History educators meeting at Sacramento State this week will likely be discussing a hot topic brewing in Texas.

On Friday and Saturday, the fifth annual California Council for Historical Education conference will be held in the University Union. The conference gives elementary and high school history teachers, college professors, prospective teachers and history buffs the chance to exchange ideas on teaching.

One presentation will cover the recent Texas State School Board controversy, in which the board has been accused of “rewriting history” by giving American History textbooks a conservative spin.

The presentation, called “The Texas Standards Debate and the Historian’s Role…” will be given by University of Northern Colorado History Professor Fritz Fischer.

“He will talk a little about the controversy, and I think what he’s more interested in saying is what historians ought to be doing in these situations, and what role they ought to be playing in this discussion,” said the council’s Executive Director Dale Steiner.

Fischer’s talk will be just one small part of the two day conference. Other presentation topics include “What is Federalism?” and “Urban Order and Natural Resource Use in the Middle Ages.”

Sac State professors Mimi Coughlin and Chloe Burke will be giving presentations. Coughlin will lead a discussion called “Teacher to Teacher,” in which education professionals will share lesson plans and classroom experiences.

Coughlin and Burke will give a talk on using Depression Era travel guides as teaching aids in the classroom. During the Great Depression, out-of-work writers were hired by the government to write travel guides as part of the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal project created by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, said Coughlin.

“This will be the 3rd CCHE conference I’ve attended, and I always enjoy meeting my colleagues and networking. I take away good ideas for teaching, and it’s always inspiring because they have great speakers,” Coughlin said.

Students interested in history, as well as future teachers, are encouraged to attend, Steiner said.

“One thing prospective teachers ought to do is join professional organizations like CCHE, and exchange ideas with other professionals,” said Steiner. “It’s a way of setting prospective teachers onto a pathway that I think will be rewarding as they enter their profession, and enable them to become better teachers.”

For more information, visit www.csuchico.edu/cche/conference.

Ken Paglia can be reached at [email protected].