ABSTRACT
The earliest local controversy over Man: A Course of Study (MACOS) began in the fall of 1970 after a parent and fundamentalist minister in Lake City, Florida, whose daughter was using MACOS in a sixth-grade class, requested a copy of the materials. After examining the materials, the minister, Reverend Don Glenn of Montrose Baptist Church, denounced MACOS as “hippie-jippie philosophy” that was “sensual in philosophy,” and linked it to “humanism, socialism, gun control, and evolution.” The MACOS program, like most of the materials of the new and newer social studies, centered on asking children to question and explore the meaning of being “human” through a process of inquiry that would both respect their intelligence and help them learn to think for themselves. During 1974 and early 1975, opposition to MACOS continued to spread, led by a loosely organized group of ultra-conservative critics who were steadfastly opposed to the MACOS course and other materials that they viewed as undermining traditional education.
