The Atlantic: It's Like They're Proud Of Being Ignorant

[marmar]

It's Like They're Proud Of Being Ignorant Cont.
Mar 15 2010, 11:00 AM ET


We talked a few weeks ago about the efforts of Texas conservatives to turn the school textbook industry into an arm of the radical right. They have, evidently, succeeded:

After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday approved a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers' commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light.

"We are adding balance," said Dr. Don McLeroy, the leader of the conservative faction on the board, after the vote. "History has already been skewed. Academia is skewed too far to the left."

Battles over what to put in science and history books have taken place for years in the 20 states where state boards must adopt textbooks, most notably in California and Texas. But rarely in recent history has a group of conservative board members left such a mark on a social studies curriculum.

Efforts by Hispanic board members to include more Latino figures as role models for the state's large Hispanic population were consistently defeated, prompting one member, Mary Helen Berlanga, to storm out of a meeting late Thursday night, saying, "They can just pretend this is a white America and Hispanics don't exist."

"They are going overboard, they are not experts, they are not historians," she said. "They are rewriting history, not only of Texas but of the United States and the world."

From the deparment of "This Would Be Funny If It Weren't So Sad," the Texas conservatives have launched an attack on Thomas Jefferson:

Cynthia Dunbar, a lawyer from Richmond who is a strict constitutionalist and thinks the nation was founded on Christian beliefs, managed to cut Thomas Jefferson from a list of figures whose writings inspired revolutions in the late 18th century and 19th century, replacing him with St. Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and William Blackstone. (Jefferson is not well liked among conservatives on the board because he coined the term "separation between church and state.")

"The Enlightenment was not the only philosophy on which these revolutions were based," Ms. Dunbar said.

This is one of those "Why I'm Not A Conservative" moments. It's not that the Left doesn't have its extremes, but the honest truth is that I find, say, marching against th War In Afghanistan right after 9/11 much more tolerable than attempting to erase Hispanics from history, or hating Thomas Jefferson. Or being racist.


http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/03/its-like-theyre-proud-of-being-ignorant-cont/37484/

[Richardo]

1. Are you sure you didn't mean that to be a "u"...

...and plural?

Otherwise, it would read better if you used (cont.)

[marmar]

2. You lost me.....I just posted the Atlantic's headline.

nt

[Richardo]

3. I'll take it up with the headline editor of the Atlantic then.

:thumbsup:

[CurtEastPoint]

4. That made me laugh...

"They're Proud Of Being Ignorant Cont" could be much different with a u instead of o in a certain word. Good one!

[RainDog]

5. should be "u" with an "s" on the end

Texas is the shithole of the U.S.

[Richardo]

8. #1 - I already made that joke.

#2 - We Texas liberals really appreciate and value your opinion of our state. Thanks for weighing in with that.

[RainDog]

9. you're welcome. my state is a shithole too

tho it's not the state I am from originally.

before Bush was ever prez I was at a function at the gov's mansion in Austin. (he wasn't present, the group was just using the site) if only I had known then...

[RaleighNCDUer]

17. #2 - We know it is not entirely your fault that you can't stop what your

neighbors are doing to your state.

#3 - Nonetheless, that ARE doing it.

[Jackpine Radical]

14. I think that "u" word might get you into a little trouble

with the PC crowd.

And I don't mean the people who avoid Apple products.

[RaleighNCDUer]

16. LOL

Bad! Bad!

[Warpy]

6. The Atlantic took a turn to the right starting in the late 80s

and when they dropped their cryptic crossword, I stopped subscribing. I guess their more conservative readers couldn't do the crossword and complained.

It's nice that something has finally gotten their editorial board to choke on the Koolaid. If it's starting to wake them up, the Texas Textbook Taliban has done a fine job.

One would hope school systems all over this country would use old, shabby textbooks rather than buy any of the horrors this gang of religious wack jobs wants. If I had a kid in school, I'd rather s/he have an old, torn, marked up book than a shiny new one full of fundy lies. At least I wouldn't have to reteach them history when they got home from school and sat down to their milk and cookies.

Maybe this idiocy will finally release the stranglehold Texas has on school textbooks. If school districts boycott, maybe another method for designing textbook content will be devised.

[treestar]

7. It is clear the FF intended separation of church and state

Any alleged issue is purely in their minds. If individual FF were religious themselves, that does not mean they did not write and agree upon what they put in the Constitution.

Funny how the right wing wants the government out of everything else.

[Zoeisright]

10. I hate those fucking assholes.

I wish there was a hell so they could burn in it.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

11. They're adding balance....

To all this truth, they're adding a dollop of lies.

It makes one's education well-rounded. Just like a healthy breakfast should include a Snickers bar.

You know. For balance.

[Initech]

12. The sad thing is this kind of stupidity isn't limited to Texas.

My mom was telling me one of her school board reps (this is California, BTW) said that "social responsibility" (read: community service) was a "socialist plot".

[AJD48]

13. Luther on reason

“Reason is the Devil’s greatest whore; by nature and manner of being she is a noxious whore; she is a prostitute, the Devil’s appointed whore; whore eaten by scab and leprosy who ought to be trodden under foot and destroyed, she and her wisdom… Throw dung in her face to make her ugly. She is and she ought to be drowned in baptism… She would deserve, the wretch, to be banished to the filthiest place in the house, to the closets.”
—Martin Luther, Works, Erlangen Edition v. 16, pp. 142-148.

“Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but—more frequently than not—struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God.”
—Martin Luther, Table Talks in 1569.

But I don't mean to single out Lutherans.
Similar quotes exist in other sects of Christianity.

[Jackpine Radical]

15. Thanks for the quotes.

I never got dosed with that stuff.

[xxqqqzme]

18. I'll accept 'Reason'

is a 'she'

And

F*ck Luther

[pscot]

19. Ignorance is like a delicate, exotic fruit.

Touch it, and the bloom is gone.