Wyoming Republican says it's time to start teaching kids 'different views' about slavery

A Republican lawmaker in Wyoming caused a stir this week when he said it was time for students to start learning "different views" about the history of slavery in the United States.

The Casper Star-Tribune reports that Rep. Jeremy Haroldson argued in favor of teaching two sides of slavery during a legislative hearing on a bill that would rewrite Wyoming's public schools curriculum.

"Slavery was something that shouldn't have happened in America, but it did," Haroldson began. "So slavery needs to be discussed... It needs to be brought forward and the different views, that slavery was not maybe what it has been painted in this nation completely."

Haroldson said he wanted to see this more balanced discussion of slavery as part of a broader overhaul of state education that would emphasize teaching the United States Constitution, which he said students in Wyoming seemed to know very little about.

This prompted a colleague, Democratic Rep. Cathy Connolly, to ask him if he knew what the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution was."I would have to look at it right now ma'am," he responded.

"It's the right to vote for women," she said. "And it's not included in your bill. So I'm curious about that."