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Is
the Trend of Trashing Textbooks in Texas Going National?
August 31, 2002
By John F. Borowski
Remember this phrase: “ Texas is clearly one of the most
dominant states in setting textbook adoption standards,” according
to Stephen Driesler, executive director of the American Association
of Publisher’s school division. And this November the Texas
school board inflamed by the anti-environmental science rhetoric
by the likes of Texas Citizens for a Sound Economy and Texas
Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) may bring Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit
451” to life. Recall that “Fahrenheit 451” (the temperature
at which paper bursts into flames) depicts a society where
independent thought is discouraged, wall- to- wall television
and drugs sedate a numb population and “firemen” burn books.
With a nearly $600 million budget for textbook purchases
Texas is second only to California, and the potential for
gutting environmental and social science books to their core
is frightening. With over 200 social and ecological science
books up for the review this November the Republican-dominated
state board of education and their “flat earth friends” at
TPPF look to eviscerate topics such as global warming, acid
rain and rampant population growth from textbooks. And if
the recent past is a mirror of the future, Texas politics
may create a firestorm nation-wide.
This past fall “book nazis” at the TPPF, led by Republican
Senator Phil Gramm’s wife (Wendy) and Peggy Venable, director
of the 48,000 member Texas Citizens for a Sound Economy, put
several environmental textbooks in their “crosshairs.” Environmental
Science: Toward a Sustainable Future, published by Massachusetts-based
publisher Jones and Bartlett was canned due to political “incorrectness.”
Ms. Venable stated, “the textbook focuses on an environmental
crisis that we believe doesn’t exist,” she added, “They go
into detail saying paganism is better for the environment
than Christianity.” Apparently Ms. Venable chooses to ignore
an 8 million square mile ozone hole, a human population that
adds a net increase of almost 200,000 people a day and like
her proud president, believes that the 100-plus countries
attending the “Earth Summit” in South Africa are wasting their
time. Two other books were suspect: Environmental Science:
How the World Works and Your Place in It, by Lebel Enterprises
and Global Science: Energy, Resources, Environment,
by Kendall Hunt Publishing. Instead of standing tall for intellectual
freedom and the noble pursuit of creating an ecologically
literate young citizenry, these books by profit-minded publishers
went “belly-up.” They made changes and mortgaged off their
credibility in the eyes of many in the education field. To
his credit, Michael Stranz, editor-in-chief at Jones and Bartlett
Publishers stood tall and defiant. “If there are errors of
fact, we will make changes, but we will not make changes to
adhere to a political agenda.” Apparently the Jones and Bartlett
text will not been seen in Texas schools and the students
and teachers are the real losers. Nationwide, Lebel and Kendall
Hunt have created a domino effect that bears ominous tidings.
TPPF Education Research Director Chris Patterson gleefully
testified before the State Board of Education on November
8, 2001, and the news was terrifying. She glibly explained
how major publishers, some of the biggest giants in the academic
field, have lined up to be co-conspirators in this attempt
to censor textbooks. Industry giant Holt, Rhinehart and Winston
Publishers were akin to willow trees bending in a hard wind.
“I want to extend my thanks for [TPPF’s] input into this year’s
science textbook adoption process…The review done by your
organization has been a valuable contribution to the overall
process of ensuring the best possible science learning materials
in our schools,” said John Lawyer, Senior Vice President.
Others soon followed: “Texas Public Policy Foundation was
willing to work with all publishers on the textbook review
process to improve the books” — Glencoe, McGraw Hill.
“We have responded to all of TPPF’s comments, including those
classified as inaccuracies, bias or omissions” — Julia
Fellows Osborne, Editorial Director, Prentice Hall.
These “purveyors” of the truth should hold their collective
heads in shame and include an introduction in each book that
outlines their deal with the devil. Emboldened by the success
of their search and destroy mission, TPPF will look to remove
the history from social science books this fall.
If a “Texas Federation of Republican Women’s Issues and Actions
newsletter” is any indication of what the 2002-2003 school
year is going to spawn…look out. Parts read like a noble declaration,
“During the last few months, a small group of people here
in Texas has been fighting valiantly against a dangerous but
very subtle, threat to our nation from within. These Texas
heroes are trying to prevent science textbooks from being
approved by the State Board of Education that are full of
error, unsupported extremist environmental bias and the occasional
anti-American rhetoric.” These folks look to turn America
back to the more bucolic times of racism, McCarthyism and
pure denial of the truth. Along with their friends at TPPF
and Ms. Venable’s “Sound Economy” clan, the Federation has
a list of complaints against social science books:
- “Too many” pictures of minorities in books;
- Slavery is portrayed “too negatively” in history books;
- Women depicted carrying briefcases run counter to their
idea of family values;
- There is an “anti-settler” bias in many books.
Maybe Texas history classes should simply watch John Wayne
movies to learn about those “Indian savages” and “Little Black
Sambo” books could put a happy face on slavery and years of
racial segregation.
No, what this nation faces is a whole sale “white washing”
of environmental data and history. If textbooks are neutered,
by powerful interests how can our children face ecological
challenges and make wise problem solving decisions? Will we
allow our children to ignore the slaughter of over 2 million
Native Americans in less than 100 years? History cannot be
re-written to soothe the conscience of those who scoff at
an American history tarnished by racism and clandestine government
follies. Being able to analyze the past and recognizing errors
by our forefathers makes our nation stronger, not weaker.
We all know that the “curse of man is that he forgets.”
Add to this the growing intrusion of multinationals into
education: forest education by Weyerhaeuser and Project Learning
Tree (a pet timber curricula), ocean health by Exxon and the
non-perils of genetically modified foods by Monsanto and the
dark vision of “Fahrenheit 451” seems possible.
A passage from Mr. Bradbury’s book provides a fine summation
of the situation. “ So now do you see why books are hated
and feared? They show the pores in the face of life. The comfortable
people want only wax moon faces, poreless, hairless, expressionless.
We are living in a time when flowers are trying to live on
flowers, instead of growing on good rain and black loam. Even
fireworks, for all their prettiness, come from the chemistry
of the earth. Yet somehow we think we can grow, feeding flowers
and fireworks, without completing the cycle back to reality.”
We as parents, defenders of the constitution and the vigilant
flame-keepers of the light of democracy must rise to meet
the challenge. Contact Glencoe, McGraw-Hill, Holt, Rinehart
and Winston, Prentice Hall and RonJon Publishing and demand
that they act like elders, not obsequious lapdogs to zealots.
Contact and become familiar with your local board of education
and ask about textbook adoption policies. Newspapers should
be flooded with opinion pieces and “dear editor” pieces urging
Texas school board officials to climb out of their caves of
ignorance and embrace textbooks that encourage free thought
and debate. School boards nationwide should reject the policy
of the giant textbook publishers to accommodate the manipulation
of the truth and knock on the doors of publishers like Jones
and Bartlett or others who stand behind the data they provide…uncensored
and unscripted.
We should follow the words of Alfred Whitney, “Books won’t
stay banned. They won’t burn. Ideas won’t go to jail. In the
long run of history, the censor and inquisitor have always
lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas.”
It is easy to sit back and simply state that, “Texas and
their book heretics can go to hell.” But unless we rise as
a collective group, we may share that fiery destination with
those we so despise. “The hottest places in Hell are reserved
for those who remain neutral in time of great moral crisis,”
Dante Alighieri.
John F. Borowski is a Environmental and Marine Science teacher
in Salem, Oregon. His pieces have appeared in the UTNE
Reader, NY Times, PR Watch, Commondreams,
Counterpunch, Liberal Slant, Forest Voice,
EducationNews.org and Z Magazine.
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