Texas nutjobs going for the gold with schools

[Zebo]

The only thing missing is Ronald Reagan wrote the Constitution, but I guess that's common knowledge in Texas.

 

[Perknose]

LOL @ a blog post.

You are one incredibly shameless hypocrite!

You're thread creating history here is based on bullshit blog opinion pieces!!

 

[ModerateRepZero]

It's official: the Texas Board of Ed approved changes to its Social Studies guidelines

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...tes-promoted-in-Texas-textbook-revisions.html

Biblical values and Confederates promoted in Texas textbook revisions
By Tom Leonard in New York
Published: 5:45PM BST 21 May 2010

American students will learn more about the virtues of free enterprise, Biblical values and the Confederacy's cause, and less about slavery and civil rights in a controversial new curriculum being pushed through by the Texas school board.

Members of the state's board of education put the finishing touches on Friday to a new history and social studies curriculum for the state's 4.8 million state school students.

The proposed programme, which will affect other parts of the US due to Texas's large share of the school textbook market, has prompted months of fierce argument and protests outside the board's headquarters in Austin.


Conservatives, who constitute a two-thirds majority on the 15-strong board, which is composed of non-education specialists, say the new curriculum will be more positive about America, particularly the South, and its history.

Once every 10 years, the board edits hundreds of pages of educational guidelines known as the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills.

Conservative members claim that a liberal bias had crept into the curriculum under previous Democrat-controlled boards.

Yesterday, the board approved a proposal to make students consider the political views of Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president, alongside those of Abraham Lincoln. Board members said it should be made clear the American Civil War was fought principally over states' rights rather than slavery - though the group did drop a plan to refer to the slave trade as the "Atlantic triangular trade".

Other changes water down criticism of Senator Joe McCarthy's anti-communist witchhunt in the 1950s and portray the UN's funding for international humanitarian relief and environmental initiatives as threats to individual freedom and US sovereignty.

Students will be required to study conservative organisations and movements such as the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.

Ronald Reagan has been added to a list of "great Americans", while country music, but not hip hop, can be described as an important cultural movement.

The board's five Democrats put up little resistance to the changes before a main vote on Thursday night but drew the line at a Republican call for President Barack Obama to be included in the curriculum using his controversial second name of Hussein.

Last year, conservatives on the same board changed the science curriculum to downplay the teaching of evolution and the Big Bang theory of the creation of the Universe.

 

[Patranus]

It's official: the Texas Board of Ed approved changes to its Social Studies guidelines

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...tes-promoted-in-Texas-textbook-revisions.html

Do you have the actual text of the new curriculum?

 

[ModerateRepZero]

I don't think it's posted yet, but fwiw you can view the original guidelines and proposed changes here (most recent at the top, with older info at the bottom):

http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=3643

 

[werepossum]

It's official: the Texas Board of Ed approved changes to its Social Studies guidelines

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...tes-promoted-in-Texas-textbook-revisions.html

No way am I reading hundreds of pages, but I generally approve of some of the things listed. Previous blurbs made it sound further off center. Trouble is, we don't know what the curriculum was before. I'm all for teaching the virtues of free enterprise and America, and most history books are way too hard on McCarthy, not mentioning that the Venona Papers reveal that the CIA was feeding him information from actual wire taps, but saying that the Civil War was fought for "states' rights" without adding "to keep some people as property" is just wrong. Since conservatives have a two-thirds majority this year and an unknown majority last year I suspect that the liberal bias would be pretty mild, although granted that is someone's classification, probably a liberal reporter's view.

 

[Double Trouble]

I'm seeing all sorts of comments from people about the supposed guidelines -- some lambasting them, others praising them. The stuff they teach in schools nowadays is generally slanted to the politically correct and left-leaning, so a little adjustment to the right is probably a good thing. Going overboard with fundie revisionism is not.

As a country we need to do a better job of keeping political bullshit from both sides out of the classrooms. There's gotta be a middle road somewhere.

 

[Harvey]

(Pssst ... Cynthia Dunbar is a Fundie Loon)

It bears repeating.

Yes, it does. QFT!

What will Texas do when their schools lose their accreditation and universities in other states refuse to accept students' applications and schools in other states refuse to accept their credits when their parents move to a state outside of the moronosphere? :hmm:

In other news, Texas is also demanding that all chemistry, English, history, geography, math and physics textbooks should be formatted as coloring books supported by links to facebook, myspace, youtube and that great repository of all idocy, the George W. Bush Library.

 

[Infohawk]

moronosphere?

Love it. Did you get this from somewhere?

 

[timosyy]

Heh... weird. We actually did refer to the slave trade as the Atlantic triangular trade in a few of my classes growing up (they were for the most part interchangeable). I'm surprised that's the contentious issue they backed off from.

Edit: I'm from the Northern Virginia/D.C. area.

 

[Jhhnn]

Well if it started tiled left and tiled it right what does that mean?

The "progressive" still cant explain why the violence of the black panthers shouldn't be taught along side the peaceful movements during the civil rights movement or why the unintended consequences of the civil rights act shouldn't be taught alongside of its benefits.

I always thought they should teach both sides of the story not just the "progressive" side.

I'll bite- teach us about the "unintended consequences of the civil rights act"...

 

[lupi]

this is what happens when you try to bend things to far to one side.

 

[her209]

Excluding Confederate figures is left leaning? WTF?

 

[cubby1223]

Yes, it does. QFT!

What will Texas do when their schools lose their accreditation and universities in other states refuse to accept students' applications and schools in other states refuse to accept their credits when their parents move to a state outside of the moronosphere? :hmm:

In other news, Texas is also demanding that all chemistry, English, history, geography, math and physics textbooks should be formatted as coloring books supported by links to facebook, myspace, youtube and that great repository of all idocy, the George W. Bush Library.

You really do have a lot of hate built up inside yourself. Try to release it out in more constructive ways.

 

[Rainsford]

Excluding Confederate figures is left leaning? WTF?

My favorite is the throwaway line at the end of the article about "downplaying" evolution in changes made previously by the same board. Biology apparently has a liberal bias now.

 

[Rainsford]

I'm seeing all sorts of comments from people about the supposed guidelines -- some lambasting them, others praising them. The stuff they teach in schools nowadays is generally slanted to the politically correct and left-leaning, so a little adjustment to the right is probably a good thing. Going overboard with fundie revisionism is not.

As a country we need to do a better job of keeping political bullshit from both sides out of the classrooms. There's gotta be a middle road somewhere.

There is, by trying to be as apolitical in teaching the issues as possible. History class shouldn't advocate for one side or another in teaching the US Civil War, beyond any inherent advocacy present in presenting all the facts. School should be, to the extent possible, about teaching facts and how to think about them, not in pushing any particular agenda.

And to do that, we need a much better notion of what's political bias and what's not. While I'm sure there are actual instances of real political bias, too often "liberal bias" in education seems to mean presenting facts some conservatives don't like (such as teaching evolution). Apolitical does NOT mean center. "Left-leaning" (or right leaning, for that matter) is NOT a negative thing if the facts really support it.

 

[Patranus]

School should be, to the extent possible, about teaching facts and how to think about them, not in pushing any particular agenda.

Your comment contradicts itself.

Aside from that lets take a look at a concrete example that is "controversial".

Before the change, schools taught about MLK and peaceful civil rights movement.
The new curriculum not teaches about both the peaceful civil rights movement and the violent civil rights movement such as the black panthers.
They are now teaching both sides of the issue but somehow this is "controversial".

A second example would be the repercussions of the civil rights act. While many good things came from the civil rights act there were some unintended consequences such as "reverse racism"/affirmative action. While the good parts of the civil rights act were taught before now both side are going to be taught which will allow students to think critically about this issue.

Excluding Confederate figures is left leaning? WTF?

What rational can you give to exclude Confederate figures? Did the civil war not significantly impact the United State?

 

[irishScott]

Heh... weird. We actually did refer to the slave trade as the Atlantic triangular trade in a few of my classes growing up (they were for the most part interchangeable). I'm surprised that's the contentious issue they backed off from.

Edit: I'm from the Northern Virginia/D.C. area.

Same here. Came up in the same area. It was still taught that the triangle trade was a slave trade. Basically semantics, like a lot of those revisions.

I personally disagree with some of them, but none of them are significant enough for me to go all ZOMG CORRUPTION OF THE CHILDREN THINK OF THE FUCKING CHILDREN!!!111oneone1

 

[her209]

What rational can you give to exclude Confederate figures?

Because they lost. Get over it.

 

[Throckmorton]

Wow, what's with all the BS?? Patranus have you even been to Texas?


I sure as hell remember learning about the Black Panthers in school in Texas. Maybe they should modify the curriculum to teach kids how they exercised their right to bear arms, instead of this abstract NRA type white-men-in-funny-hats indoctrination we're getting now.

 

[dmcowen674]

I'm seeing all sorts of comments from people about the supposed guidelines -- some lambasting them, others praising them. The stuff they teach in schools nowadays is generally slanted to the politically correct and left-leaning, so a little adjustment to the right is probably a good thing. Going overboard with fundie revisionism is not.

As a country we need to do a better job of keeping political bullshit from both sides out of the classrooms. There's gotta be a middle road somewhere.

Well how in the hell does Texas get to mandate what the country uses for books?

Why is this not governed from Washington?

The No Child Left Behind was a federal mandate on teachers to teach to a test.

Somehow Texas has to be over-ruled, Bush is no longer the President.

 

[NesuD]

Rightwingers have a such a unique interpretation of truth. I mean, America WAS founded by a bunch of racist white dudes.

LOL! Seriously I don't see where that is even worth mentioning since basically all the colonists were "racist white dudes" by your definition. However the problem with portraying them that way is that by the standards of their time that wasn't a very big deal. You cannot judge people who lived over 200 years ago by todays standards. It is the equivilent of an "Apples and Oranges" comparison to do so. That said history text books have been rewritten to reflect a more liberal view of history over the past 30 years so what they are doing is really no different than what their Liberal counterparts have been doing for the past 3 decades. History is written by the victors. Right now that is them. In a few years the Other side will regain control of the curriculum and rewrite it again.

 

[spittledip]

Too bad the complete truth about American history can't be in the school books. Of course, at this point, I myself am not sure what the true history is b/c it might have been fed to me with some sort of slant while I was in school... Fortunately we have PBS and cable TV shows to clear it all up.

 

[Kappo]

Once again the stupidity of religion infects the minds of our youth.

Indoctrination is rampant in our school systems. Thing is, this kind of crap is the minority, whereas the most prolific is liberalism.

 

[Brainonska511]

Indoctrination is rampant in our school systems. Thing is, this kind of crap is the minority, whereas the most prolific is liberalism.

Right....

If you scream it loud enough, it must be true.