http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/education/13texas.html
QuoteTexas Approves Curriculum Revised by Conservatives
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
Published: March 12, 2010
AUSTIN, Tex. — After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday voted to approve a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Father's commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light.
In recent years, board members have been locked in an ideological battle between a bloc of conservatives who question Darwin's theory of evolution and believe the Founding Fathers were guided by Christian principles and a handful of Democrats and moderate Republicans who have fought to preserve the teaching of Darwinism and the separation of church and state.
Since January, Republicans on the board have passed more than 160 amendments to the 120-page curriculum standards affecting history, sociology and economics courses from elementary to high school. The standards were proposed by a board of teachers.
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."
There are seven members of the conservative bloc on the board, but they are often joined by one of the other three Republicans on crucial votes. There were no historians, sociologists or economists consulted at the meetings, though some members of the conservative bloc held themselves out as experts on certain topics.
The conservative members maintain that they are trying to correct what they see as a liberal bias among the teachers who proposed the curriculum. To that end, they made dozens of minor changes aimed at calling into question, among other things, concepts like the separation of church and state and the secular nature of the American Revolution.
"I reject the notion by the left of a constitutional separation of church and state," said David Bradley, a conservative from Beaumont who works in real estate. "I have $1,000 for the charity of your choice if you can find it in the Constitution."
They also included a plank to ensure that students learn about "the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schalfly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association."
Dr. McLeroy pushed through a change to the teaching of the civil rights movement to ensure that students study the violent philosophy of the Black Panthers in addition to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s nonviolent approach. He also made sure that textbooks would mention the votes in Congress on civil rights legislation, which Republicans supported.
"Republicans need a little credit for that," he said. "I think it's going to surprise some students."
Mr. Bradley won approval for an amendment saying students should study "the unintended consequences" of the Great Society legislation, affirmative action and Title IX legislation. He also won approval for an amendment stressing that Germans and Italians were interned in the United States as well as the Japanese during World War II, to counter the idea that the internment of Japanese was motivated by racism.
Other changes seem aimed at tamping down criticism of the right. Conservatives passed one amendment, for instance, requiring that the history of McCarthyism include "how the later release of the Venona papers confirmed suspicions of communist infiltration in U.S. government." The Venona papers were transcripts of some 3,000 communications between the Soviet Union and its agents in the United States.
In economics, the revisions add Milton Friedman and Friedrich von Hayek, two champions of free-market economic theory, among the usual list of economists to be studied, like Adam Smith, Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes. They also replaced the word "capitalism" throughout their texts with the "free-enterprise system."
"Let's face it, capitalism does have a negative connotation," said one conservative member, Terri Leo. "You know, 'capitalist pig!' "
In the field of sociology, another conservative member, Barbara Cargill, won passage of an amendment requiring the teaching of "the importance of personal responsibility for life choices" in a section on teen suicide, dating violence, sexuality, drug use and eating disorders.
"The topic of sociology tends to blame society for everything," Ms. Cargill said.
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 the 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.
Mavis B. Knight, a Democrat from Dallas, introduced an amendment requiring that students study the reasons "the founding fathers protected religious freedom in America by barring the government from promoting or disfavoring any particular religion above all others."
It was defeated on a party-line vote.
Texas' bigotry is god damn ridiculous. It's ironic that republicans always say they "love America" while berating those who question their government. America was founded because of people questioning their government. You can't have a "pro America" banner then try to fucking rewrite American history. This is one of those instances where a book burning might be justified, being they're school textbooks full of right-wing propaganda.
It's like bizarro world. I mean, it's okay to want to shine some light on the good things your group has done, but changing the entire curriculum and distorting the views of the founding fathers is going way too far.
Only in Texas, my friend, only in Texas.
So now schools are less left.
Because Texas schools were so left to begin with.
Did you go to one? The schools I went to here in Tennessee were filled with leftist views, despite the majority of people in this state voting republican.
Schools should be neutral.
Having probably one of the few active people here that has actually been through the Texas education system, unlike the starter of this thread who doesn't even live in America, I can fully say that there is absolutely no set-guidance of Leftist Rightist teaching in any of our classes. Needless to say, the TBE can approve anything they want, but it divides down from State Approval, to Region Approval, to Cluster Approval and in the end individual school approval. They've done this before and it ended up being used in one or two schools. AHS, at the time I was there, had refused to teach something the TBE passed over something regarding politics.
You guys act like this is drawing black lines through our books and saying 'X NEVER HAPPENED' when in actuality it's just going to ask, not demand, teachers to teach more on the Republican-Focused bullshit that doesn't even matter.
Either way, read the last damn line. It was defeated because we're not all fuckups. People like this live in every state, every district, every fucking country.
I was a rather harsh with the bizarro world and distortion comment. I'm half reading this story and only half read it before, so I apologize for the presumptuous statement. I think Church and State should be separated but other than that I agree with the people quoted. If they are trying to correct a liberal bias in the curriculum this should be a welcomed thing.
Also, I'm actually homeschooled. I really shouldn't be talking about the state of Texas school systems, especially since I've never been in a school to begin with.
Quote from: Andreas H. Keller on March 13, 2010, 07:35:38 PM
Having probably one of the few active people here that has actually been through the Texas education system, unlike the starter of this thread who doesn't even live in America, I can fully say that there is absolutely no set-guidance of Leftist Rightist teaching in any of our classes. Needless to say, the TBE can approve anything they want, but it divides down from State Approval, to Region Approval, to Cluster Approval and in the end individual school approval. They've done this before and it ended up being used in one or two schools. AHS, at the time I was there, had refused to teach something the TBE passed over something regarding politics.
You guys act like this is drawing black lines through our books and saying 'X NEVER HAPPENED' when in actuality it's just going to ask, not demand, teachers to teach more on the Republican-Focused bullshit that doesn't even matter.
Either way, read the last damn line. It was defeated because we're not all fuckups. People like this live in every state, every district, every fucking country.
<3
Especially the part about people who don't live in America complaining about America. We have a problem with that, here.
Quote from: Irock on March 13, 2010, 07:32:51 PM
Did you go to one? The schools I went to here in Tennessee were filled with leftist views, despite the majority of people in this state voting republican.
Schools should be neutral.
To the average indoctrinated glenn beck loving republican, anything they don't agree with or anyone who doesn't agree with them is "left".
Quote from: Roph on March 14, 2010, 01:46:57 AM
Quote from: Irock on March 13, 2010, 07:32:51 PM
Did you go to one? The schools I went to here in Tennessee were filled with leftist views, despite the majority of people in this state voting republican.
Schools should be neutral.
To the average indoctrinated glenn beck loving republican, anything they don't agree with or anyone who doesn't agree with them is "left".
Things that the are considered left are non-conservative and more liberal; larger government, more taxes, etc. People generally have a pretty good idea of what it means, but politics that a conservative would disagree with are more often than not actually left of center, since that person leans to the right. This is common sense. Left and right are rarely misused and even if they are there's no reason why those on the right would misuse it any more than those on the left. :]
The United States gets such a bad rap, especially from much smaller countries about how easy it is for them and how poor of a job we do. If you have never lived* in the United States and just pick and choose your sources of information to which happen to fall into your modus operandi, you will always be just as ignorant as the ignorant folks you so despise. Secondly, Canadians should stick to their hockey, 'cause that's what they do best and with all do respect, because without canucks I wouldn't be alive. Finally, Portuguese should continue to stimulate the Seafood market, because I love seafood. :)
*This is worth italicizing because if you do not live here you cannot comprehend what it's like as opposed to those who actually do, and pick and choose their sources based on their personal experiences living in the country.
Also, it's probably worth noting that the NY Times is supposedly a very Liberal newspaper.
Aren't all American political parties in the blue on the political compass? You know, as in right wing (economics) authoritarians.
Quote from: chewey on March 14, 2010, 06:28:41 AM
Aren't all American political parties in the blue on the political compass? You know, as in right wing (economics) authoritarians.
not the GREEN PARTY :V
Of course, but it's not as if anybody recognises them as a viable option. It's the same in Australia and I suspect in many countries. Two parties get all the hype and the rest are ignored.
yeah the bipartisan system is total bullshit.
note that even our FIRST president said it was going to be a bad idea :p
(https://rmrk.net/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F3HbBn.gif&hash=25dc7f91344bd3d40d4162c15ff72dd70a8de37b)
Roph has been watching Alex Jones.
This kind of reminds me of how people go to college and take a course on Sociology and suddenly they think they know more than anyone else does about Sociology.
It's more like when someone watches Dr. Phil and then thinks they're a psychologist.
You need to beat yer wife.
Or when someone watches Judge Joe Brown and suddenly they think they're an African American judge.
Yeah, or when they watch Planet Earth and think they're a spider monkey.
Right, or when they watch Psych and think it's cool to make 90's pop culture references.
Quote from: arlen on March 15, 2010, 08:34:45 PM
Right, or when they watch Family Guy and think it's cool to make obscure 90's and 80's pop culture references.