Some fear new curriculum has state history taking a back seat

Historians are criticizing Arkansas' new social studies curriculum, claiming that it will water down the study of Arkansas history at the elementary level and leave high school students studying it with seventh-grade textbooks.

Schools must start using the new curriculum when the 2007-08 school year begins in August.

"I'm just astonished and appalled," said Jeannie Whayne, chairman of the history department at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. "It's a devastating blow to Arkansas history." The Arkansas Curriculum Frameworks define what students must know in major subject areas such as math, English and science.