In auditorium class, we began by first facing the Stars and Stripes to the left, placing right hand across chest on heart and reciting the pledge of allegiance, then to the left to honor the Texas flag, one state indivisible.
I have been reading about Texas history recently and happened to run across an online book, The History of Texas, which was the official state adopted Texas elementary Texas history text from about 1954 to the early 60s.
The entire book can be read at
http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3212770-The-History-of-Texas-1954-FULL.html
I had insomnia last night and made it through the book pretty much nonstop.I honestly don't remember ever reading from it or having a teacher such as 7th grade homeroom teacher Mrs. Willis force us to memorize any of this stuff. I vaguely remember studying a Texas map that a teacher rolled out from atop the blackboard to see the names and locations of the seven major rivers of Texas.
If it was in fact Mrs. Willis's job to teach us Texas history, the only thing I remember her talking about was the governor's race at the time. I believe Bill Clements was one of the candidates. She read and followed the news about the Texas governor's race kind of like my wife follows Donald Trump. She said it was very important to be a citizen and vote. She was a tall woman with a pock-marked face from, I guess, an early case of acne. She was very smart. I have since regarded my 7th grade homeroom teacher as among the finest specimens of 1950s Texas women who could do anything but had few choices of profession, and teaching was one. She probably knew immediately that this textbook was just a bunch of claptrap.
At the time, this book was apparently not very controversial, though it does make blatant derogatory comments about Indians, colored people and the Yankees who cost the lives during the Civil War of so many Texas boys and also persecuted the true citizens of Texas during Reconstruction, in part by allowing carpetbaggers and scalawags and also by putting negroes into political office and allowing them to vote. We also learn some positive aspects of the service of the Ku Klux Klan after the war. The authors were both jr. high principals; one was a woman. The writing was really fairly good. They did seem to have some ambivalence toward Mexicans and women. Women were very good at holding down the fort and making the menfolk more cultivated.
In 8th grade at Gaston, my American history teacher Mr. Smith was a real bigot when it came to discussing the history of native Americans in the New World. He told one questioning boy that it was very "dangerous" for the boy to question whether some Indians at some times were ill treated. The boy had raised his hand and prefaced his comment that his older brother was in graduate school to become a historian and had made this comment to him about possible ill treatment of Indians. It was "dangerous" talk in Mr. Smith's class. Now that sort of squelched any classroom discussion or questions.When Mr. Smith looked the boy in the eyes and said any more talk like this was "dangerous," I did not know what to think but this this boy was in some very deep shit. Was it going to be lickings, being suspended or expelled and maybe something even worse; was the boy going to get a failing grade for the six weeks and also the entire year's class? I believe Mr. Smith was some kind of officer in the Texas public schools history association.
KERA published last fall an interesting article that surveys many historians today about their impressions of this textbook.
http://keranews.org/post/what-1950s-texas-textbook-can-teach-us-about-todays-textbook-fight
I am still trying to find a copy of my 1950s music class textbook. That was the best.
