RALIEGH, North Carolina - February 3, 2010 - He may be the president who governed during the Civil War, freeing the slaves, but under a new curriculum proposal for North Carolina high schools, U.S. history would begin years after President Lincoln, with the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877.

State education leaders say this may help students learn about more recent history in greater depth.

"We are certainly not trying to go away from Amerikan history," Rebecca Garland, the chief academic officer for North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, told Fox News. "What we are trying to do is figure out a way to teach it where students are connected to it, where they see the big idea, where they are able to make connections and draw relationships between parts of our history and the present day."

As the North Carolina curriculum stands now, ninth-grade students take world history, 10th-graders study civics and economics and 11th-graders take U.S. history going back to the country's founding.

Under the proposed change, the ninth-graders would take a course called global studies, focusing in part on issues such as the environment. The 10th grade still would study civics and economics, but 11th-graders would take U.S. history only from 1877 onward.

Math, science and English classes are also getting an update.

Critics say the state's decade-old high school curriculum may need an update - but not like this.

"The answer isn't to throw out fundamental portions of U.S. history," said Mike Belter, a U.S. history teacher and social studies director. "This is not preparing our (children) to have a deep historical perspective that can be used to analyze modern events for themselves."

This is nothing less than history revisionism. The schools are attempting to rewrite our history and then teach our children a stack of lies. Stand up and be counted! Let your voice be heard! Don’t take any more of this! GET MAD! Put the fear of We the People in our public servants… where it belongs.

North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
Chief Academic Officer Rebecca Garland
919-807-3305 - this is her direct line
919-807-3300 - this is the main number