Texas textbooks: Revising U.S. history

#1

Last week. the Texas Board of Education, long known for it’s skepticism of teaching evolution, approved a new curriculum that firmly puts a “conservative stamp” on American history. Henceforth, textbooks will say that America is an “exceptional nation” founded on explicitely Christian values with a “republican” (not democratic) system of government and a “free-enterprise system” (not capitalism - too pejorative). The seperationof church and state, textbooks say, is not part of the Constitution. In more recent history, textbooks will teach that Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society had “unintended consequences,” and will celebrate the impact of the Reagan revolution, anti-feminist Phyllis Schafly, the Moral Majority, and the National Rifle Association.

-New York Times

one of the bigger things being excised from textbook is Thomas Jefferson, for his secular influence

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/24/AR2010032402929.html

https://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/03/16/right-wingers-write-jefferson-out-of-texas-schoolbooks/

I’m curious what people’s views are on this, particularly those in Texas. So yeah, discuss.

#2

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

#3

So I guess it’s good I don’t live in Texas anymore?

#4

Dumb people teaching other people how to get dumber with dumb things.

But seriously, what the fuck.

#5

Kinda old news but this pisses me off all over again.

#6

#7

You see, this is what I was worried about.
I’m fine with religion so long as you keep it in your pants. But THIS is bullshit!
Goddamn idiots, making our children stupider.

#8

inserting conservative politics into grade school textbooks has got very little to do with religion last time I checked, insofar as free-market fundamentalism can be considered not to be a religion.

But hey, we all know reality has a liberal bias, so naturally the only way to be fair and balanced is to give kids textbooks a conservative bias.

#9

everything’s bigger in Texas… with the sole exception of non-biased school literature

#10

Guess what, this has been happening for years…

#11

What’s even worse is some of the arguements in defense of the law, like Chuck Norris’s column in WorldNetDaily.

#12

I know. And it pisses me off.

#13

What? Religeous idiots trying to indoctrinate children in my State? Who would have thought?

In all seriousness though, this is why we have actual experts dictate how to do things, not elected representatives. I want to meet the guy who decided that electing the education board with no historians anywhere near it was a good idea, just so I can shove him off a cliff.

BTW, mattemuse, the biggest issue here is the complete rejection of the separation of church and state. It can be expected that conservatives would emphasize conservative politics, but I honestly am surprised that they would go so far as to remove separation of church and state.

#14

The biggest issue with it on this forum is church and state, but if you read both of the links in the OP, they are framing it as a political issue rather than a religious one.

Washington post: “Historians criticize proposed textbook changes as ‘partisan’”

#15

Its my opinion that the Church and State thing is more important, because it is one of the most important institutions we have. The romanticizing of modern conservatism will undoubtedly be matched by the natural liberal bias of many teachers (most public school history teachers I have had have been democrats, and I live in Texas), so I’m less concerned about that.

#16

I’m sorry, JohnKiller, but I’m sigging this.

My view here is that there should be a system of checks and balances on what goes into textbooks to ensure our children aren’t taught things like the Gettysburg Address being where Lincoln lived, Aristotle wasn’t a Belgian, the principle of Buddhism is not “every man for himself”, and the London Underground is not a political movement.

Those are mistakes. I looked them up. And they shouldn’t be in our children’s textbooks.

#17

Why be sorry?
Spread the word!

#18

The key here, as I said, is experts. If we got 12 experts in there to choose the text book, all of them well respected, it wouldn’t matter if they were conservative or liberal as they would be able to keep personal bias to a minimum and just go to the facts. This really is the largest failure of our democracy I have ever seen.

#19

It’s been going on for a long time, though. I remember a court case long ago, Scopes vs. Tennessee (152 Tenn. 424, 278 S.W. 57 (Tenn. 1925)) which tested the Butler Act, which stated:

Scopes was brought to trial in the state of Tennessee for violating this Act in a trial that became later known as the “Scopes Monkey Trial” and several movies were inspired from that case.

This shit’s been going on for a long time. :rage:

#20

“God bless Amurricuh”

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