One of America’s pioneering filmmakers had nothing to do with Hollywood but nevertheless left his mark on the emerging industry. Oscar Micheaux was a homesteader, who then turned his attention to making movies in the early 1900s. He was a Black man who made movies for Black audiences at a time when they weren’t allowed into mainstream, white-only theaters. And for several pivotal years in the 1920s, he operated out of Roanoke, Virginia.
Home » New radio documentary details curriculum battles in Texas
Published
New radio documentary details curriculum battles in Texas
Share this Article
A new radio documentary from Trey Kay (producer of “The Great Textbook War”) delves into the culture war battles over public school curriculum content in Texas. Listen to The Long Game: Texas’ Ongoing Battle for the Direction of the Classroom on Thursday, Nov. 7 at 9 p.m. on West Virginia Public Radio.
Prior to the broadcast, the public is invited to a listening session and discussion at the University of Charleston on Monday, Nov. 4 at 6:30 p.m. Panelists will include Kay and Dr. Calandra Lockhart, chair of the Education Department at University of Charleston. The presentation will take place in the Erma Byrd Art Gallery located in Riggleman Hall. The public is invited to this free event.
“The story of the Kanawha textbook controversy was an example of where the nation was in the early 1970s regarding culture wars and education,” Kay said. “Texas is a great example of where those battles are today. For more than a half a century, citizens of the Lone Star State have had intense, emotional battles over what children should and should not be taught in public school classrooms. While there have been fights over just about every academic subject, debates over history, evolution, God and country generate the most heat.”
Credit Current.org
/
Trey Kay accepting the duPont-Columbia Silver Baton award for his 2009 radio documentary “The Great Textbook War.” Kay grew up in Charleston, W.Va., and lived through the controversy as a student.
The hour-long Long Game begins with a focus on the recent controversy over an online set of lesson plans widely used in Texas schools. Tea Party parents believed these lessons to be pro-communist, anti-Christian and pro-Islam. Earlier this year, they successfully pushed to remove the lessons from Texas schools. The program then discusses how an unlikely conservative, religious couple created an organization powerful enough to force textbook publishers to alter books. The documentary closes by examining the battle over what science textbooks should teach about evolution in public school classrooms.
“The debate in Texas is something that plays out in communities throughout the nation, and highlights some of the controversy surrounding the new Common Core Curriculum standards,” Kay said. (Common Core Curriculum standards are to be fully implemented nationally by the 2014-15 school year.)
“These are fundamentally different mindsets pitted against one another in deciding how we are to educate the next generation,” Kay says. “Is it possible for Americans to ever agree on ‘common’ essentials to teach the next generation?”
Kay’s documentary The Great Textbook War, a radio report about the 1974 Kanawha Textbook Controversy, was honored with Peabody, Murrow, and DuPont Awards. In addition Kay has contributed numerous reports to national programs, including This American Life, Marketplace, Morning Edition, American RadioWorks, Studio 360 and Frontline. In 2005, Kay shared a Peabody for his contribution to Studio 360’s “American Icons: Moby Dick” program.
Long Game is a project made possible by the Spencer Fellowship for Education Reporting at Columbia University’s School of Journalism with additional funding provided by the Fund for Investigative Journalism, Marist College, the CRC Foundation and Friends of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
WVPB will be screening excerpts of Ken Burns’ recent PBS documentary series "The American Revolution" this week at Marshall. Us & Them host Trey Kay will moderate the event, and he spoke recently with WVPB News Director Eric Douglas about why revisiting the nation’s founding story matters today. Also, a bill to temporarily delay moving a child to homeschooling during an active case of abuse or neglect hit a snag in the Senate on Monday.
Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, expressed his support for the bills, but also urged his colleagues to look towards a complete overhaul of how the state funds schools.
“Around the world it’s just a simple song.” – Mountain Stage theme, composed by Larry Groce.
This week’s broadcast brings you music from all corners of the globe with a Mount...
