An
Anniversary That Could Have Been
Forgotten…
This
month marks the 100 years anniversary
of the Wright Brothers historic flight.
There
is much we can learn from their endeavor.
Those two brothers from Dayton, Ohio, challenged
conventional wisdom and reached for the
sky. They put their skills as bicycle mechanics
to use and the sky was the limit.
They
changed the way we look at our world and
reminded us that acting on a dream can open
a galaxy of opportunity. Thanks to them,
what was a century ago an incredulous thought
-- man flying -- is now commonplace.
Their
first flight put Kitty Hawk on the outer
banks of North Carolina on the map…and it
put man in the air. Most of us appreciate
that inventing flight is noteworthy.
Who
among us did not learn about the Wright
brothers in school and read about them in
our textbooks?
However,
that important flight and the pioneer inventors
could slip into oblivion if some history
textbooks submitted for consideration in
Texas had been approved without citizen
input and changes.
Thanks
to an extraordinary citizen -- Bill Ames
from Dallas – Texas school children will
have that important bit of history in their
textbooks. And what textbooks sell in Texas
are likely to be offered across the country
due to the volume of textbooks purchased
by Texas.
The
State Board of Education (SBOE) is responsible
for approving textbooks which then are submitted
to school districts for their selection.
The Permanent School Fund (PSF) provides
the funding for the textbooks.
One
would think the SBOE would have been applauded
for their open process of textbook review
and adoption…a process that shed light on
the exclusion of the Wright Brothers. However,
the SBOE braved the criticism of the liberal
newspaper editorial boards, the ACLU and
education unions who opposed citizen participation
in the textbook review process. Common sense
prevailed and the citizens of Texas will
benefit for the SBOE's leadership in providing
parents and taxpayers with a voice in the
process.
Most
citizens would agree that Texas school children
need to know that two brothers who repaired
bicycles for a living had a vision of flight.
Not only is it an important window into
our history but also their feat serves to
inspire us all and serve as an example of
how ingenuity and perseverance can result
in realizing even the most lofty of dreams.
Today,
Wilbur and Orville Wright are household
names. But what if they were omitted from
textbooks? What if future school children
did not have the opportunity to daydream
of two brothers who challenged the law of
gravity and had the courage to pursue their
dream to fly?
It
would be a great loss to have omitted the
Wright Brothers from the history textbooks.
And thanks to one committed citizen who
spent hours pouring over textbooks, the
Wright Brothers' first flight are in new
textbooks and their dream can inspire future
inventors.
Much
has been written about textbook reviews
and charges were made by some groups that
“conservatives want to censure textbooks.”
Citizens' efforts were recognized in a front-page
story last year in the New York Times. I
was on the Phil Donohue Show – back when
it was still on MSNBC -- to defend citizens'
rights to review textbooks.
Citizens
from across the state demanded that errors,
omissions and bias be corrected. Teacher
unions and big-government advocates tried
to call this censorship. We call it responsible
citizenship.
Middle
and high school students in Texas have new
history and social studies textbooks in
their classrooms. Had these textbooks been
purchased without citizen review, the Wright
Brothers would have been omitted from at
least one prominent publishers' book. And
that would have been wrong to omit the Wrights.
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