re Texas Board of Education

[Dave Farber <dfarber () me com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Michael Collins <mcollins () aleae com>
> Date: May 17, 2010 2:08:02 PM EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Cc: ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
> Subject: Re: [IP] Texa Board of Education

> Two things I'm wondering about:
>
> 1) Why is a homeschooling parent even on this board?  Are homeschoolers in Texas required to use the same textbooks?  
> Having a militant homeschooler on a public school textbook board seems akin to having Karl Marx on the board of the 
> Cato institute.
>
> 2) Reading the amendments, one of them specifically quotes a Thomas Kinkade artbook (I'm going to leave my aesthetic 
> opinion of the Painter Of Light (tm) to this drippingly sarcastic parenthetical clause) quoting, as far as I can 
> tell, a  fictional immigrant called Jean-Pierre Godet.  McLeroy's apparently a plagiarist already 
> (http://hnn.us/articles/126367.html)
>
> I find myself struggling between my basic urge for democratic government, and scholarly elitism, and in this case I 
> want to come down on scholarly elitism.  Even if I strangle my opinions on creationism down, I can't get over the  
> drivelicious quote farming they're pretending is scholarship.  I'd think a basic requirement for working on a public 
> education policy would be an interest in the public and use of an education. 
>
>
> On May 17, 2010, at 1:17 PM, Dave Farber wrote:
>
> > Begin forwarded message:
> >
> > > From: Sam Waltz <samwaltz () gmail com>
> > > Date: May 17, 2010 12:54:39 PM EDT
> > > To: dave () farber net
> > > Subject: Texas Board of Education
> > >
> > > Hi Dave,
> > >
> > > For your Interesting People list.
> > > One thing that the article doesn't mention is that textbook publishers
> > > frequently have different editions for different states/provinces to
> > > comply with various Boards of Education, so the bureaucratic angle
> > > isn't as unprecedented as the journalist seems to think - even if the
> > > politics are extreme.
> > >
> > > Sam Waltz
> > >
> > >
> > > http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/16/texas-schools-rewrites-us-history
> > >
> > > Texas schools board rewrites US history with lessons promoting God and guns
> > >
> > > US Christian conservatives drop references to slave trade and sideline
> > > Thomas Jefferson who backed church-state separation
> > >
> > > Chris McGreal, Houston
> > > guardian.co.uk, Sunday 16 May 2010 17.19 BST
> > >
> > > Cynthia Dunbar does not have a high regard for her local schools. She
> > > has called them unconstitutional, tyrannical and tools of perversion.
> > > The conservative Texas lawyer has even likened sending children to her
> > > state's schools to "throwing them in to the enemy's flames". Her
> > > hostility runs so deep that she educated her own offspring at home and
> > > at private Christian establishments.
> > >
> > > Now Dunbar is on the brink of fulfilling a promise to change all that,
> > > or at least point Texas schools toward salvation. She is one of a
> > > clutch of Christian evangelists and social conservatives who have
> > > grasped control of the state's education board. This week they are
> > > expected to force through a new curriculum that is likely to shift
> > > what millions of American schoolchildren far beyond Texas learn about
> > > their history.
> > >
> > > The board is to vote on a sweeping purge of alleged liberal bias in
> > > Texas school textbooks in favour of what Dunbar says really matters: a
> > > belief in America as a nation chosen by God as a beacon to the world,
> > > and free enterprise as the cornerstone of liberty and democracy.
> > >
> > > "We are fighting for our children's education and our nation's
> > > future," Dunbar said. "In Texas we have certain statutory obligations
> > > to promote patriotism and to promote the free enterprise system. There
> > > seems to have been a move away from a patriotic ideology. There seems
> > > to be a denial that this was a nation founded under God. We had to go
> > > back and make some corrections."
> > >
> > > Those corrections have prompted a blizzard of accusations of rewriting
> > > history and indoctrinating children by promoting rightwing views on
> > > religion, economics and guns while diminishing the science of
> > > evolution, the civil rights movement and the horrors of slavery.
> > >
> > > Several changes include sidelining Thomas Jefferson, who favoured
> > > separation of church and state, while introducing a new focus on the
> > > "significant contributions" of pro-slavery Confederate leaders during
> > > the civil war.
> > >
> > > The new curriculum asserts that "the right to keep and bear arms" is
> > > an important element of a democratic society. Study of Sir Isaac
> > > Newton is dropped in favour of examining scientific advances through
> > > military technology.
> > >
> > > There is also a suggestion that the anti-communist witch-hunt by
> > > Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s may have been justified.
> > >
> > > The education board has dropped references to the slave trade in
> > > favour of calling it the more innocuous "Atlantic triangular trade",
> > > and recasts the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as driven by Islamic
> > > fundamentalism.
> > >
> > > "There is a battle for the soul of education," said Mavis Knight, a
> > > liberal member of the Texas education board. "They're trying to
> > > indoctrinate with American exceptionalism, the Christian founding of
> > > this country, the free enterprise system. There are strands where the
> > > free enterprise system fits appropriately but they have stretched the
> > > concept of the free enterprise system back to medieval times. The
> > > president of the Texas historical association could not find any
> > > documentation to support the stretching of the free enterprise system
> > > to ancient times but it made no difference."
> > >
> > > The curriculum has alarmed liberals across the country in part because
> > > Texas buys millions of text books every year, giving it considerable
> > > sway over what publishers print. By some estimates, all but a handful
> > > of American states rely on text books written to meet the Texas
> > > curriculum. The California legislature is considering a bill that
> > > would bar them from being used in the state's schools.
> > >
> > > In the past four years, Christian conservatives have won almost half
> > > the seats on the Texas education board and can rely on other
> > > Republicans for support on most issues. They previously tried to
> > > require science teachers to address the "strengths and weaknesses" in
> > > the theory of evolution – a move critics regard as a back door to
> > > teaching creationism – but failed. They have had more success in
> > > tackling history and social studies.
> > >
> > > Dunbar backed amendments to the curriculum that portray the free
> > > enterprise system (there is no mention of capitalism, deemed to be a
> > > tainted word) as a cornerstone of liberty and argue that the
> > > government should have a minimal role in the economy.
> > >
> > > One amendment requires that students be taught that economic
> > > prosperity requires "minimal government intrusion and taxation".
> > >
> > > Underpinning the changes is a particular view of religion.
> > >
> > > Dunbar was elected to the state education board on the back of a
> > > campaign in which she argued for the teaching of creationism –
> > > euphemistically known as intelligent design – in science classes.
> > >
> > > Two years ago, she published a book, One Nation Under God, in which
> > > she argued that the United States was ultimately governed by the
> > > scriptures.
> > >
> > > "The only accurate method of ascertaining the intent of the founding
> > > fathers at the time of our government's inception comes from a
> > > biblical worldview," she wrote. "We as a nation were intended by God
> > > to be a light set on a hill to serve as a beacon of hope and Christian
> > > charity to a lost and dying world."
> > >
> > > On the education board, Dunbar backed changes that include teaching
> > > the role the "Jewish Ten Commandments" played in "political and legal
> > > ideas", and the study of the influence of Moses on the US
> > > constitution. Dunbar says these are important steps to overturning
> > > what she believes is the myth of a separation between church and state
> > > in the US.
> > >
> > > "There's been this amorphous changing of how we look at religion and
> > > how we define religion within American history. One concern I have is
> > > that the viewpoint of the founding fathers is very clear. They were
> > > not against the promotion of religion. I think it is important to
> > > present a historically accurate viewpoint to students," she said.
> > >
> > > On the face of it some of the changes are innocuous but critics say
> > > that closer scrutiny reveals a not-so-hidden agenda. History students
> > > are now to be required to study documents, such as the Mayflower
> > > Compact, which instil the idea of America being founded as a Christian
> > > fundamentalist nation.
> > >
> > > Knight and others do not question that religion was an important force
> > > in American history but they fear that it is being used as a Trojan
> > > horse by evangelists to insert religious indoctrination into the
> > > school curriculum. They point to the wording of amendments such as
> > > that requiring students to "describe how religion and virtue
> > > contributed to the growth of representative government in the American
> > > colonies".
> > >
> > > Among the advisers the board brought in to help rewrite the curriculum
> > > is David Barton, the leader of WallBuilders which seeks to promote
> > > religion in history. Barton has campaigned against the separation of
> > > church and state. He argues that income tax should be abolished
> > > because it contradicts the bible. Among his recommendations was that
> > > pupils should be taught that the declaration of independence
> > > establishes that the creator is at the heart of law, government and
> > > individual rights.
> > >
> > > Conservatives have been accused of an assault on the history of civil
> > > rights. One curriculum amendment describes the civil rights movement
> > > as creating "unrealistic expectations of equal outcomes" among
> > > minorities. Another seeks to place Martin Luther King and the violent
> > > Black Panther movement as opposite sides of the same coin.
> > >
> > > "We had a big discussion around that," said Knight, a former teacher.
> > > "It was an attempt to taint the civil rights movement. They did the
> > > same by almost equating George Wallace [the segregationist governor of
> > > Alabama in the mid-1960s] with the civil rights movement and the
> > > things Martin Luther King Jr was trying to accomplish, as if Wallace
> > > was standing up for white civil rights. That's how slick they are.
> > >
> > > "They're very smooth at excluding the contributions of minorities into
> > > the curriculum. It is as if they want to render minority groups
> > > totally invisible. I think it's racist. I really do."
> > >
> > > The blizzard of amendments has produced the occasional farce. Some
> > > figures have been sidelined because they are deemed to be socialist or
> > > un-American. One of them is a children's author, Bill Martin, who
> > > wrote a popular tale, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Martin
> > > was purged from the curriculum when he was confused with an author
> > > with a similar name but a different book, Ethical Marxism.
> > >
> > > guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010
> > Archives      
>
> Mike Collins
> mcollins () aleae com



-------------------------------------------
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com