Taking a bold stance in favor of equality, The Texas Board of Education has voted to include different cultures and political viewpoints in their history textbooks. Just kidding! Actually, they voted to revise the texts in order to erase the separation between church and state, emphasize the Christian origins of the United States, and put the "free enterprise system" in a more positive light. A final vote will happen in May, and then textbook companies will work furiously to fulfill the revised-history textbook orders of this important customer.
In a strongly worded condemnation of this moment in Texas history, the editors of The New York Times point out that curriculum should be "chosen for its educational value, not politics or ideology." But who can trust The New York Times?
Laurie Lebo, on Religion Dispatches, lays out a detailed case against the motives of the school board in revising history. It's more like "editing" history, by doing things like removing Anne Hutchinson from textbooks because she was a "trouble" maker. After all, Hutchinson wanted to worship in her own way. If that's not trouble, I don't know what is. But Laurie Lebo sounds liberal too. I don't know if we can trust her take on the Texas issue.
Let's get the real story from Texas itself. April Castro, in the Dallas Morning News, reveals that "teachers in Texas will be required to cover the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation's founding fathers, but not highlight the philosophical rationale for the separation of church and state." She goes on to write that the vote denied "numerous attempts to add the names or references to important Hispanics throughout history … another amendment deleted a requirement that sociology students 'explain how institutional racism is evident in American society.'"
Well, we obviously can't trust the Dallas Morning News anymore. I sense a clear liberal bias in Castro's report.
You can't get the real story anywhere these days. I guess we'll have to wait until those new history textbooks start coming out of Texas before we get some information we can trust.
You may remenber the three proverbs:
Misfortune tests the sincerity of friends.
No cross, no crown.
Nobody’s enemy but his own.
One man’s fault is another man’s lesson.
Nancy, I can’t wait to watch the clip. Poor Texas.
Phillie – you’re probably okay for awhile. Can you imagine this happening in Philadelphia? I don’t think the Philadelphian liberals would have abandoned the argument before the final vote, like the Texans did.
Mark, if you’d only learned the TRUTH in school, you wouldn’t be hampered by your liberal attitude. Blame your teachers.
Great post, Kristin. I love the smell of sarcasm in the morning.
The only possible good news is that the national media is covering this state-interest story–just as the national media covered the Kansas State Board’s attempt to re-interpret evolution. It made the Daily Show last night, in fact.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/wed-march-17-2010-snoop-dogg
The segment, which is flat-out hilarious, can be found at 9:15 into the show, entitled “Don’t Mess with Textbooks.” Don’t miss it.
Just the title of your post terrifies me. Fortunately I’m on the East Coast so I may have a little more time to be liberal than the rest of the country. Hopefully I’ll retire before Philadelphia goes that route.
This is horrifying. But, I’m a liberal, so of course I’d think that.