, transparent process” in devising reforms that “will reset our classrooms back to educating our children without liberal indoctrination,” Democratic leaders in both the House and Senate have called the new standards “dangerous for kids” and an “extremist political agenda.” “Because no action has been taken by Republican legislative leaders, the voices of Oklahomans — across the state and party lines — who have been urging us to disapprove these problematic, and costly, social studies standards have gone unheard,” says House Minority Leader and candidate for governor Cyndi Munson, D-Oklahoma City.

As old-timers would say, back in my day social studies classes in Oklahoma focused more on interdisciplinary approaches and an emphasis on connecting learning to real-world issues, such as the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission, the Watergate scandal and the Roe v. Wade debate. As a whole, social studies of yesteryear promoted civic engagement and a broader understanding of society, often incorporating elements of understanding the world around us, learning about financial systems and markets, and studying human behavior, social structures, the ideals of citizenship and the role of women and minorities in American society.

Social studies stress the important ideas, events and people that affect students’ lives and serve as a foundation for their role as citizens. By promoting “discrepancies” in the 2020 election, it fosters a rebuke of thoroughly investigated and overwhelmingly substantiated findings that there were no discrepancies or tampering with the 2020 election. By including such debunked conspiracies in school curriculum so as to “encourage students to draw their own conclusions,” the new standards advocate the unfounded grievances of a dogmatic administration that refuses to accept the will of the voters and the democratic process that is the foundation of the U.S. Constitution.

Social studies, as the subject was prior to Walters’ perverted genuflecting to the MAGA deviance and myopic view of its own self-aggrandizing, became a classroom staple in 1916. At its genesis, the subject sought to create a unified approach for a broader understanding of human relationships and societies, as well as helping students embrace social, cultural, intellectual and emotional perspectives that shape people’s lives and actions. And this was done without steering students toward an authoritarian perversion of our nation’s foundational principle that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.