Welcome And Today’s Big Topic

SPEAKER_03 0:07

You find your way to the Intersection of Faith and Culture. It's the Wall Builder Show, taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. And the hot topic we're taking on today is picking up where we left off yesterday with Julie Pickering on the State Board of Education. The topic, of course, our textbooks, our reading list, what are the kids in America actually learning in the classroom, specifically in Texas, but it impacts everyone else. Rick Green here with David Barton. Tim's not with us today. Well, he is. He's with David all over Washington, D.C., and I couldn't pull them both away. We've got pastors in from all over the country yesterday giving tours of monuments and all kinds of other cool things. Got a bunch of congressmen going in and briefing them. And actually, before we get to Julie, David, you've been doing these pastors' briefings for what, 20, 25 years now, where you take pastors to D.C. and they actually get to do a late-night tour of the Capitol. They get to hear from all kinds of amazing members of Congress that they don't ever see on TV. These are godly men and women serving. It's a fantastic experience for pastors. Give us a little bit about that before we go to Julie.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

Yeah, it is a great experience, Rick, and there's a lot of stuff uh that they get to see behind the scenes. Too many people, if you ask them to name congressmen that they know, they're going to name five or six that's in on TV, and that's about as far as it goes. Well, there's 435 here. And there are a ton of people who are really grounded, uh constitutionally grounded, biblically grounded in so many areas that you just never see on the news. And it is so encouraging to be able to come up here and we'll have probably a dozen congressmen speak to them one at a time, and we don't tell the congressmen what to say or ask them what to say. They just come out and share, hey, here's what's going on now, or here's my heart, or here's something really big you need to know about. And it just always blows these pastors away to see behind the curtain of what's going on and not to have to have it filtered by mainstream media. And so it is a it's an inspiring time. And when you get to walk into the Capitol after night without the 10,000 visitors a day that's there, and we get to go through the various rooms because congressmen will will allow us to go in there and we can show the artifacts that happened in the the artifacts of things that happened in that room historically to 200 years ago, 150 years ago, whatever, it's just transformational. So it it really is quite an opportunity for these pastors for sure.

How Often Textbooks Get Rewritten

SPEAKER_03 2:17

Well, this one obviously already happening, but we do another one in September, I think it is, but the dates are on the website at wallbuilders.com. Go to wallbuilders.com and uh and start telling your pastor about it now so they can start planning for the fall. I I promise you, for for your pastor and their spouse, it's a it's it's an incredible, incredible trip. Um, David, so so yesterday we we kind of we talked about how the State Board of Education works, the fact that you're on the one of these re teams that's helping to create the uh the standards, and then the board that actually votes on approval of that are just those 15 members, and you talked about how many people they represent. It's crazy and how little how hard it is for them to raise money and and down ballot races. This is one of the reasons it's so important. And then Julie told us a little bit about how this has kind of unfolded and the process that they go through. Um so if anybody missed that yesterday, it's available on our website right now, wobbleers.show. You can get both yesterday and today's program right there at wobblers.show. And and David, we'll pick up with Julie's interview when we come back from the break. But before that, just kind of remind us I mean, this is this is an arduous project. I mean, this this takes time to just do these curriculum designs. And whatever gets done at the end of the day here, I guess what that holds for about what, 10, 15 years? That'll be the textbooks for Texas and the and the states that follow our lead.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

Yeah, I I did this in 1998, then I was asked to do it again in 20 uh 12, and I've been asked to do it again in 2026. So basically about every 14 years is what it now they can do it more often than that if they want to. Uh, they can do it every five to seven years if they call that, but they tend to let it go because it costs tens of millions to produce these textbooks, and they're not trying to do new things all the time, especially in history. That much history doesn't change. It's only the new stuff that changes, and so you add a couple chapters to the end of the book, and you don't need to do that every year. So it's but that's almost a generation, right?

Why Texas Standards Affect Every State

SPEAKER_03 4:04

I mean, that's it is I guess a generation is really 20 or 25. But think about it, school is K through 12, right? So it's 12, you know, or even a couple of years of junior college, 14 years. So you're really almost like every generation. It is. So we could be impacting an entire generation here with what happens.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

That's exactly what's going to happen because in in the reading list, we've gone back to reading lists that you would have seen in the eight, early 1800s, late 1800s. Uh, it's gonna be more traditional, more classics. It's not gonna be the feel-good um kind of warm, fuzzy DEI progressive stuff. It's going back to classics that were in literature, classics that were in the Bible. You mentioned yesterday how people say, Well, I I don't want somebody teaching the Bible to my kids. Listen, teaching the Bible in school is it's not about doctrine, it's about principles. That's why we teach the story of the Good Samaritan, among other things. All 50 states have a good Samaritan law. It would be really nice if kids knew who the Good Samaritan was, and why all 50 states have a good Samaritan law. Ten Commandments. We're not teaching doctrine. The Ten Commandments have been incorporated into every every one of the Ten Commandments has been incorporated into American federal law and state law. And that's not me saying that, that's the courts saying that. That's in the law books. Why would you not want your kids to learn things like don't steal and don't murder and don't perjure yourself? I mean, these are the things that make good citizens. And for people to be so uninformed to say, well, I don't want somebody saying religion my kids, hey, you're going to have religion in your schools, whether socialistic religion or Marxist religion or atheistic religion or something, why not have some traditional religion that made America great? That's what we're celebrating after 250 years. And so that's what the fight is really over. And it's oftentimes it's uninformed voters that don't know who they're voting for and they just stick somebody on the state board of education. There's big decisions that are made by that state board of education that you may never think about, and you may be shocked when your kids come home from school someday saying crazy stuff that you never taught them and you never raised them to know. And that's because we just don't look at down ballot races. So that's kind of what we talked about yesterday. Looked at the early fights that are going, there's more fights yet to come. And Rick, as many people as you organized and turned out this this last meeting that we had just a few weeks ago, looks like we're gonna have to do it one more time because there's a big battle coming up in in uh last part of June. And some of those guys who voted right this time have already announced that they're gonna vote to reverse everything they just did. So that's the pressure that's put on these guys. And if we're not diligent and stay informed, and even if you're out of state, this matters to you because these textbooks are coming to your state. Texas and California drive what happens in these history textbooks, and you can either have California's view of stuff or Texas' view of stuff, and that's pretty much the choices you're gonna have in your public school. And so this is a battle that matters for everybody in the nation.

SPEAKER_03 6:54

Yeah, it's huge, man. There's a lot at stake here. And like you said, despite the victory, you know, a week or two ago and the number of people that went down to testify, man, we just need to bring that on and maybe double in uh in June. So we're gonna take a quick break. When we come back, we'll pick up with our interview with Julie Picker from the State Board of Education in Texas. You're listening to the Wall Builder Show.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

This is Tim Barton from Wall Builders with another moment from American history. America is a special and unique nation. The average length for a constitution in other countries is only 17 years. But we've had ours for over two centuries, and our 4% of the world's population produces 24% of the world's gross domestic product, and every year we produce more inventions and technology than the other 96% of the world combined. In 1831, Alexei de Tocqueville of France came to America, traveled the country, and in his famous book, Democracy in America, reported, the position of the Americans is therefore quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one. This is the origin of the phrase American exceptionalism, and affirms that America is unique because of the distinctive ideas on which we have been based, including inalienable rights, individualism, limited government, and the importance of religion and morality. For more information about American exceptionalism, go to wallbuilders.com.

SPEAKER_03 8:18

Welcome back to the Wall Builder Show. Thanks for staying with us. We're going to dive right back into the interview with Julie Picker from the State Board of Education. If you missed the first part of the interview, we aired that yesterday. It's available at our website right now, wallbuilders.show. Let's jump back in with Julie Pickering.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

We have a lot of great homeschool moms that really, I mean, if you want to talk to somebody who really knows education and who really understands what's needed and standards, talk to a homeschool mom. I mean, these these moms, they are really well educated and they have done the deep dive on education on what's best for their children. And then also they have a lot to contribute to the state of Texas. So I was very happy to put some homeschool moms and those work groups as well as senior teachers.

SPEAKER_03 9:01

Um That's good because they should have some influence on that. Yeah, absolutely.

Restoring Founding Faith And Civics

SPEAKER_01 9:05

Absolutely. They're taxpayers, they're paying taxes, and and they may not choose to send their children to public school, but they're still paying taxes for their local public schools and for the state of Texas and still have a vested interest and uh great citizens being produced in the state of Texas. So yes, I just I was so happy that I had really great applicants. I could put people anywhere from um uh uh people who serve in our regional and our education service centers and our regional education service centers who maybe are retired out of the classroom but have, you know, 25, 30 years experience with social studies, the teachers who are actually in the classroom and who are teaching social studies, to homeschool moms who do a lot of research to make sure that their children receive the best education and want to contribute to Texas public education and to, you know, curriculum experts that um applied. So really a great, a great um across the board representation of people that truly care about social studies. So then everything moved over to the work groups and the work groups they took in the advice of the content experts. So the content experts uh were uh participated at those work group sessions. They made themselves available uh mostly in person at the work group sessions. And the work group, as the work groups had questions for the content advisors, they were there to help them out and assist them on, you know, uh what they were thinking on topics and themes or framework that we had adopted. Now, mind you, by the time the content advisors get to the work groups, to advising the work groups, the topics and themes have already been approved by the Texas State Board of Education and the framework has been approved by the Texas State Board of Education. So the content advisors are not advising the work groups on anything that has not already been approved by the board. Okay. So then they're all kind of working together, uh developing standards. Um, the the work groups who are predominantly teachers, they have, you know, their input on what they're recommending. And also during this time, the Texas Education Agency has sent out a survey to all the teachers across Texas, social studies teachers and government and civics, kindergarten through 12th grade, um, social studies teachers across Texas, where we receive back, or Texas Education Agency received back more than 5,000 responses. So this is a lot of teachers taking time out of their day to respond on what do they want in social studies? So more than 5,000 responses. The overwhelming consensus was our current social study standards are too generalized. Teachers don't understand well, what does a mastery of that teak look like? Whenever you test me in star testing or whatever's going to replace star testing, the standardized assess assessment, what does mastery look like? Because we don't understand what mastery is because the teak is too general. So overwhelmingly, they said we need standards, we need taks that are more specific. So then we come back to uh so then we come back to the work groups where they started uh revising standards um and um uh putting standards together to breathe the Texas State Board of Education. And so that is the standards that were that were presented to us at our April meeting that was that originated with a framework that was Texas State Board of Education adopted. Then the content advisors advised us on what they thought would be good uh themes and topics. We amended that. We passed a the Texas State Board of Education passed a themes and topics uh subset to the framework. Then that went to the then that went to the work groups. The work groups drilled down with content advisors help to create standards for every subject, kindergarten through twelfth grade social studies. So think about kindergarten through fifth grade social studies, then you get into junior high, you get US history, Texas history, um, you get world history, world geography, personal financial literacy literacy, economics, uh government. There's there are so many courses inside of this kindergarten through 12th grade space. And so they brought in standards for all of those courses, at which time in the April meeting, we went through all of those standards, made amendments, made changes, um, and really passed on first reading in April a fantastic kindergarten through 12th grade social studies product. Now, is it perfect? Um, no. And in the world of education, there's no such thing as perfect in the world of business. I'm gonna change my business background. We always say that perfect is the enemy of done, right? You could forever go on making it perfect. But this is just truly an exceptional product that has never been done in Texas or has been done as far as I know in America in the last 60 years, because for the first time we put amendments in there where we are teaching the Black Robe Regiment. You know, fourth grade, I put an amendment in there to introduce the Black Robe Regiment in the elementary, and then I came back with an amendment in uh junior high to teach what is the Black Robe Regiment. Because, you know, you cannot understand the Declaration of Independence unless you understand the sermons from the Black Robe Regiment, because each of those grievances, each of that list and the declaration of independence came directly from a sermon from a Black Robe Regiment pastor that had been preaching that up to 20 years before the Declaration of Independence. And even England recognized the importance of our Black Robe Regiment pastors on the founding of America, because even England said it is the thunder from the pulpits of the churches in America that is lighting the fire of freedom. And so when you even have England recognizing the importance of it and that we can directly tie the grievances in the Declaration of Independence to Black Robe Regiment sermons, our students should know that. They should understand, well, where do these ideas come from? Where did these grievances come from? You really need to understand the why. Because if you don't understand the why, if you don't understand 120 church members being persecuted because they wouldn't bow to a king in England who risked everything, that risked their lives, that risked everything to get on a boat to come to America to hope for to establish a new world based on the word of God. You don't understand the faith and you don't understand the why, on why the pilgrims at Plymouth did what they did. You don't understand, you know, you can't get to understanding what makes America so exceptional and that we are founded on Judeo-Christian values. So that's that was my main intent. I think I offered up over 20 amendments that passed um at our meeting in April to the social studies to really put in insert, you know, patriotism and founding documents and the why. What makes America the noblest experiment ever, and what makes us the greatest nation in the history of the world, and what makes Texas the greatest state and the greatest nation.

SPEAKER_03 15:54

So, Julie, what happens next? You guys are going to meet again in July. Will this get taken up again?

The June Showdown Over Substitutions

SPEAKER_01 15:59

Yes, Rick. So in and we'll take it up the last week of June, and we will take up the second reading and final adoption of the social studies standards, all the standards, kindergarten through twelfth grade. But that is going to be a uh contentious meeting because we already have the Democrat members of the Texas State Board of Education and a few Republican members of the Texas State Board of Education saying that they do not like what we adopted uh for first reading in April uh two weeks ago. So it's gonna be interesting to see what happens. Are they gonna come back with a full substitute document? In other words, the standards written maybe the maybe the woke standards that were written in 2021, 2022. Are they gonna come back with those and try to substitute those in? Which and when you substitute it in, that's a full substitution. That's not amendments. That's saying we're gonna set aside the current adopt the current document that has been approved and substitute in a brand new document to start making amendments on. And the reason why we do not want to substitute amendments is because the standards that we adopted last week or two weeks ago, they are very good standards. They have patriotism, Western civilization, uh uh, the importance of teaches the Judeo-Christian uh influence on edu on uh the founding of America and the founding of Texas, it keeps out the radical Islam, keeps out the Marxist indoctrination, keeps out critical race theory. So we have a very good set of standards right now. But if they come back in June and they want to substitute back in the 21-22 standards, it's gonna be the opposite of that. It's gonna be standards that the foundation is in, you know, a Marxist worldview, critical race theory, very woke standards, very generalized standards, so that anything can be taught to a child.

SPEAKER_03 17:47

So you're you're saying this is, I mean, what we've got right now is a big win. We need a basically an up or down vote in June to keep what you've already got. Exactly. No amendments, no replacement. We want to go with what you guys decided last week or week before last week.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

Yes, exactly. And let me I'll give you a couple of examples of why it's so important that we keep these standards written the way that we write with the way that we approved them in April and not the general life standards that we currently have. So, right now we have a school district in Texas that is teaching that is using the grooming books, okay? Books that should that help children change their gender, LGBTQ plus grooming books in tier one instruction. And when the state questioned the school district about it, they said no, it's compliant because it 100% aligns to your teaks, to your standards. Well, those teaks and standards are so generalized you can make anything align. And kind of we had the same thing. We had a very large school district in Texas that was using um Abram Kendi's the anti the anti-racist, which you know is Marxist propaganda. Okay, it's uh it's a Marxist worldview book that they were using it in all of their high schools as a textbook in ninth grade to teach writing and literature and what have you, the using this Marxist book. And so whenever the state questioned it, again, they came back and said, no, it aligns with 100% of your teaks. So that's why one other reason why we need to come back and we need to adopt the standards that were um finalized on second reading, the standards that were approved for first reading in April, let's get these done, let's get these over the finish line without any major amendments, without any substitutions, so that we can honor what teachers are asking for, to have teaks that are concise so that they understand when they're teaching mastery or not, that follow the law, that have patriotism, Old Testament, New Testament, uh Judeo-Christian values, uh, Western civilization that has all the things that parents and grandparents have been saying that they want in education. Parents and grandparents. Yes, they're over this woke Marxist indoctrination, and we have heard them. We have listened to our constituents, we have read the emails, we have heard them, and that is the fantastic standards that we adopted in April. Now, in June, we need to hold the line and pass them on second reading and final adoption with minimal amendments and no substitutions.

How To Pray And Give Testimony

SPEAKER_03 20:05

Love it, love it. Julie, last question for you. And I know there's a lot of wrangling that goes on behind the scenes and all the politics and that sort of thing. So there's some things you can't tell us, but tell us how to pray. How can our listeners pray for this meeting? And then how should those that are going to be able to come and testify? Will there be testimony at this meeting? I should have asked that question.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

Yes, sir. There will be public testimony again. You know, state law requires that any agenda item that we that we have, we have to allow public testimony. And so I can tell you we're gonna need a lot of public testimony again. We need people to sign up the week before and show up and testify on uh that that June board meeting. It'll probably be around June 22nd, 23rd, 24th. Some one of those three days is gotta be the public testimony on this. But yes, because I can tell you that uh the terrorists literally that care, the Council of American Islamic Relations, they are already, they are already uh training people. They're already holding meetings and mosques around Texas, and they're already training people to come and testify on in June. What is that? Really? So we're gonna need to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_03 21:08

So we need to be ready and we need to be there in even bigger numbers, maybe, than than what we had in April. Um, well, we will certainly get the word out. And as soon as you have that, the the date nailed down for when the testimony will be, let us know. We'll announce that on the show and and uh and let people know. Thank you for leading the way. Thank you for letting us participate with you and uh look forward to getting you back, hopefully with a good new show right after that June meeting. Julie Pickerin, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Yes, sir. Thank you, Rick. God bless you. Pray for us, pray for courage and pray for strength in Jesus' name.

Patriot Academy Leadership Invitation

Multi Generational Stakes And Next Steps

SPEAKER_03 21:36

Amen. Amen. All right, folks. That was Julie Pickerin uh from the State Board of Education catching us up on what's been happening there and the votes and and now what needs to happen in June. And of course, we'll keep you posted as soon as those days uh for testimony are nailed down. We'll be right back. You're listening to the WAP Over Show. Have you noticed the vacuum of Leadership in America. We're looking around for leaders of principle to step up, and too often, no one is there. God is raising up a generation of young leaders with a passion for impacting the world around them. They're crying out for the mentorship and leadership training they need. Patriot Academy was created to meet that need. Patriot Academy graduates now serve in state capitals around America, in the halls of Congress, in business, in the film industry, in the pulpit, in every area of the culture. They're leading effectively and impacting the world around them. Patriot Academy is now expanding across the nation, and now's your chance to experience this life-changing week that trains champions to change the world. Visit Patriotacademy.com for dates and locations. Our core program is still for young leaders, 16 to 25 years old, but we also now have a Citizen Track for Adults. So visit the website today to learn more. Help us fill the void of leadership in America. Join us in training champions to change the world at Patriotacademy.com. Welcome back to the Wallbourder Show. Thanks for staying with us back with David Barton now. And uh, David, man, I mean, uh, like we said at the top of the program, a generational impact. I was thinking it's actually more than a generational impact because what we get in now, it'll be harder to take that out, right? So like it it it even though there'll be a review in tw 10, 12, 14, 15 years, what's already there is hard to remove. So it could be a multi-generational impact from this.

SPEAKER_02 23:25

Yeah, you know, it's interesting because what will happen is the kids who go through this for a generation, as you pointed out, this is gonna last 12, 14 years, but that's a generation of school students. They will get this good content for their entire generational life in that school. The kids that start in kindergarten are gonna get this through graduation. They're gonna go into college and they'll come back and a bunch of them be teachers themselves, but they will have a foundation from which to teach. So this is gonna affect two, three, four generations because you start getting this good stuff back in. And this is the kind of stuff that we were teaching for, you know, 150 years until progressives got it in the nineteen sixties and just set it on its head. So this is this is a a multi-generational impact that we're talking about here. And it's gonna be really, really significant that we can do this. But uh I'm gonna go back to something we talked about before. And but by the way, uh the Bible says that every student when he's fully trained will be like his teacher. And that's why getting the right content to the teachers is so important. Uh because you may have raised your kids right, but we've talked in other programs that over the last twenty years, between eighty-one and eighty-four percent of Christian kids who leave and go to secular universities deny their faith while they're at the university. And that's just not a good stat. You don't want to lose your kids because you send them into a system that's so opposite to what you believe. But this isn't the opportunity to send them into a system that has the the beliefs that have made Americans great for more than two hundred years. And and that's a real turnaround, and that's something that would be refreshing. And to have your kids come out of that and not lose their brains and and not hate their country and and and not hate the founding fathers, and not hate the Constitution, uh, that's going to be something refreshing that we haven't had in a few generations in America.

SPEAKER_03 25:06

Well, and it and it uh it it's the snowball effect too, right? It's like hey, we got in this mess because they started with little gains, and then they got that generation educated, and then they got those voters, and then they helped them get and so it's just a snowball effect over decades and decades of them being involved in this. And so now we begin that pushback in in a in a very serious way. And like you said, you've been doing this since the ninety-eight rewrite. And so we're getting we're beginning to feel a little bit of that snowball effect. You've got members on the board and and and other people in this fight that got involved because they they heard you talking about it and they and they had the positive influence from what you did quite literally 30 years ago, 20 years ago, 10 years ago. So it's it's building, brother. It's building.

SPEAKER_02 25:47

Yeah, and it's it's it's just getting started, too, because this is the snowball is now starting to roll over the edge and go down the hill. It's taken us a while to make the snowball, but now we've got it kind of pushed over the edge. And if we can keep the momentum going, it's gonna be it's gonna have a lot of impact when it hits the bottom of the hill.

SPEAKER_03 26:03

Yeah, and I love this one because it's one that people can feel immediately. They'll see these changes in the textbooks. They're they're getting to hear the testimony and and see the specific curriculum items and the and the TEES requirements. When you see Good Samaritan or any of the other Bible stories, you just know, wow, that's a that's a huge victory that we've got that in the classroom now. So very, very good stuff. Of course, we'll get you know uh somebody back uh as we get closer to the June date and talk about it, or maybe even have more good news to share on a Good News Friday about this particular battle. But we encourage you to take this same fight to your local school board or to your state board of education because this needs to be done in every community and in every state across this great nation. Thanks so much for listening today. You've been listening to the Wall Boar Show.