UPDATE: Please provide written input on the Virginia History SOLs before the March 21st deadline.
March 13th-March 21st, the Virginia Board of Education will host public hearings on the new proposed version of Virginia History Standards of Learning (SOLs) at six locations in Virginia. This is the opportunity for your voice to echo through history about the quality of instruction our children receive in the decades to come.
Despite almost universal condemnation from parents, educators and the community, the revised and revisionist Virginia SOLs are moving forward. The new proposed standards are inadequate, requiring young children to understand developmentally inappropriate concepts. They emphasize a euro-centric history reminiscent of history curricula during Massive Resistance, ignore or minimize the history of our diverse communities, and do not reflect the ancestors of many of our children.
Additionally, over 100 new standards have been added that teachers would have to scramble to cover them all, and would have to resort to requiring rote memorization rather than analytical and skill development. Even more egregious: there are factual errors, omissions of important historical information, and emphasis of political indoctrination over factual historical information.
At a February 2023 meeting, the Board refused to consider the collaborative draft that would have merged the rushed content produced by the Youngkin administration with an August 2022 draft produced from years of work by over 600 professionals, parents, and teachers. The August draft of the revised standards is overwhelmingly preferred by parents and professionals. Right now, they are working with a January 2023 draft with a significant number of controversial changes and omissions.
If you live in Northern Virginia, please plan join 4 Public Education before 6:30pm on Tuesday, March 14th at:
The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon 3200 Mount Vernon Memorial Hwy, Mt Vernon, VA 22121
If you live in another part of the Commonwealth, please contact us for support or contact local organizations in your community to ensure speakers for teaching truth at each of the regional meetings.
If you cannot attend any of the meetings, please provide written comment here.
Finally, if you haven’t already signed the petition Teaching Truth, please do so now. The petition with signatures will be presented during the hearing in Mount Vernon on March 14, 2023.
