Reply #8: All the more reason to have tough national standards for curriculum and testing

[txlibdem]

There is no excuse for my own state of Texas to allow 10 zealots to write the educational guidelines. And because of the way textbooks are published in these parts, 10 states will be forced to abide by these rules from 10 wack job conservatives.

Conservatives dominate Texas Board of Education

The root of the uproar is a regular process in which the Texas Board of Education revises the state’s standards. Far more than in most states, the elected board is entrusted to write standards itself, rather than merely approve them. With a 10-5 Republican majority, including a coalition of seven social conservatives, the board has pushed what some see as a particularly partisan agenda.

Among the changes: Students would be required to learn about the “unintended consequences” of Title IX, affirmative action, and the Great Society, and would need to study conservative icons like Phyllis Schlafly, the Heritage Foundation, and the Moral Majority.

The slave trade would be renamed the “Atlantic triangular trade,” American “imperialism” changed to “expansionism,” and all references to “capitalism” have been replaced with “free enterprise.”

The role of Thomas Jefferson – who argued for the separation of church and state – is minimized in several places, and the standards would emphasize the degree to which the Founding Fathers were driven by Christian principles.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2010/0519/Texas-textbook-war-Slavery-or-Atlantic-triangular-trade
(Note that I am not a fan of the Christian Science Monitor. I just liked the wording of this story.)

And don't forget that Texas doesn't want your kids to learn about slavery:

Earlier in the evening, prolonged debate came over whether to include Confederate President Jefferson Davis' inaugural address with a lesson on Abraham Lincoln's philosophical views; the board decided to require students to contrast the two views. A proposal to refer to the slave trade as the "Atlantic triangular trade" was changed to call it the "trans-Atlantic slave trade."

One of the board's most outspoken conservatives, Republican Don McLeroy, offered the amendment requiring students to evaluate efforts by global organizations to undermine U.S. sovereignty. He argued that efforts to "put us under world court" and to "impose the sovereignty of Americas under treaties that have been signed with these United Nations organizations" were threats to individual freedom and liberty.

Another Republican amendment dropped the study of a landmark 1949 federal court ruling that declared schools could not legally segregate Mexican American students, even though the practice remained popular in Texas for decades. But Craig successfully restored it.

The board rejected a renewed effort to include labor leader Dolores Huerta as an example of good citizenship in third-grade history classes. Huerta, who worked alongside Cesar Chavez for farmworkers' rights, was removed from the list in January amid concerns that she was affiliated with socialists.

...

Educators have blasted the proposed curriculum for politicizing education. Teachers also have said the document is too long and will force students to memorize lists of names rather than thinking critically.

http://www.thegrio.com/news/texas-conservatives-attempt-to-change-historical-teachings-of-slave-trade.php
(note: this is only a portion of the psycho crap these lunatics want to force our kids to learn)

Since when have conservatives and their wealthy owners wanted the population to start thinking critically?!?