The rallying cry for Texas independence was “Remember the Alamo.” Now, a panel advising the State Board of Education on what seventh-graders should learn in their social studies courses, is urging it to delete the label “heroic” about the Alamo’s defenders.

The panel said “heroic” was a “value-charged word.”

In response, Gov. Greg Abbott said, “Stop political correctness in our schools. Of course Texas schoolchildren should be taught that Alamo defenders were ‘Heroic’! I fully expect the State Board of Education to agree. Contact your SBOE Member to complain.”

Stop political correctness in our schools. Of course Texas schoolchildren should be taught that Alamo defenders were ‘Heroic’! I fully expect the State Board of Education to agree. Contact your SBOE Member to complain. ⁦@TXSBOE⁩ #txlege #tcot https://t.co/Ph9oBoBzKF

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) September 6, 2018

Barbara Stevens, president general of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, told Dallas News that understanding what the term, “heroic,” meant is critical to giving Texas history its proper context.

“Words like ‘heroic’ to describe such men are indeed ‘value charged,’ and it is because anything less would be a disservice to their memories,” Stevens said. “To minimize the study of the Republic of Texas is to fail to teach a pivotal portion of the state’s history.”

Current seventh-grade social studies curriculum standards include the “siege of the Alamo and all of the heroic defenders who gave their lives there.” The advisory committee recommended cutting the phrase “and all of the heroic defenders who gave their lives there.”

Recommendations are non-binding.

The Battle of the Alamo (February 23 – March 6, 1836) represents Texas independence. After a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna launched an assault on the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar and killed everyone.

Santa Anna’s cruelty inspired many Texicans—both Texas settlers and others like Davey Crockett from Tenn.—to join the Texican Army.

Led by Gen. Sam Houston, Texican fighters defeated the Mexican Army at the Battle of San Jacinto, on April 21, 1836, marking the state’s independence from Mexico.