Student sees political bias in high school text

[RamboLiberal]

Source: MSNBC/AP

Talk about a civics lesson: A high-school senior has raised questions about political bias in a popular textbook on U.S. government, and legal scholars and top scientists say the teen's criticism is well-founded.

They say "American Government" by conservatives James Wilson and John Dilulio presents a skewed view of topics from global warming to separation of church and state. The publisher now says it will review the book, as will the College Board, which oversees college-level Advanced Placement courses used in high schools.

Matthew LaClair of Kearny, N.J., recently brought his concerns to the attention of the Center for Inquiry, an Amherst, N.Y., think tank that promotes science and has issued a scathing report about the textbook.

"I just realized from my own knowledge that some of this stuff in the book is just plain wrong," said LaClair, who is using the book as part of an AP government class at Kearny High School.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24018762/

---

Oh wonderful, now the wingnuts are writing the textbooks!

[marmar]

1. Good for this kid.......

Just think about the total propaganda in school textbooks.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

14. And it's not the first time he stood up to his school

Kudo's to his parents for raising a kid who can think for himself!

[pauldg0]

83. Absolutely correct!!

....I would have never thought this would or could ever happen. That kid is something else!!

[peacetalksforall]

27. And thank the adult experts who backed him up.

[PurpleChez]

81. Huzzah to one and all!

[peacetalksforall]

28. Do we now have to add Houghton Mifflin to the list of right wing publishers

like Harper Collins and Regnery?

[unpossibles]

37. not sure, but not necessarily

I work in the college textbook business (photos) and most publishers don't have an easily classified agenda, per se, other than to sell books. We have authors of all sorts and all stances in our books, and as long as information is accurate, I don't care about balance. This story points out inaccuracies.

And no, I don't work for this publisher.

[DutchLiberal]

65. No. They also published 'A People and A Nation' on American history.

It's a college/university-textbook. I've read it. It's completely neutral/objective. It doesn't impose a certain point of view on the reader.

[kay1864]

78. HEYYY... this is the tape recording teenager!

You may remember that he taped his teacher preaching Christian doctrine in his American history class.

Teacher denied, denied, denied...until LaClair reached in his backpack and pulled out the evidence on CD.

Oops.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kearny_High_School_%28New_Jersey%29#Religion_in_classroom_controversy

This kid ROCKS!

:applause:

[formercia]

2. Forming minds from birth

This has been going on for a long time, it's just that the wingnuts have become so brazen and their rhetoric so transparent, that it has become obvious to anyone with any sense of intellectual curiosity.

[pauldg0]

92. Yes.....

...they have been the main brand and we have been the generic brand.

...I think the discovery by that young man is very critical to the future health of our nation. Wow, what a important event. I hope the press makes more of this (I am worried about that however!!)
All school texts from here on out should be thoroughly reviewed by an objective board of individuals from different walks of life and different communities. Selected individuals in the same community would likely result in a bias decision.

The people within the school boards' do not look at the finer aspects. When we are dealing with our young kids, we should look at these books much closer. My God, how long have these authors skewed our youngster's minds....I mean how many generations!!!!??? Look what we have in office now...a Brainwashed Self-centered President. Our president and his family are fanatical conservatives. How many more of our citizens are out there politically brainwashed due to the teachings of books like Wilson and DeLulio's.

It may be kind of extreme to say this, but how many years have authors like this brainwashed our children. Another point, and this may sound extreme, but should they be reprimanded. It seems like the two authors of that government book knew exactly what they were doing? How very sad that is if true!!!

It comes to this. I don't think a book like that should be banned, but they should not be used for education purposes until they're reviewed more intensely. In this case, it should be put "only" on the library shelf for some tunnel vision conservative to read. Sorry, but true repukes, but we all need to be objective when educating our kids and that included democrats as well as republicans !!!

[formercia]

100. School Boards

The crazies have been infiltrating school boards all over the nation for quite a while now. They usually remain in stealth mode until something like choosing school books comes up and then they morph into who they really are.

[loves_dulcinea]

103. yeah, that's about right

here in charleston sc, a school board member recently mouthed off during a talk radio program talking about sterilizing teens who become pregnant. local uproar only for some reason.

[bronxiteforever]

3. Some info on James Q Wilson

He is the chairman of the Council of Academic Advisors of the American Enterprise Institute.

Wikipedia

[annabanana]

4. WingNuts have been writing tests for a long time...

And, YES, it comes down to economics. No one except school boards will buy these things, so no one makes them without a guaranteed client.. the bigger the better. Texas is textbook central. 'Nuf said.

[Solly Mack]

11. I was about to say just that!

The wingies have been writing'em for years

[pauldg0]

93. Right on....

...I am getting pissed off about this the more I read...wow!!

[Cerridwen]

134. I didn't see your post before I replied waaaaaaaay down at the bottom of

this thread.

I've known about the Gablers for about 20 years. Not sure if you meant them specifically, but those are the ones who came to mind.

[PA Democrat]

5. This is the text that they use at my son's HS.

Right wing school district, right wing teacher, who told her Republican students to register as a Republican so they could vote in the Democratic primary.

My son said that the book paints Reagan (co-author Wilson worked in the Reagan administration) as the best president ever, and is biased on a number of subjects. Also it should be noted that the other co-author, Dilulio, was picked by Bush to be director of the White House Office Of Faith-based and Community Initiatives.

I will forward this to our school board, not that I expect it will do any good.

[madmom]

7. check your rules she may be telling them to commit a crime!

[PA Democrat]

9. It is legal in PA, but not ethical, and not something a high school teacher should be telling her

students to do IMO.

[Red Zelda]

17. And taxes pay that teacher's salary

What's the schooldistrict? I see you're near Pittsburgh.
Call the Post-Gazette if they haven't heard of this screed.

[Red Zelda]

16. Where are you in Pa.?

[callous taoboy]

18. I would not let this rest. Contact ACLU and see what they say. n/t

[LiberalFighter]

20. Don't you mean for them to register as a Democrat so they can vote in Democratic Primary?

[PA Democrat]

25. OOPS! You are right. The teacher told Republican students to register as a Democrat

so that they could vote in the Democratic primary. We have a closed primary, but people could register or change party affiliation up until March 23.

[kevinbgoode]

56. I teach college...I told my students to write ME in. . .

they shook their heads "NO". . . hehehehe.

[YOY]

26. Popular teacher?

I had one of those. He was such a clownshoed asshat that he made more lefties than he sought to quash. Catholic HS though...abortion every five seconds and rammed down our throats.

[PA Democrat]

30. The vast majority of students lean very far to the right, so yes, the teacher is popular.

The kids like my son, who went into the class as liberals, will probably come out even more liberal. I think maybe a few of his friends who are more moderate Republicans have moved a little to the left because some of the extreme views expressed have turned them off, particularly the extreme religious right viewpoints expressed by some of the students.

[YOY]

34. College may fix some of those who still lean right toward at least a moderate stance

Those who do not go on to college and keep the religious point will stay sheep and bleat the "common man" and "anti-latte liberal" pablumesque doctrine of the religious right.

I've seen it before. It's really sad and it's how they maintain control.

[SharonAnn]

What's funny is that DiIulio left the WH and in a letter called the administration the reign of the

"Mayberry Machiavelies". He also said that there was "a complete lack of policy making apparatus" there and that all decisions were based solely on political advantage.

[Selatius]

52. Better make a call to the ACLU about this. n/t

[kevinbgoode]

55. Oh, I would forward that with a very strongly-worded message

demanding to know what, exactly, is their notion of educational ethics. At the same time, you might request what sanction they have to select textbooks exclusively on the basis of teaching falsehoods. . .and when they try to come back with the old "truth is nothing more than what you believe" simply point out that facts are simply FACTS - not like religion, which is the author of moral and scientific relativism.

Fuc*ing dominionists writing textbooks for public schools!

You most certainly should organize people you know in the community about the use of this textbook.

[DutchLiberal]

67. Reagan as the best president ever? Now that's hilarious!

:rofl: That's so obviously wrong; how can they get away with it?

[pauldg0]

94. I'm getting pissed...

....how many generations have these two clowns been writing these books..our children have been basically brainwashed.

[Sheets of Easter]

96. I grew up in the 'Burgh, in an "affluent" community.

Wouldn't be surprised in the least if it's my old alma mater you're talking about. :D

[southerncrone]

108. The RW infiltration of social studies teachers has been one of the

Repuke's tactics for quite a few years now. This is one of the ways they brainwash the kids young & swing them to their side. Our school has only 1 Dem Soc. St. teacher & he's getting ready to retire.
We live in a blue-turning-purple district. All it takes is for a Repuke to slide into a hiring position & the whole district becomes infected w/them; especially at the HS level.

As for book selection....in our state, the process goes like this:

1. A State Textbook Commission is composed of ten members whose responsibility is to recommend an OFFICIAL LIST OF TEXTBOOKS for approval of the State Board of Education. By law, the Commission includes a county superintendent, a city superintendent, a principal, one teacher or supervisor from grades 1-3, one teacher or supervisor from grades 4-8, one teacher or supervisor from grades 9-12, and one member not employed in the educational system of the state from each of the three grand divisions of the state. (not sure how this "commission" is selected, but I'm sure there is an application process.)



2. The commission sends out Invitations To Bid to textbook publishers.



3. The publishers send in their list of books in the subject area being considered.



4. Since 1986, the State Textbook Commission has used an advisory panel of expert teachers in each subject area or grade level to advise the Commission on book selections. This panel, commonly referred to as the Textbook Review Committee, thoroughly reviews the books submitted.

This is the laughable part. They beg teachers to be on this Review Committee, because once word gets out, no one wants to do this ever again! Two yrs ago, I was told by teachers who did this that they were offered $100 to "review" these books during the summer. The books would roll in randomly to their homes via UPS. They had literally dozens of books to read through & decide which were the best or which were not appropriate--a mammoth job! For sooo little pay. It was virtually impossible for them to do a thorough job. One teacher told me that the books took up so much room in his house that he had to enlist his neighbor to store some at his house!


5. Teachers then had to come up with a list of "recommended" books, which was sent to the Text Book Commission.



6. The "Commission" then sends the list out to school boards to choose from.

And, my textbooks are filled with errors. These book companies are "updating & revising" these books, but the proofreading is non-existent. I spend more time checking to see if my "answer keys" are correct than if I'd done it myself. And the prices are out of this world. We are being screwed by the book companies in more ways than one!

[Trillo]

129. Thanks for the review of the process.

You're pointing out that teacher's don't get paid for textbook selection. That does seem to be a valid complaint, yet, teachers who use a flawed textbook selected by the commission still read through it in the process of using it in the classroom. A number of replies to this OP deal with techniques used by teachers when a flawed textbook is used. Those seem well and fine, but some of us focus on text and naturally do not process verbal as well: others I'm sure are the opposite. So even those techniques do not fix the problems for all students.

I'm look at this as an outsider looking in, yet, all of us help pay for public schools, and most all of us who did not immigrate participated in K-12.

My objection to the alteration of textbook facts is that facts should not be altered, edited, changed, or abbreviated to the point of irrelevance, by people not specializing in the subject area. All facts should be verifiable. If science and or experts are divided upon something 50:50, then both views should be included. If science is divided upon something 95:05, then it would seem there's wide agreement that the 95% is the preponderant view. Yet, if bias allows that 5% view to be disseminated as the primary view, then the school, the teachers, and the publisher have not done their jobs.

If something is considered inappropriate for inclusion by the commission and or local community for some reason, then complete excising of those facts may be called for, but to substitute a very minor view is a major skewing of reality, or a complete fantasy is simply lying. There's something very wrong when compulsory schooling disseminates lies to some students without presenting the experts' disagreement in a balanced manner. This is a problem in need of a fix. All students should have relatively equal access to facts. To some degree, Library and Internet access helps, but available study time is a limiting factor. Learning that a textbook disseminated lie exists through independent study doesn't change the mandated correct answer on any tests, nor does it prevent all reading students' eyes and brains from processing it under the guise of a "fact".

It does seem to me that the time of experts should be compensated time, but then I also think that students' time needs compensation, as well, since the so-called knowledge forced down many of our throats never succeeded at improving our earning ability above and beyond minimum wage for any more than a very small subset of "us".

It strikes me that in some ways, textbook publishing has become a mechanical process whose primary goal is to maximize the publishers' income by selling more books with the aid of frequent new editions and revisions.

Myself, I was sorry that not one Math teacher introduced me to Newton's original texts as mandated study material some 40+ years ago. Instead, a commission decided to create multi-author compilations and distillations, and some publishers made out like bandits. Nature sends all of us a genius, and morons in charge decide they're smarter and have "better methods".

[southerncrone]

131. You are correct about the publishers making out like bandits by

constant revisions. It has been my experience that these "revisions" are not usually an "improvement" but just the opposite. More errors, more $, and more bias. Textbook publishing is BIG business & just like other businesses, they use whatever techniques increase bottom line. Standardized-testing is also BIG business.

We teachers have so much heaped on our shoulders today BESIDES teaching, that it is not always possible to read through the textbook in advance. I find I do good to stay a chapter ahead of the class when we adopt a new text. So many kids come to us with extreme emotional & family problems, behavioral problems, basic survival problems. Because so much emphasis is placed on "THE TESTS" kids are not learning to think for themselves or gaining needed skills to progress in the elementary & middle grades. By the time we get them in HS, there is so much we have to make up for that they need like-- study skills, deductive reasoning, note-taking, we are forced to "cram" in 6-7 yrs worth of needed skills in 4 yrs. We have inclusion to deal with in the classroom as well. Not to mention being responsible for planning, organizing & managing extracurricular activities. We, too, have all the testing required today to make us.........accountable. We spend so much time "testing & retesting" the kids, we don't have adequate time to teach the material to begin with.

Don't get me wrong, I believe teachers should be accountable, but it is obvious by the "end products" we we are turning out that this "accountability-by-standardized-testing" is not worth much. The education system is in shambles because "outsiders" (i.e. big business, govt. officials using us as a political platform, etc.) feel they have a right to come into our profession and make the rules without considering we are dealing with children, not objects. The business model DOES NOT apply directly to the education system. When politicians began to believe they could "run" us like a business, is when things began to deteriorate.

But, they don't care about education. They care about making $ off the system.

[Trillo]

137. Education has a tremendous number of flaws that seem designed around money.

Making more money that is. I understand that teachers are overworked and underpaid, but who isn't (specifically including the students)? I'm not at all certain I understand the legitimate rationale for there to be political review of experts' texts. If there are legitimate rationales, it still doesn't excuse the failure of experts to have the last 'red pencil' ("red pencil" as in editing) on any changes made.

Perhaps some of those college professors who haven't yet received tenure and only teach a class or two need to be involved in the High School text selection process as reviewers. However, even they have a bias, and that is to withold certain information until the later college years: essentially 'metering learning' granting 'value added' status to those years.

I believe that solutions to problems such as this are best handled by students, teachers and experts themselves, but when a student finds a 'mistatement' or brazenly political error (lie) at odds with preponderant scientific thought, then the higher portions of the system proves it can't be trusted as it currently exists. I imagine that slave masters who whipped and beat their slaves also likely felt they had a thankless, underpaid task.

I sincerely hope that the Democratic Party in the future can undo some of the tyrannies that I and many others felt existed in a system designed to inflate the egos of those higher in the pyramid, and which did little else, including the failure to prepare most of us to survive in the real world. I know that the solution I chose, not having kids specifically because I couldn't protect them from experiencing the same educational tyranny that I experienced, is not a solution that is conducive to happiness. But sometimes we simply have to steel ourselves when confronted with corruption and tyranny, and say "no more" to the cycle of perpetrated inequity, no matter the cost.

I'm quite certain teachers are as boxed in by the rigidity of the system, similar (but at different hierarchy) to how students are boxed in. Sometimes in solving a systemic problem like this requires rising up out of those boxes to do the best thing for the good of all, and I specifically mean the opposite of bidness as usual.

[Canuckistanian]

113. DiIulio? THIS DiIulio?

http://www.esquire.com/features/dilulio

[iris5426]

114. I'm near pgh as well

and curious which HS, PM me and let me know if you don't mind :hi:

[crim son]

6. My daughter, a junior in HS this year, was laughing out loud

as she read from her new history textbook the part on our invasion of Iraq. Complete. Bullshit. I don't know if you'd call it politically biased so much as just plain false.

[procopia]

22. This is why Bush believers insist

that he will be regarded as a great president by historians.

[central scrutinizer]

99. As Orwell said

"Those who control the present, control the past, and those who control the past control the future." Of course he meant that those in power now can write the textbooks and shape what people think is their "history" which makes it easier to get them to follow them into the "future".

[Wednesdays]

107. A quote from a song from the musical Wicked, "Wonderful"

A man's called a traitor - or liberator
A rich man's a thief - or philanthropist
Is one a crusader - or ruthless invader?
It's all in which label
Is able to persist...

[sakabatou]

87. Example?

That way I can laugh with you.

[crim son]

89. Somebody else asked for an example too.

I don't keep her textbooks close at hand, but I'll ask if she's still taking the class, or can get her hands on the book.

[no_hypocrisy]

8. The majority of textbooks are published in Texas, and for more than 30 years

a married couple, Mel and Norma Gabler had been "reviewing" and editing these textbooks according to their subjective religious and political views. That's right. Two people had been determining what your children think, what the "correct" answer should be on their tests, etc. I'm not certain who's doing it now.

Norma died last year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/01/education/01gabler.html?ex=1343620800&en=656e83b4ebcd140e&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[ck4829]

10. Let's K&R it people

RW'ers who believer David Horowitz and his ilk need to be exposed to this kind of stuff.

[williesgirl]

12. Off to the greatest page. Remember how the Nazi's took power?

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

13. No, I don't...

But that would be the whole point, right? ;)

[lisa58]

24. good one

[Robb]

33. Zing!

:D

[Lasher]

41. Oh good, a whole new generation of Cheney Youth.

You know, I think this is so widespread as to be almost universal.

[NinetySix]

15. "When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school...

...it's a wonder I can think at all."

--Paul Simon, "Kodachrome"

[ashrob123]

19. This is why people want to teach their children at home

Although my son is only 3 I can see now that I'm going to have to repeat grades K - 12 to make sure that he is indoctrinated into some right wing belief system.

Good grief.

[DutchLiberal]

70. There also are plenty of people who want to teach children at home to prevent them from hearing...

...anything *other* than their parent's right-wing bullshit.

[liam_laddie]

95. you mean "isn't indoctrinated..." no? n/t

[Wednesdays]

109. Hmm...perhaps their Freudian slip's showing a bit?

:shrug:

[gratuitous]

21. No wonder they all want to wait for history's judgment on Bush

They figure they'll be writing the history books. Another neocon conceit that will scream, "Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!" So far, only the lonely wind seems impressed.

[NJmaverick]

23. This kid is going to be a great person to add to the liberal

causes. Here he is a teenager and he is already a thorn in the side of the right wingnuts. I wish there was a way to donate to his college education.

[bluestateguy]

29. Yeah, that "liberal" James Q. Wilson

nt

[PA Democrat]

31. Here is a link to the paper published by the Center for Inquiry which backs up the student's claims

http://www.centerforinquiry.net/uploads/attachments/CFI_Textbook_Critique.pdf

[Trillo]

32. What's new about this?

Business as usual. Lie, cheat, and steal our futures by teaching lies. Then the morons in authority have the gall to state proudly and openly that we need more education. Spineless? No.

Why is this coming from a student, instead of a teacher? More MONEY for education? Maybe we need to pay the students.

Think we can get those payments to compulsory education students in a "mass" form for their "work"? Oh, right, the economy's in the toilet and all that's left is hierarchical authoritarianism and zero tolerance.

[southerncrone]

110. See post 108 for answer.

The teacher is probably a wingnut.

[0007]

35. Nothing new has changed in our dear old system of truth and

justice for all.

Howard Zinn and his books are sitting in the dark corner collecting dust.

[redqueen]

36. Well... I think things have changed just a little...

at least now a few more people are aware... let's hope the 'hundredth monkey' phenomenon will kick in.

[0007]

38. Clue me to the 'hundreth monkey' phenomenon!

[redqueen]

43. Ah it's just an old discredited theory...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundredth_Monkey

Originally it was proposed as some magical threshold where a group would somehow instantly know something that only a limited number knew before. It's nonsense of course, the 'instantly' part...

I just use the term more to describe some kind of tipping point... hopefully when critical thinking (and enjoying thinking in the first place) becomes commonplace.

[0007]

68. Thanks for the enlightenment. I thought you talking about the main

monkey man. bush and his burning dick.

[maxsolomon]

45. People's History of the US got taught at my kid's HS

Alongside the state textbook. Compare & contrast.

Tiny liberal private school, 'natch. Treated them as if they could think.

[hunter]

101. Exactly.

U.S. History as taught in our public schools is a fabrication. We've all heard about Japanese textbooks that overlook the horrors of Japanese Imperialism in the first decades of the twentieth century, yet we similarly overlook atrocities committed by our own U.S. empire, especially against the people of Latin America, against our own Native American populations, against people who were not white, against trade unions, and now against the people of Africa and the Middle East in our insatiable quest for wealth and power.

To the people of Iraq the United States is obviously an Empire -- a ruthless, deadly, and capricious presence in their daily lives, no different than the United States was to the Native Americans from 1776 on, little different than the Romans occupying Palestine 2000 years ago.

The core values and motives of this U.S. empire are as brutish as any other empire. From the very founding of this nation, explicitly couched in the terminology and precepts of the Roman Empire, many innocent people have been thrown under the wheels of the horrible machine. But the history is written by those who inflicted their murder and mayhem upon those they saw as their inferiors.

[DeepModem Mom]

39. K&R!

[Caria]

40. "Science doesn't know..."

A newer edition published late last year was changed to say, "Science doesn't know how bad the greenhouse effect is."

How did such poorly-written crap get by any editor at all?

[geardaddy]

74. I wouldn't be surprised if

one were to see the phrase "Some say..." in that textbook.

[BadgerKid]

42. Revisionist history in the making

No wonder we never learn from past mistakes.

[enlightenment]

61. All history is revisionist -

even the history that is being recreated in this thread. It is sorted and modified and revised not just by an individual writer's perceptions, but by social attitudes as well. To study history requires the patience to read history - not just the latest book on the shelf, but the older books as well, and not just monographs that synthesise events, but the available "evidence" for the events; the primary resources (which are of course also flavoured by the perception of the person who created them).

For the most part, people don't have the desire or the patience to do all that. Indeed, they have a tendency to ignore the study of history until they realise that it might be useful to them. Then they read a book - or two - and decide they know all they need to know. They dislike the topic until that moment . . . or until they find themselves in a conversation with an historian, whereupon they say, "I've always liked history" or, more honestly, "I hated history in high school, but I like it now. I watch the History Channel all the time." :)

All history is revisionist - from the first repetition and interpretation of an event to the last. It is the nature of transmission of facts that those facts don't survive very long in the telling. It's like a gigantic game of "telephone." Historians - professional historians - are taught to try to find the earliest, least-interpreted version of events, although even those are potentially riddled with problems of transmission. They are taught to recognise the varieties of social attitudes that have affected perception over the centuries - and they are taught that humans are incapable of total objectivity, in an effort to make them aware of their own biases.

It would be fantastic if all historians were aware enough - and honest enough - to lay out their biases in the introduction, along with their approach to the topic they are covering. Not many do, so it is up to the reader to discern what those biases are and how they have affected the presentation.

Popular historians write in easy, readable styles - and they write what the people want to read. Howard Zinn is a prime example in the US. He's excellent, but in all honesty, part of his excellence at this point in our history is that he interprets history in a way that we find acceptable, in a way that we enjoy reading. I could name a number of excellent historians who also write histories that the liberal public would find acceptable - but they write the way most historians write, which is not so much fun to read.

I'm biased, of course, but it is the lack of understanding how history operates in societies as much as the history itself that creates problems. It's how we study history that makes a textbook "dangerous" - not the content. It's not that I think that all textbooks are created equal - they're not, and many of them should never see the light of day simply based on the remarkably poor writing and research that went into their writing. It's how they're taught that's important.

A good teacher can use a "bad" textbook to great effect and teach not just history, but even more valuable skills of critical thinking and reasoning in the process. I'm sure there are plenty of those good teachers out there trying to do that - and just as many who are not. Frankly, there would probably be more if we, as a society, valued the study of history as more than just a temporary, in-the-moment, necessity.

I'm sorry to lecture, but your comment pushed a couple of my historian buttons. That phrase - revisionist history - is so often brandished like some sort of cudgel to beat down and denigrate interpretations that we don't like. It's an equal opportunity weapon, though, used as often by one side of a debate as the other; something that should show that it isn't so useful a phrase after all.

[dixiegrrrrl]

44. Fortunately, the books are not a problem in some places

True story...from a rant by my adult son, who lives in Bellingham Wa.

His 17 y/o nephew is using the same history books my son used in high school there ...circa 1983.
downside is: that young man has been taught by NCLBehind methods, so he is unable to articulate what he just read.

On a side note, I so much appreciate the comments and added links y'all contributed.
DU is a remarkable site.
:)

[nealmhughes]

46. The fact that the text is biased is not the problem, per se, it is that it is presented as THE TEXT.

In the seminal study of young adults' intellectual development, Moral and Intellectual Develpment of College Students: A Scheme by William Perry et al., Perry shows that students progress through nine stages of intellectual maturity.

The first stage, unfortunately is where many are stalled for life: the Black and White thinking stage. According to Perry they should then progress through rebellion, nihilism and then finally a stage of intellectual maturity based upon critical application of what they have exposed and realization that many of their accepted "facts" are in fact, merely opinion.

The problem is that Perry assumes that such development will occur due to the exposure of differing viewpoints by "authority" that trumps or at least is on par with what they initially learned. When a sutdent is then not exposed to differing opinion . . . we have a generation of Fox News viewers and NewsMax readers who had a college education that only reinforced what they memorized as children.

Even most undergraduates are loath to dare to call out the text, it being semi-sacred to them. How could it be in print if it isn't true? Don't the truth police enforce publishing as a virtue? One can watch a new graduate student forced to write a contrary review for a book whose argument they found well-founded and well-written only to in fact contain a flaw in fact or logic. It is very disheartening, especially if they had enjoyed the book tremendously as an undergraduate.

After the initial heartbreak, they get over it. I am afraid that blind acceptance of text as deus ex machina is not going to go away, and the fact that high school students as a rule do not read widely, only compounds the problem for undergraduate educators. In fact, one might say that graduate education is really more about learning to read and think independently -- a form of undoing what high school and undergraduate education had done to them -- than the acquisiton of new information per se.

Most US citizens and residents do have a graduate liberal arts education. Aye, there's the rub.

[L0oniX]

47. No checks on the truth before publishing ...how nice and good for the revisionists too....

got to wonder how the history books are doing with this?

[LibDemAlways]

48. California requires a semester of geography in

9th grade. According to my daughter's geography text, published by National Geographic, global warming is a mere "theory" and scientists are unsure it exists at all.

I closely moniter what my daughter is being taught in school. When it's bullshit, I make sure she knows it. Most of what's covered students are required to memorize and regurgitate back. Thinking is basically not on the agenda.

[gimberly]

102. Global warming is a fact. The 'Theory of Global Warming' attempts to explain causes

In the 80's, greenhouse gases were hypothesized to be the
cause.  Since then, enough data has supported the hypothesis
for it to be elevated to a theory.

The problem is that not enough teachers are clearly explaining
this to students and too many people run from the word theory
thinking it's a wild guess.  AL

[mopinko]

49. they took over the textbooks FIRST!!!!

in st ronnies day-
and it seems it is worse than i thought. when i googled them to get a link to post here, i saw "gabler editions" of things like james joyce's ulysses. i couldn't bear to look any futher than that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_and_Norma_Gabler

[sun zoom spark]

72. I checked, after my heart began beating again: not the Texas Gablers (thank goodness)

From the New York Times, June 28 1980:

In the late 1970's, a team of scholars under the leadership of Hans Walter Gabler, a professor of English at the University of Munich in West Germany, collated Joyce's original typescript with the many proofs. In 1984 they produced a new edition of ''Ulysses'' that they said corrected almost 5,000 omissions, transpositions and other errors in the classic text.

The corrected edition was published in three volumes in 1984 by the Garland Publishing Company of New York, which specializes in photographic reprints of antiquarian books and manuscripts. It was also published in one volume by Vintage in 1986.


Imagine a Texas Gabler edition, though ... Molly's 50-page soliloquy reduced to one word: "Yes yes yes yes yes"

[mopinko]

75. phew

thanks for googling that. my heart stopped beating for a second, too. i couldn't bear to think it through and search.

[Crowman1979]

50. This isn't new.

When I took a course in Microeconomics, we were required to use a textbook that was authored by the chimp's chief economic adviser.

[rudy23]

51. Every time someone used to say, "History will look poorly on this administration", I brought this up

History is going to be written by the FOX News channel and Neil Bush.

This is why Bush is so confident his presidency will be thought of fondly in 50 years. It will be. Iraq will be taught like it's WWII to our children and grandchildren.

Does anyone think the corporations are going to let the little guys like historians control the message?

[gorbal]

53. Now right wing think tanks will think their entitled to do the same

Now watch science being reported as biased across the map, lol!

[9119495]

54. Calm down...I'm a social studies teacher

ALL text books are disasters and I almost never use mine. When I do, we critique the narrative. My colleagues that stick to the book? Their kids hate the book and just about everything it says. They copy their work to finish assignments.

Rest assured, this book is hated by kids.

We simply need more teachers that will use inquiry as a teaching tool. Let the texts rot on the shelf.

[kevinbgoode]

60. I am glad to read this. . .

I teach mostly college students at the freshman/sophomore level (though occasionally get high school honors students and college upperclassmen). I deviate from the book regularly when it doesn't include important sections. One example was last night, when I took students to discussion forums online and we discussed online interpersonal theory - something the book doesn't even mention.

I also will occasionally tell them my own criticisms of a theory and encourage them to question material and make sure that I construct essay questions on exams to give them the chance to reflect on THEIR understanding and application of material, rather than mine or the authors.

On occasion, I have students who find this difficult - often because in lower grades they were used to just being told what to do.

[9119495]

69. I would say I usually

get at my historical topics through primary sources (images, art, text, etc). We try to understand the attitude of the source and since the document's source is usually representative of a larger group with an interest, we will read the text with that voice in mind.

When I do use the text in my world history class, half of the students might read in the voice of a laborer, the other half in the voice of a factory owner for a topic like the Industrial Revolution. We then discuss sections and see which parts each historical actor would likely respond strongly to.

It is good stuff and kids come to like the way we do it. They resist at first as it is more work, but eventually they realize it is not boring and that I actually care what they learn.

[knitter4democracy]

62. When I taught high school English, I hated my textbooks.

I remember one said, in a short author bio before the text, that Tolstoy killed himself by jumping in front of a train. My students all believed it until I got out my pictures of his house and his death bed that I'd taken on my second trip to Russia. They didn't believe me when I told them the book was wrong--I had to get out proof.

I barely used that book after that, and when I did, I just used the text, not any of the supplementals. Piece of crap. At a conference, I finally found the perfect book (very few supplementals but great text), but my department out-voted me because it didn't come with prepared overheads and tests. :eyes:

[9119495]

71. OK...I did find a good book recently...It was BANNED in Texas.

In its introduction, it talks about how history is a human construction. Lenin is giving a speech in Russia in a picture on a raised platform. Trotski is off to his right a few steps down. On the opposite page, the picture taken from Soviet Archives is shown. Trotski is REMOVED FROM THE PICTURE! It is a powerful way for students to see how documents influence us but they are seldom entirely trustworthy or credible. My eyes almost misted over seeing this stuff in a textbook.

[knitter4democracy]

123. Of course it was banned.

:eyes: Seriously, that is awesome about how it shows how the government tried to re-write history. The Soviets had an entire department of Photoshoppers long before that was available who were supposed to erase everyone that Stalin had murdered. It's a good lesson to remember.

[Norrin Radd]

80. Weird. Perhaps they meant his character Anna Karenin?

She jumped under a train in the book.

[knitter4democracy]

124. Yeah. They mixed up his character and him. In his bio.

It was a terrible book.

Then again, I used a book in a grad level class last semester that the prof loved that I found had errors in the footnotes. I guess not everything can be perfect.

[jwirr]

66. A good teacher, such as yourself, makes a world of difference. It

is true that this is not new. I was in high school in the 50s and when I got to college it was like culture shock. Everything the US did was not good! Imagine that!

[AlphaCentauri]

57. can this kid run for president?

I see a very honest kid here, not like our current politicians.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

127. Yes, in 2028. -nt

[jwirr]

58. I am old enough to remember the era when it was USSR that was

rewriting history to suit their interests. The same bunch who were bitching about that are now the group rewriting ours. This has to be stopped because it is laying a basis for a terrible future.

[knitter4democracy]

64. Like I've been saying, those guys learned the wrong lessons of the Cold War.

Seriously--did all the right wing look to the Soviet Union as a model of how to run a country?

[Wednesdays]

112. One of my favorite quotes from the movie Fail-Safe:

(When there's a discussion of possibly annihilating the Soviet Union):

"You learned too well, Professor. You learned so well that now there's no difference between you and what you want to kill."

[Alcibiades]

59. I would never use this book, but....

For what it's worth, Professor Dilulio is a Democrat, but of a conservative sort that makes me ask "Why the hell is this guy a Democrat?" He was a token Democrat in the first term of Bush's administration. To his credit, he only served for seven months before resigning in disgust, but according to his letter it was more over the way the administration was run than over any real policy differences, and he claims to have a great admiration for Bush as a person.

That last bit tells you all you need to know about him. I can see how a conservative might like Bush on policy, but as a person? Ugh.

James Q. Wilson is a Chicago product, which is a place legendary for producing really, really conservative political scientists. His work as a public intellectual has reached a broader audience, the history of which could fill an edited volume or two. Wilson's work on bureaucracy, for good or for ill, will probably still be taught in graduate seminars on the subject for at least another generation or two.

I'm political scientist, and I can tell you that both men do enjoy excellent professional reputations. There are a lot of PhD's in political science who are simply right-wing hacks who work for places such as AEI who don't deserve any credit as scholars. Wilson, despite the fact that he has gotten money from places such as AEI, and Dilulio, simply don't fall into that category. Though both do have agendas that do extend far, far beyond the "normal" range of what political scientist do, they have been productive scholars, they both enjoy good reputations as scholars. Then again, conservative criticism of higher education notwithstanding, ours is a pretty conservative discipline as a whole.

The book in question is in its tenth edition. I'd never use their text in a course myself--even though I've not reviewed it, I know enough about them not to expect the kind of middle-of-the-road text I like to use for my introductory courses (it's hard enough to get students to simply worry about having the students get the facts about American politics and government right without trying to indoctrinate them in any way).

[Kingofalldems]

63. I wonder if that book is strewn with

Democrat Party--Democrat Party. Wouldn't be surprised.

[lonestarnot]

73. Woot Matthew LaClair of Kearny, N.J., !!!!

:applause: Way to be an excellent student! :applause: You deserve a scholarship!

[Flagrante]

76. America (the book)

A much better text book was written by John Stewart.

[grmamo]

77. Does anyone have a name and author of a good substitute history book??

I have known about this problem for awhile but wondered if a parent (or anyone) could get a good history book/s which could be read in the home? I don't have kids at home but would love to get my hands on a reliable history book/s to read.

[ptolle]

79. this dilulio?

I was wondering if we're talking about this Dilulio?
http://www.davidcogswell.com/Political/DilulioAffair.html
Guy seems even more clueless than the typical wingnut bushevik apparatchik.
Otherwise it's long been my opinion that the most basic thing wrong with the educational system in this country is that we, as a society, have never arrived at a consensus definition of what constitutes a good"education and a well-education person. In the absence of such definitions and the aims and goals that would arise from them we just flounder along trying to do the best we can with a system that,IMO, was originally intended to impart a basic level of education to residents of a basically agrarian society in hopes of making them minimally effective parts of an emerging industrial society. They needed to be able to think well enough to adapt to and deal with emerging technologies, but not so well as to think about what those technologies were doing to the people and the society into which they were emerging.I'm not sure we want to have that debate now much as we need to.

[Norrin Radd]

82. I like kids like this. Reminds me of me when I was that age. ;-)

Gives me hope.

[Ian_rd]

84. These people never sleep. They never rest. They never take a five minute break.

They are gobbling up our airwaves, taking over our newspapers, tweaking television news, writing our laws, they're after the internet, and yes, they're writing our textbooks. Every second of everyday, an Army of regressive theocratic authoritarian corporatists are doing everything that can possibly be done to remake this nation into into their Orwellian utopia of mindless praise for the powerful and self-hatred for the working class. Each accomplishment: a merger here, a line in a textbook there, is insignificant. But taken together is the constant campaign to turn this nation into a Radical Right Nazi Germany.

[DangerDave921]

85. Sad

Are textbooks now going to join the ranks of materials that are broken down along party lines? Can't we all agree on some basic things?

If textbooks start going "left" then RW'ers are going to shout BIAS just as loud. And we'll end up with Left and Right textbooks.

More division. Just what we need. I wish we could find more ways to find unity in our country.

[rinsd]

86. This kid was the same one who taped his teacher making religious staements to students.

It's not the first time LaClair has raised alarm bells over teaching at his school. A few years ago, he tape recorded a teacher making religious remarks to his students. Many people at the school were upset with LaClair for raising the issue.

Nicely done...

[electropop]

88. It's a shame when the kids have to correct the curriculum.

But I'm proud of him for standing up to the Fascists.

[xioaping]

116. Two meanings in that post title from different experiences

I don't want this to be take the wrong way and perhaps the point can not be understood but I will try. When I see a statement that kids change curriculum I think of what happened in the revolution in China when the students changed everything. If society has so broken down that kids have to correct the curriculum it is scary. I think you would have to live in that time and place to understand. Maybe someone else on here knows what I mean. Maybe their family went through the same thing.

[electropop]

125. Are you referring to the Cultutal Revolution, or pre-Tienanmen???

I'd be interested to hear more.

[xioaping]

130. Yes, befor Tienanmen

Yes, what is called the cultural revolution. During that time.

[xioaping]

135. There is too much to tell but here is a bit

Deng Xiaopeng advocated more pragmatic policies, as opposed to Mao's radicalist ideas of the cultural revolution.

Deng was able to outmaneuver Mao's anointed successor Hua Guofeng, who had previously pardoned him, and then oust Hua from his top leadership positions by 1980.

In contrast to previous leadership changes, Deng allowed Hua to retain membership in the Central Committee, to quietly retire, and helped to set a precedent that losing a high-level leadership struggle would not result in physical harm.

Deng then repudiated the Cultural Revolution and, in 1977, launched the "Beijing Spring", which allowed open criticism of the excesses and suffering that had occurred during the period.

Meanwhile, he was the impetus for the abolishment of the class background system. Under this system, the CCP put up employment barriers to Chinese deemed to be associated with the former landlord class, its removal therefore effectively allowed Chinese capitalists to join the Communist Party.

What had been a horrible time for many Chinese families started to come to an end because of Deng. Many tears of affection and gratituded were shed by ordinary Chinese during his funeral. Grown men standing in front of televisions in rooms full of people opening wept at his passing.

Perhaps I think you can read between the lines to get a the direct answer to your question. Sorry if I was took too much to say it.

[electropop]

136. That's a pretty concise summary of 40 years of history.

Not at all excessive!

It appears to me that we are meeting China in the middle. As China becomes more capitalist, and in tiny increments more responsive to the wishes of its people, America is heading in the opposite direction. Our economy's main feature at this moment is the merger of the major corporations and the state, something you could label as either fascism or communism, but hardly a free market. And democracy is mostly a thing of the past for this country.

[DebbieCDC]

90. Hurrah for my one-time home town!

Way to go young sir.

[pauldg0]

91. Some of you are using the word "ban" as if it was a book burning....

...I think the discovery by that young man is very critical to the future health of our nation. Wow, what a important event. I hope the press makes more of this (I am worried about that however!!)
All school texts from here on out should be thoroughly reviewed by an objective board of individuals from different walks of life and different communities. Selected individuals in the same community would likely result in a bias decision.

The people within the school boards' do not look at the finer aspects. When we are dealing with our young kids, we should look at these books much closer. My God, how long have these authors skewed our youngster's minds....I mean how many generations!!!!??? Look what we have in office now...a Brainwashed Self-centered President. Our president and his family are fanatical conservatives. How many more of our citizens are out there politically brainwashed due to the teachings of books like Wilson and DeLulio's.

It may be kind of extreme to say this, but how many years have authors like this brainwashed our children. Another point, and this may sound extreme, but should they be reprimanded. It seems like the two authors of that government book knew exactly what they were doing? How very sad that is if true!!!

It comes to this. I don't think a book like that should be banned, but they should not be used for education purposes until they're reviewed more intensely. In this case, it should be put "only" on the library shelf for some tunnel vision conservative to read. Sorry, but true repukes, but we all need to be objective when educating our kids and that included democrats as well as republicans !!!

[shagsak]

97. Definitely not a new phenomena

I remember not being taught about the native american annihilation. I had to read about it in movies and rage against the machine tape covers. Anyone else remember tape covers?

[That Guy 888]

98. When I saw this post all I could think of is...

how much whining I heard over the years about "liberal bias" in school texts. Once again it's conservatives lying about something they're lusting for.

Reading some of the other readers comments about school reminds me of the difference between high school and college: In high school English I was taught techniques of persuasive writing, in college Intro to Logic I was taught the same "techniques" as logical fallacies to be avoided.

[benld74]

104. Its happening already folks, revisionist history according to GOP

[MessiahRp]

105. Read: LIES MY TEACHER TOLD ME

Great book, shows the distortions in American History textbooks.



This my friends is the next great battle in the war to turn our children into blind conservatives. We need to battle back. Go to your local school board meetings when textbook authorizations are on the table.

We need to get our own books published that diseminate truth rather than propaganda.

Rp

[DeSwiss]

119. I'm glad you posted this....

...because I was about to. This political slanting and outright lies being perpetrated in the form of public high school texts has been around for a very long time. And it adds immeasurably to our problems as a nation in creating an environment where we can truthfully deal with our problems, because kids are lied to; through commission and omission, from the start.

- http://www.amazon.com/Lies-My-Teacher-Told-Everything/dp/0684818868">Lies My Teacher Told Me, should be required reading for everyone in the country....

K&R

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

128. I'm SO buying this book. -nt

[Zynx]

106. The politicization of knowledge is nothing short of totalitarianism.

The hardcore right-wingers like to make war on education and also manipulate it at the same time so what little you do learn is their bullcrap.

[dubeskin]

111. I'm an 11th Grader. Let me give you my perspective...

AS a Junior, I'm taking AP US History right now. Unfortunately our teacher is EXTREMELY right wing, and I'm one of the few voices of logic and truth in that class. A text book can say anything it wants, but it's up to the teacher's discretion to reinforce what is told. Being in AP US, it is a different experience from normal. But one thing I see in my text book (The American Pageant) is that it seems to change in political view point and writing styles. Around the 1850s, it largely changed from a conservative to liberal view. But once again, it all comes down to what the teacher says is important, and how they supplement the book's information.

One major way book's content isn't important as teacher's bias is what activities they plan, what lectures etc... My book touches on federal programs and wars I couldn't have even known about before. But if the teacher focuses on something else of that time period, the "important" information becomes unimportant. Let me give you an example.

We recently covered WWII. Think of all the important things coming from that era, including the growing black segregation, women in the workplace, and the growing distrust of the Soviet Union. My teacher showed us 5 videos on the dropping of the atomic bomb, but mentioned maybe once or twice what Roosevelt was doing at home. The atomic bomb overshadowed the fact that the Japanese were interned, or that race riots were rampant in the largest cities.

Now let me tell you about my past two teachers for Adv. Geography/Culture and AP World History. Throughout the whole year, and even to this day, I'm not quite sure which party they aligned with. They taught everything unbiased, and provided both view points as well as others if need be.

[DeSwiss]

120. I'm glad you can discern the right-wing slant coming from your teacher....

...because that discretion will serve you well in school and in life. As mentioned above, there is one book I've read that addresses the topic of the conservative religious slant in texts (and I believe its now being revised for a new edition release), is http://www.amazon.com/Lies-My-Teacher-Told-Everything/dp/0684818868">"Lies My Teacher Told Me." If you get the chance, check it out of the library. And even better, let your parents read it when you're done.

- It may open their eyes too...

[xioaping]

115. Here is what edition one and revised text say

The edition of the textbook published in 2005, which is in high school classrooms now, states that "science doesn't know whether we are experiencing a dangerous level of global warming or how bad the greenhouse effect is, if it exists at all."

A newer edition published late last year was changed to say, "Science doesn't know how bad the greenhouse effect is."

[nikto]

117. I am a teacher and...

I am using the article as basis for a 2-day lesson (possibly 3?) on political bias.

It fits right in with our present unit, so why not?

I will use it in my 3 sections of Amer Lit./Comp in a couple weeks or so.

After the kids answer a few (WRITTEN, not multiple choice!) questions
regarding content and personal responses, I will put them in groups of 4 to "team-up"
in an attempt to find bias in their own American History book.
I will need to supply them with some "signpost"
suggestions/guide-ideas to get them started, and then we'll see what happens.

Ofcourse, I will need to do my "Liberal/Conservative" definitions activity first,
since the majority of my students (children of working-poor Latino immigrants)
haven't the faintest clue what a "liberal" or Conservative" is.
Perhaps they had been taught at one time and it slipped away
as "useless knowledge", perhaps not.

Yes, it's true----A majority of the the children of
the working poor, God bless 'em, really ARE that out-of-it.
But not all find it boring and tedious (I would have loved such an activity
at their age, but they inhabit a very different, bleaker, world).

IMO, way too many of my students are hopelessly apathetic, but this should
light a fire under at least some of them.

In any case, I LOVED the article. What a sharp, involved kid!

[xioaping]

132. Why give them the establishment view first

If I could run the class I think it would be interesting to not give them the liberal/conservative defintions and see what their views are first without your input. That would seem to me much more informative than given them pre-set definitions and then askng them to mold to that. Don't you leave out the possibility that they do not fit your construct when you try to box them in like that? They may express a view that does not fit our establishment especially if they are from a different culture. It almost seems like you are trying to mold them.

[junior college]

118. The kid is rad. nt

[happygoluckytoyou]

121. BEST CHAPTER: HOW KING GEORGE W III BECAME A VIET NAM WAR HERO

OTHER EXCITING CHAPTERS----

1) dick cheney's straight children
2) why condi deserved a ship named after her
3) how rummy planned a brilliant war
4) the wit and wisdom of dubya bush
5) the schwartzenager years
6) how the democrats caused global warming
7) how fox news overcame the radical liberal media plot
8) why workers are overpaid
9) how the church and corporate america saved the world

[Twist_U_Up]

122. "now the wingnuts are writing the textbooks!"

They have been doing it alot longer than just recently.
google operation paperclip or project paperclip

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=operation+paperclip

[UpInArms]

126. John Dilulio was Dimson's head of the White House's religion-based initiative office

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/john_j_jr_diiulio/index.html

Take It on Faith
By NOAH FELDMAN

John DiIulio argues for government financing of social programs run by religious institutions.
December 16, 2007
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By ELIZABETH BECKER

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August 18, 2001
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[Cerridwen]

133. Since at least the 60s.

Current right-wing strategies to influence textbook development have their origins in the 1960s, when Texas-based activists Mel and Norma Gabler first led a nationwide effort to purge public school texts of what they viewed as the "mental child abuse" of liberal ideas. The Gablers were among the first to recognize just how influential textbooks can be. As they put it, "Textbooks mold nations because they determine how a nation votes, what it becomes, and where it goes."

link to article here