FACEBOOK
TWITTER
History Revised, Teachers Sacked: The Book Wars in Texas and Beyond
* By Luisita Lopez Torregrosa Politics Daily *
It’s been a brawl for years, this education culture war that seems to take on a particularly vicious turn in the heart of Texas. The latest and most important round, a drastic revision of the social studies curriculum standards to put a conservative spin on history and economics textbooks, was given preliminary approval after a series of heated meetings of the Texas Board of Education that didn’t do much to improve the image of the nation’s second largest state as a sometimes small-minded political and educational backwater.
Cartoon by Ben Sargent Click for larger image
In a matter of days last week in Austin, the majority of the 15-member board, insisting they were only trying to offset liberal bias in textbooks, questioned Darwin’s theory of evolution and the constitutional principle of separation of church and state; debated hip-hop and genocide in Darfur; deleted Albert Einstein and Thomas Alva Edison from textbooks; emphasized Christian teachings and fundamentalist values; adopted conservative articles of faith like American exceptionalism; promoted right-wing leaders and organizations like Phyllis Schlafly and the National Rifle Association; and refused to give adequate attention to Hispanic and African American contributions to U.S. and Texas history.
To no one’s surprise, on the final round on Friday, the conservatives pulled a decisive victory, 10-5 — a tally that broke along predictable party lines, Republicans to the right, Democrats to the left. Ethnic minority members stood on the losing side. According to published reports, no experts on the social sciences were consulted. Given the conservative cast of the board, whose members are elected, the changes it has proposed will stand when the final vote is taken in May.
Leaving the meeting, a Democratic board member, Mavis Knight, of Dallas, was fulminating, saying, she could not be a party to “perpetrating this fraud on the students of this state.” It was not a pretty sight. The board will surely become, or has already become, the butt of jokes on late-night shows and “Saturday Night Live.”
Read more at Politics Daily
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=21562
Posted by Bob Higgins on Mar 14 2010, With 0 Reads, Filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
COMMENTS
To post, we ask that you login using Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail in the box below.Don't have a social network account? Register and Login direct with VT and post.
Before you post, read our Comment Policy - Feedback
I ar prod ov my edukation i gott in americun schools!
It alows my to folow the NASCAR races and be abel to predit who will win the Winston Cup!
I only watdh FOX News, since they only tel the turth abut those damned Muzzie luving luberals.
Tel me Im relatd to some ape and i’l beat yor asss into a pulp.
Switch to MSNBC and you will get the truth of what the liberal side feels. That was you can see both side and decide yourself. As far right Fox news is, MSNBC is that much to the left.
please sgt moron,your wrong about the media and if you watch fox for any reason it only proves one thing that you can’t think for yourself and your dumber than a stack of pancakes! to believe any of their corporate sponsered propoganda is a mental condition called authoritarian complex and if you are a veteran(?)you can get help from the social medicene you earned.
The previous writer must know that the conservatives, the real people in the know have access to their God, He speaks to them through the Good Book, which is God’s direct words to us and should be taken literally, every word of it.
It doesn’t matter that our country is supposed to be Free from religious pressure of any kind.
As a former teacher, I can tell you that if these people get their way, there will be no freedom in the school system and the bible will be the only text that is needed.
Just recall how generous and open to freedom our early colonists were; they were noted for being good Christians while they enslaved free black men and exterminated the Indians who happened to be in their way. If it is
WHITE, it is right.
But, they had the word of God to use as a guide in their activities…
I
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by veteranstoday: Veterans Today: History Revised, Teachers Sacked: The Book Wars in Texas and Beyond http://bit.ly/ch2Nmu...
Bob how in the hell can these nut cases do this!what gives them the right to change history and delute the scientific process with voodoo?they’re removing thomas jefferson and replacing him with the likes of john calvin! all these mofo’s really want is a robotic population that is subservient to the multinational corporation! its what i call religo-fascism.but the real crime is the appointment to all colleges and universties are these rightwing hacks that are bankrupting the schools and diverting public funding so that college tution is only affordable for the wealthy.they first cut funding for minorities (because primarily they end up progressive and tend to vote democratic),arts,history,etc and allowing more and more funding from multinational corporations,inessence using the universities as a cheap labor farm for their own research and development turning the institution private in stead of public for all.and if the rearch is favorable the school prospers.and that turns the schools into corporate whoring institutes.its happening all over our country and its just one more story that corporate media will not cover.thanks for your reporting about these unpatriotic religo-fascist bastards destroying the foundation that made this country great.
How soon can we get Texass to seceded from the union? It will raise the average IQ of the US. about 10 points