RALEIGH, N.C. — When North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson spoke on education at a round-table event Tuesday night in downtown Durham, he didn’t publicly broach a topic likely to have been on many attendees’ minds: a call in his upcoming book for eliminating science and history from the first- through fifth-grade curriculum and shuttering the State Board of Education.
In the book, set to be published Sept. 13, Robinson writes that schools should “demand proficiency in reading, writing and math in grades one through five. In those grades, we don’t need to be teaching social studies. We don’t need to be teaching science. We surely don’t need to talk about equity and social justice.”
Following the public panel, The News & Observer asked him about that stance. Robinson said he didn’t want to discuss the book at the event and that he or his representatives would talk separately. But shortly afterward, in comments to WNCN-TV at the event, he appeared to backtrack from at least one statement in the book. He told the station he was not saying that science, at least, should be eliminated from the curriculum, but instead that efficiency in reading and mathematics should be the priority.
