Now, this is an outrage. Talk about infiltration and ignoring history.

[wisteria]

"U.S. history textbooks could soon be flavored heavily with Texas conservatism"


The revised standards have far-reaching implications because Texas is a huge market leader in the school-textbook industry. The enormous print run for Texas textbooks leaves most districts in other states adopting the same course materials, so that the Texas School Board effectively spells out requirements for 80 percent of the nation’s textbook market.


Here are some of the other signal shifts that the Texas Board endorsed last Friday:

A greater emphasis on “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s.” This means not only increased favorable mentions of Schlafly, the founder of the antifeminist Eagle Forum, but also more discussion of the Moral Majority, the Heritage Foundation, the National Rifle Association and Newt Gingrich's Contract With America.

A reduced scope for Latino history and culture.


Changes in specific terminology. Terms that the board’s conservative majority felt were ideologically loaded are being retired. Hence, “imperialism” as a characterization of America’s modern rise to world power is giving way to “expansionism,” and “capitalism” is being dropped in economic material, in favor of the more positive expression “free market.” (The new recommendations stress the need for favorable depictions of America’s economic superiority across the board.)

A more positive portrayal of Cold War anticommunism.

Language that qualifies the legacy of 1960s liberalism. Great Society programs such as Title IX—which provides for equal gender access to educational resources—and affirmative action, intended to remedy historic workplace discrimination against African-Americans, are said to have created adverse “unintended consequences” in the curriculum’s preferred language.

Thomas Jefferson no longer included among writers influencing the nation’s intellectual origins. Jefferson, a deist who helped pioneer the legal theory of the separation of church and state, is not a model founder in the board’s judgment. Among the intellectual forerunners to be highlighted in Jefferson’s place: medieval Catholic philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas, Puritan theologian John Calvin and conservative British law scholar William Blackstone. Heavy emphasis is also to be placed on the founding fathers having been guided by strict Christian beliefs.

Excision of recent third-party presidential candidates Ralph Nader (from the left) and Ross Perot (from the centrist Reform Party). Meanwhile, the recommendations include an entry listing Confederate General Stonewall Jackson as a role model for effective leadership, and a statement from Confederate President Jefferson Davis accompanying a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.


A recommendation to include country and western music among the nation’s important cultural movements. The popular black genre of hip-hop is being dropped from the same list.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100315/ts_ynews/ynews_ts1253;_ylt=AkzKgqI00tfJSBfTN45UOkys0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTJjN29mazBsBGFzc2V0A3luZXdzLzIwMTAwMzE1L3luZXdzX3RzMTI1MwRwb3MDNgRzZWMDeW5fbW9zdF9wb3B1bGFyBHNsawN1c2hpc3Rvcnl0ZXg-

[Warpy]

1. I'm afraid if Texas gets its way on this

the only recourse is for parents to pressure school boards to keep the old textbooks instead of ordering new, Bowderlized textbooks written by and for fundies in Texas.

It's the only way to educate the kids while breaking the stranglehold Texas has had on school books for far too long.

Want to know why our schools are so dumbed down? It's TEXAS. They pick the books.

[wisteria]

2. I honestly never knew that until I read this article. I do not want the money I pay in school taxes

to go towards purchasing these books. Is there no where else to get books printed?

[Warpy]

3. They're printed all over the place

Texas consolidated its book buying decades ago, which means they exercise a great deal of clout when it comes to what is put into the books and what is left out.

Since textbooks are expensive to print and publishers can't afford to do different editions for different regions, they've been able to dictate content for decades.

[av8rdave]

4. USA Today even had an editorial cartoon about this today

So I guess it's getting more attention than I thought.

[wisteria]

12. Wow that cartoon says a lot. I hope this gets a lot more attention. n/t

[wtbymark]

5. next they'll bring back the 'Devine right of Kings'

St. Thomas Aquinas- what a joke - his 5 proofs of god are so easily debunked I did them as a sophmore paper. Modern theologans have to even roll their eyes at these, literally, medieval theologies.

[starroute]

11. Aquinas and Calvin did champion a right to oppose tyranny

I wondered what they were doing on the list, so I found a Wikipedia article that explained it. It still doesn't mean they belong in the textbooks and Jefferson doesn't -- but it's not quite as ludicrous as it seems at first glance.

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

Thomas Aquinas also wrote of the right to resist tyrannical rule in the Summa Theologica. John of Salisbury advocated direct revolutionary assassination of unethical tyrannical rulers in his Policraticus. In the Early Modern period, the Jesuits, especially Robert Bellarmine and Juan de Mariana, were widely known and often feared for advocating resistance to tyranny and often tyrannicide—one of the implications of the natural law focus of the School of Salamanca.

John Calvin believed something similar. In a commentary on the Book of Daniel, he observed that contemporary monarchs pretend to reign “by the grace of God,” but the pretense was “a mere cheat” so that they could “reign without control.” He believed that “Earthly princes depose themselves while they rise up against God,” so “it behooves us to spit upon their heads than to obey them.” When ordinary citizens are confronted with tyranny, he wrote, ordinary citizens have to suffer it. But magistrates have the duty to “curb the tyranny of kings,” as had the Tribunes in ancient Rome, the Ephori in Sparta, and the Demarchs in ancient Athens. That Calvin could support a right of resistance in theory did not mean that he thought such resistance prudent in all circumstances. At least publicly, he disagreed with the Scottish Calvinist John Knox’s call for revolution against the Catholic Queen Mary Tudor of England.

[wisteria]

13. Interesting history if presented with balance, but as you said, Jefferson should be there too. n/t

[arcane1]

6. Another chance to promote James Loewen's book:

"Lies My Teacher Told Me"

It's pretty much about this very topic, and a great book!

[wisteria]

14. Oh, I will have to read it. n/t

[Nikki Stone1]

7. Will charter schools allow teachers to ignore these textbooks?

In the public schools, they can ignore the textbooks and teach from xerox copies as long as the basics for the Stanford 9 are taught. But I foresee charters requiring strict "teacher-proof" curricula and going by these books.

[wisteria]

15. I honestly do not want my tax money going towards text books that are not used.

That is another reason why this is upsetting. The purchase of these books is being funded by our government and with our tax money. And, then after paying top dollar for this text books, teachers may not use them because of the content. A waste all around.

[Odin2005]

8. Homeschooling is looking better and better.

[wisteria]

16. I have given that idea a thought. n/t

[HubertHeaver]

9. Hard-copy text books are going away. This ignorant state

school board merely hastened the obvious need for the conversion.

[wisteria]

17. Oh, I hope you are right, but even now many schools still rely on text books instead of computers

for learning.

[ThomWV]

10. It might be good to reflect on the idea that this didn't just start yesterday

How many generations have been fed this line of distorted history?

I have to say this, my understanding today of the causes of this countries Civil War, the most traumatic event in the nation's history by far, is entirely different than it was when I was fresh out of public school, and fresh out of college too for that matter.

[wisteria]

18. You are right about that and your reference to the Civil War is a good one. n/t