Norma Gabler, Leader of Crusade on Textbooks, Dies at 84

[RamboLiberal]

Source: NY Times

Norma Gabler, a Texas homemaker who recoiled at material in her children’s textbooks and became the public face of a crusade with her husband to rid schoolbooks of content they considered antifamily, anti-American and anti-God, died on July 22 in Phoenix. She was 84.

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From its origins at the Gablers’ kitchen table in Hawkins, Tex., in 1961 to its incorporation as Educational Research Analysts in 1973, the mom-and-pop textbook-criticism enterprise grew to occupy a prominent niche in the nation’s conservative pantheon. For more than four decades, the couple influenced what children read, not just in Texas but around the country.

The reason was Texas’ power to be a national template; the state board chooses textbooks for the entire state, and of the 20 or so states that choose books statewide, only California is bigger than Texas. It is difficult and costly for publishers to put out multiple editions, so a book rejected by Texas might not be printed at all.

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Why did a history textbook give more space to the French Revolution than to the American Revolution? Were not Vietnam and Watergate overemphasized? Was Robin Hood a hero, as the text claimed, or a dangerous advocate of income redistribution?





Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/01/education/01gabler.ht...

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RIP. Now maybe we can move on to better more diverse and truthful textbooks for the kids.

[Demeter]

1. Doubt It. Sounds Like the Crank Has a Whole Machine Built for It

A corporation called Educational Research Analysts will long outlive its founders, especially with sweetheart crony deals.

Looks like nothing has happened on their website since May. Maybe they weren't as "connected" as they could have been....

[Igel]

9. And others have taken up the cause.

The crusade isn't just against "anti-family" and "anti-God" elements in textbooks anymore.

[Ian David]

2. We should put a warning sticker on her headstone

"WARNING: This grave contains a controversial figure whose status as a douchebag is being debated in many circles."

[The Stranger]

3. Good riddance.

[Doctor_J]

4. Where, she is now, books will easily burn

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. And today, thanks to her good work, the youth of Texas are proudly

ranked among the most poorly educated in the country.

[depakid]

6. That would be her legacy

Ignorance and poverty.

[damntexdem]

7. Somehow, I just couldn't scare up any tears at the news of her death.

But don't count on Texas' moving on to anything better regarding K-12 textbooks. There are plenty of other anti-science nutcases around here.

[RamboLiberal]

8. Problem is Texas is so big

she helped inflict those textbooks on the rest of us.

[LeftishBrit]

10. RIP. But obviously she wasn't too bright.

'Gabler' is a good name - she 'gabbled' about things that she obviously understood little about.