No, Virginia - These guys had pretty much gone the way of the
DoDo Bird by the 15th Century... This one first surfaced in
October, when a controversy erupted due to a claim in a History
Text used in Virginia 5th Grade Elementary Schools contained the
assertion that “thousands of black soldiers served in the
confederate army”, and that black soldiers fought under
Stonewall Jackson… Neither of which is in the least bit true.
Turns out the person who writes History Texts for Five Ponds
Press, the company which has a lock on Virginia textbooks –
isn’t a Historian. And Five Ponds Press doesn’t have their
textbooks vetted by professionals prior to publication, with
History Texts written by Joy Masoff. How did Five Ponds get a
lock on the Commonwealth’s textbooks? (Yes, Virginia is one of
two Commonwealths in America! Extra points if you remember 10th
Grade US History and the other one.) It doesn’t appear to be
anything nefarious. Virginia has a policy favoring small
publishers. Second, Five Ponds reacted quickly in