EXCLUSIVE: Oklahoma’s 2025 school-year curriculum will look markedly different after major adjustments are made to eschew "woke garbage" while making sure students learn all aspects of complex figures like Thomas Jefferson and Donald Trump, and issues like the BLM and Capitol riots.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters said Wednesday his state is "taking the lead" on a "direct rejection" of politicizing influences on the curriculum like teachers' unions and activist educators.
"What we are not going to allow is these radical teachers' unions to push lies in the classroom. That's not how we're going to teach."
Walters said school curricula are set every six years, and that he plans to hold schools accountable by withholding accreditation from any institutions that don’t follow suit.
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He suggested the new rules are an extension of Oklahoma’s previous push to return the Bible to the classroom as an "important historical document" that shaped America’s founding – in that it is important to similarly give students a fuller perspective on landmark events and figures throughout the rest of U.S. history.
"We are driving out this woke indoctrination and woke nonsense that has been injected into the classroom by undermining Republican presidents and American exceptionalism," he said.
"So our kids are going to know America is a great country. They're not going to be taught to hate this country. They're going to be taught to love this country and a patriotism to come from the principles that our country was founded in our history."
Giving the example of former President Ronald Reagan in the last generation’s education, and how some curricula focused more on shortcomings during Iran-Contra and Col. Oliver North's hearings, Walters said he will not tolerate educators "maligning" President-elect Trump in the same way.
"You're not going to come in and teach President Trump wanted an insurrection on Jan. 6 [2021]. We're not going to allow it. We will be crystal clear on what President Trump's victories were in the White House," he said.
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Similarly, the new curriculum will take a broader look at Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and the repercussions of coronavirus lockdowns.
He cited a recent clip he saw of a student stating that the only thing they knew about Thomas Jefferson was that he was a slaveholder, and did not know he was a president or the primary author of the Declaration of Independence.
"And so we will drive these lies out of the classrooms and get back to an understanding of American greatness throughout our history," he said, noting that Oklahoma will teach "the good with the bad."
Walters was asked how the curriculum would teach COVID-19 lockdown history, given how states like Pennsylvania, New York and Hawaii were confident their zero-tolerance edicts were the right response, just as much as Florida believed its less restrictive response was right.
"I don't care to appease the left or make them happy. We're going to teach facts. We're going to stick to accurate history here. And they can be offended by that," Walters said.
"It is not debatable. Rights were taken from individuals during COVID. That's not debatable. It's also not debatable that lockdowns hurt kids. Lockdowns hurt families and businesses," he said, adding that current curriculum often glosses over that argument and offers only a more proverbially-northeastern view of the COVID years.
"We are ultimately going to let [students] come to their own conclusions," Walters said of the curriculum writ-large.
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U.S. history is strewn with successes and failures on all sides, he said, adding that the most responsible way to prepare the next generation to lead the country is to instill in them the widest view of its history and law possible.
"The left wants to browbeat kids into believing to hate their country, while conservatives, we just want history taught, and show that America is the greatest country in the history of the world."
"It will show you what policies work, what policies don't work. A kid should come to their own conclusions. That’s why every state has to look at their [civics curriculum] standards."
Fox News Digital also reached out to union leader Randi Weingarten via the AFT for comment on the general tenor of partially blaming teachers unions for purportedly slanted curricula.
