AUSTIN – Neil Armstrong, Daniel Boone, the state capitals – and even Christmas. All are going back into the state curriculum standards for social studies, State Board of Education members decided Thursday.

Meeting with several writing teams for social studies in all grade levels, the board asked for several revisions in the first drafts laying out the new standards for history, government and other social studies courses in Texas schools.

Many of the requested changes were for historical figures who were deleted from the standards by the writing teams because they were no longer considered as relevant or to make room for individuals who were added.

When some board members questioned why former Secretary of State and four-star Gen. Colin Powell was being dropped from the standards for elementary grades, they were told that former President Ronald Reagan was being substituted for Powell. That ended the questions.

Marci Deal, social studies coordinator in the Hurst-Euless-Bedford school district, quickly cooled off one controversy that erupted when the writing team for sixth grade initially recommended that Christmas be dropped from a list of holidays of the major religions in a world cultures and geography course.

"My mother called and asked me, 'What happened to Christmas?' " Deal told the board, referring to the negative reaction to the writing team's proposal.

She explained that the panel initially thought they would consolidate the list to one holiday for each religion, with Easter being chosen for Christianity.

"Christmas and Rosh Hashanah have been and always will be important religious holidays within their respective faiths and will continue to be covered in sixth-grade social studies curriculum," Deal said, adding that it was never the intent of the writing team that discussion of Christmas in those classes be eliminated.

"At our next meeting [in October], we will add to the document all important religious holidays and observances of every major religion," she said.

State board Chairwoman Gail Lowe, R-Lampasas, asked another writing team why elementary school students were not being required to learn state capitals in geography classes. Team members agreed to consider the request after other board members voiced support for the idea.

Another board member, citing her own experiences in elementary school, called on one writing team to include the Liberty Bell as a historical artifact that should be studied by students.

Earlier, board members heard reports from a panel of six experts appointed to review the curriculum standards.

Two of those experts, evangelical minister Peter Marshall of Massachusetts and Wallbuilders president David Barton of Aledo, were asked about their earlier recommendations to drop labor leader César Chávez and former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first black member of the court, from the standards.

Both backed away from their original recommendations, which minority groups decried. They said their intent was to get more historical figures into the standards.