ShyGuyInChicago
October 24th, 2010, 01:26 PM
Texas OKs school textbook changes
Critics claim conservatives trying to revise history
Larry Kolvoord / AP
Several hundred protesters gather outside the building where the state Board of Education was meeting Wednesday in Austin, Texas.
Video
Texas textbooks headed for rewrite
May 21: The board's vote could have a ripple effect in public schools across the country. NBC's Education Correspondent Rehema Ellis reports.
Nightly News
By APRIL CASTRO
updated 2 hours, 38 minutes ago
AUSTIN, Texas - The Texas State Board of Education adopted a social studies and history curriculum Friday that amends or waters down the teaching of the civil rights movement, religious freedoms, America's relationship with the U.N. and hundreds of other items.
The new standards were adopted after a final showdown by two 9-5 votes along party lines, after Democrats' and moderate Republicans' efforts to delay a final vote failed.
The ideological debate over the guidelines, which drew intense scrutiny beyond Texas, will be used to determine what important political events and figures some 4.8 million students will learn about for the next decade.
Story continues below ↓
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The standards, which one Democrat called a "travesty," also will be used by textbook publishers who often develop materials for other states based on guidelines approved in Texas, although teachers in the Lone Star state have latitude in deciding how to teach the material.
The board attempted to make more than 200 amendments this week alone, reshaping draft standards that had been prepared over the last year and a half by expert groups of teachers and professors.
As new amendments were being presented just moments before the vote, Democrats bristled that the changes had not been vetted.
"I think we're doing an injustice to the children of this state by piecemealing together, cutting and pasting, coming up with new amendments as late as today," said Mary Helen Berlanga, a Democrat. "What we have done today and what we did yesterday is something that a classroom teacher would not even have accepted."
Church and state
In one of the most significant changes leading up to the vote, the board attempted to water down the rationale for the separation of church and state in a high school government class, pointing out that the words were not in the Constitution and requiring that students compare and contrast the judicial language with the wording in the First Amendment.
They also rejected language to modernize the classification of historic periods to B.C.E. and C.E. from the traditional B.C. and A.D., and agreed to replace Thomas Jefferson as an example of an influential political philosopher in a world history class. They also required students to evaluate efforts by global organizations such as the United Nations to undermine U.S. sovereignty.
Former board chairman Don McLeroy, one of the board's most outspoken conservatives, said the Texas history curriculum has been unfairly skewed to the left after years of Democrats controlling the board and he just wants to bring it back into balance.
"I'm proud to have my name on this document," Republican board member Barbara Cargill said shortly before the vote.
Another Republican board member, David Bradley, said the curriculum revision process has always been political — but this time, the ruling faction had changed since the last time social studies standards were adopted.
"We took our licks, we got outvoted," he said referring to the debate from 10 years earlier. "Now it's 10-5 in the other direction ... we're an elected body, this is a political process. Outside that, go find yourself a benevolent dictator."
During the monthslong revision process, conservatives strengthened requirements on teaching the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation's Founding Fathers and required that the U.S. government be referred to as a "constitutional republic," rather than "democratic." Students will be required to study the decline in the value of the U.S. dollar, including the abandonment of the gold standard.
Duncan: Keep politics out
Educators have blasted the curriculum proposals 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.
The curriculum dispute contributed to McLeroy's defeat in the March state Republican primary.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said school officials "should keep politics out" of curriculum debates.
"We do a disservice to children when we shield them from the truth, just because some people think it is painful or doesn't fit with their particular views," Duncan said in a statement. "Parents should be very wary of politicians designing curriculum."
Click for related content
Vote: Texas curriculum changes good or bad?
Texas board swamped with flak over curriculum plan
Conservatives put stamp on Texas textbooks
After the vote, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas urged the state Legislature to place more control over the board.
"At the end of three long days, the State Board of Education has amended, re-amended and approved curriculum standards that are more ideological than ever, despite pleas to not politicize what is taught to Texas school children," said the state ACLU's executive director, Terri Burke.
At least one lawmaker vowed legislative action to "rein in" the board.
"They have ignored historians and teachers, allowing ideological activists to push the culture war further into our classrooms," said Rep. Mike Villareal, a Democrat. "They fail to understand that we don't want liberal textbooks or conservative textbooks. We want excellent textbooks, written by historians instead of activists."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37271857/ns/us_news-life/?GT1=43001
This is old, but I remembered this because two threads hear mentioned creationism and intelligent design. The main issues is that the textbooks are as of the time of this article being rewritten to deemphasize Thomas Jefferson, to suggest that the founding fathers did not intend for a separation between church and state and to say that the United Nations are a threat to America's sovereignty.
Critics claim conservatives trying to revise history
Larry Kolvoord / AP
Several hundred protesters gather outside the building where the state Board of Education was meeting Wednesday in Austin, Texas.
Video
Texas textbooks headed for rewrite
May 21: The board's vote could have a ripple effect in public schools across the country. NBC's Education Correspondent Rehema Ellis reports.
Nightly News
By APRIL CASTRO
updated 2 hours, 38 minutes ago
AUSTIN, Texas - The Texas State Board of Education adopted a social studies and history curriculum Friday that amends or waters down the teaching of the civil rights movement, religious freedoms, America's relationship with the U.N. and hundreds of other items.
The new standards were adopted after a final showdown by two 9-5 votes along party lines, after Democrats' and moderate Republicans' efforts to delay a final vote failed.
The ideological debate over the guidelines, which drew intense scrutiny beyond Texas, will be used to determine what important political events and figures some 4.8 million students will learn about for the next decade.
Story continues below ↓
advertisement | your ad here
The standards, which one Democrat called a "travesty," also will be used by textbook publishers who often develop materials for other states based on guidelines approved in Texas, although teachers in the Lone Star state have latitude in deciding how to teach the material.
The board attempted to make more than 200 amendments this week alone, reshaping draft standards that had been prepared over the last year and a half by expert groups of teachers and professors.
As new amendments were being presented just moments before the vote, Democrats bristled that the changes had not been vetted.
"I think we're doing an injustice to the children of this state by piecemealing together, cutting and pasting, coming up with new amendments as late as today," said Mary Helen Berlanga, a Democrat. "What we have done today and what we did yesterday is something that a classroom teacher would not even have accepted."
Church and state
In one of the most significant changes leading up to the vote, the board attempted to water down the rationale for the separation of church and state in a high school government class, pointing out that the words were not in the Constitution and requiring that students compare and contrast the judicial language with the wording in the First Amendment.
They also rejected language to modernize the classification of historic periods to B.C.E. and C.E. from the traditional B.C. and A.D., and agreed to replace Thomas Jefferson as an example of an influential political philosopher in a world history class. They also required students to evaluate efforts by global organizations such as the United Nations to undermine U.S. sovereignty.
Former board chairman Don McLeroy, one of the board's most outspoken conservatives, said the Texas history curriculum has been unfairly skewed to the left after years of Democrats controlling the board and he just wants to bring it back into balance.
"I'm proud to have my name on this document," Republican board member Barbara Cargill said shortly before the vote.
Another Republican board member, David Bradley, said the curriculum revision process has always been political — but this time, the ruling faction had changed since the last time social studies standards were adopted.
"We took our licks, we got outvoted," he said referring to the debate from 10 years earlier. "Now it's 10-5 in the other direction ... we're an elected body, this is a political process. Outside that, go find yourself a benevolent dictator."
During the monthslong revision process, conservatives strengthened requirements on teaching the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation's Founding Fathers and required that the U.S. government be referred to as a "constitutional republic," rather than "democratic." Students will be required to study the decline in the value of the U.S. dollar, including the abandonment of the gold standard.
Duncan: Keep politics out
Educators have blasted the curriculum proposals 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.
The curriculum dispute contributed to McLeroy's defeat in the March state Republican primary.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said school officials "should keep politics out" of curriculum debates.
"We do a disservice to children when we shield them from the truth, just because some people think it is painful or doesn't fit with their particular views," Duncan said in a statement. "Parents should be very wary of politicians designing curriculum."
Click for related content
Vote: Texas curriculum changes good or bad?
Texas board swamped with flak over curriculum plan
Conservatives put stamp on Texas textbooks
After the vote, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas urged the state Legislature to place more control over the board.
"At the end of three long days, the State Board of Education has amended, re-amended and approved curriculum standards that are more ideological than ever, despite pleas to not politicize what is taught to Texas school children," said the state ACLU's executive director, Terri Burke.
At least one lawmaker vowed legislative action to "rein in" the board.
"They have ignored historians and teachers, allowing ideological activists to push the culture war further into our classrooms," said Rep. Mike Villareal, a Democrat. "They fail to understand that we don't want liberal textbooks or conservative textbooks. We want excellent textbooks, written by historians instead of activists."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37271857/ns/us_news-life/?GT1=43001
This is old, but I remembered this because two threads hear mentioned creationism and intelligent design. The main issues is that the textbooks are as of the time of this article being rewritten to deemphasize Thomas Jefferson, to suggest that the founding fathers did not intend for a separation between church and state and to say that the United Nations are a threat to America's sovereignty.