Texas BOE and their textbooks

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/09/22/texas-board-education-readies-textbook-resolution-vote/

Interesting article. The Texas BOE claims a pro-Islam, anti-Christian bias in textbooks and is trying to do something about it.

I haven't read the texts that prompted this, but I'm not going to accuse them of redneckery and all the other perjoratives that are certain to come. Have you looked a modern K-12 social studies textbook? My high schooler's social studies class uses The American Pageant. I flipped through it recently and was astonished at, among other things, the marginalized treatment of the European settlers and their ideals, and how much ink was devoted to immigrants from developing countries, their beliefs and how much they've built up this country.

I can see some real problems brewing in the US.

It's Fox News. It's Texas. It's not surprising.

There is nothing new about a school board advancing a cultural agenda. When I was in elementary school in Virginia in the South in the 1940s and 50s, our history books were laden with glowing accounts of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and all the Confederate generals. Abe Lincoln got barely a mention. I don't recall any uproar then.

I don't see that as quite the same. Southerners are proud of Southern history, and the Civil War and Southern beliefs are part of American history.

How are Islamic beliefs such a large part of American history that it gets more attention (according to this article) than the dominant, founding fathers religion(s)?

Shelagh wrote:

I can see some real problems brewing in the US.

I agree. Everyone wants history their way.

Curernt Events should be their way also.

The USA has too many people with differing agendas who know to assert their rghts.

I watched Jimmy Carter interviewed by Bryan Williams three days ago. He said that Fox News was a big part of the problem. Slanted news.
I agree with Jimmy Carter. News people have a responsibility to be unbiased. Otherwise, they are just propaganda machines.
Love,
Betty

Two points. News people are not reporters, they are anchor persons who comment on news from a position that will gain them controversy and ratings points so advertising will sell. True reporters are now stringers, have their own blogs or wander into public broadcasting, the closest to a concern for facts. Again, I don't blame Fox news - they give their listeners what they deserve, I mean ask for.

History is dead wrong by the time it is in print. Any properly trained teacher will use curriculum guides and augment them with current information from the Internet. However, those teachers won't last long if they are not teaching to the standardized test in Social Studies.

Oops, here comes another point. How many religions are there that focus on the Bible as their main book? They all interpret that written history very differently from literal to mystical. Some of it can be traced to actual facts; but most of it is oral history written down.

Wonderful historical documents of fact are available in museums, on the Internet and in libraries worldwide.

Legislatures and school boards feel powerful by dictating curriculum guides and approving texts. Instead, universities should be training teachers to take command of their expertise and use living documents and valid research documentaries.

One of my teaching credentials is High School Political Science; another is middle school Social Studies. When my teachers were telling me they had to get from page A to page Z by the end of the semester as the reason students who were struggling had to keep "moving forward", I was sickened.

Someone needs to look at standardized testing; that's what drives teaching.

LC wrote:

I don't see that as quite the same. Southerners are proud of Southern history, and the Civil War and Southern beliefs are part of American history.

If you had been in the South in the 1950s. you would see it differently. There were still people alive harboring resentments over the loss of the Confederacy and their right to own slaves. And their influences and biases were stronly reflected in the school literature.

LC wrote:

How are Islamic beliefs such a large part of American history that it gets more attention (according to this article) than the dominant, founding fathers religion(s)?

Being a religion, it shouldn't get any attention in public school literature. Neither should the dominant religion of the founding fathers.

When I began to write Flow On Sweet Missouri about my family coming to the United States, I had no idea the Civil War had been fought in Missouri. In fact, some in Missouri felt that state was where the war began. And it is amazing to me how many school teachers also did not know this historic fact.

My ancestors fought on the side of the Union, while neighbors fought on the side of the Confederacy. Religion also played a role, since there was an Irish influence of Catholicism.

The family history reflected the history of the country.

And I must admit I had no idea the war had been fought in Missouri before writing the book. I also discovered my direct ancestor had walked away from his post as a prison guard at the Rock Island Prison, which kept his widow from getting a pension.

Carol

Carol,
your book is most interesting and recommened reading. It's amazing what we discover about our ancestors when we start digging. It brings history alive and that's what you accomplished in your book.

This thread prompted me to write a blog that I posted today.

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Being a religion, it shouldn't get any attention in public school literature. Neither should the dominant religion of the founding fathers.

A secular discussion of the subject has its place. And according to the article, Islam got 159 lines in the textbook vs Christianity's 82. Hence the BOE's complaint.

LC wrote:

A secular discussion of the subject has its place. And according to the article, Islam got 159 lines in the textbook vs Christianity's 82. Hence the BOE's complaint.

Not a valid complaint. It doesn't take as many words to explain Christianity to a culture that comprises a majority of Christians as it does to explain a less-known religion. Many of the details go without saying.

Mention Christmas, and not much further explanation is needed. The holiday is well-known in the culture even among those who do not observe it. Mention Eid Al-Fitr, and most people don't know what it means. (Don't get all hung up on debating these examples; they are only that.)

Seems to me the Texas BOE is getting their panties in a knot just because they can.

It's old stuff for the Texas BOE. It started in the sixties, with an ultra-conservative couple named Norma and Mel Gabler, who launched a campaign to to control what went into the Texas state-approved textbooks. It continues to be a problem for the BOE because Texas is a red state, which means the majority of its citizens are conservatives, in both politics and religion.

The situation gets national attention because Texas is the single largest buyer of textbooks in the nation, so the textbook companies cannot afford to ignore them.

Ann

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Not a valid complaint. It doesn't take as many words to explain Christianity to a culture that comprises a majority of Christians as it does to explain a less-known religion. Many of the details go without saying.

A good textbook leaves nothing "without saying." I personally was raised with no religion, hence knew nothing about any religion (a huge failing on my parents' part, IMO). The first time I learned anything about Christianity other than the decorations I saw in other people's homes was in a high school textbook. Futhermore, if Muslims are a minority in this country, giving their religion more space than others in a general American history text seems particularly misleading.

Re the Gablers. California has been sued by Muslims, Hindus, and other groups who don't like how they are portrayed in textbooks, or think they aren't portrayed enough. It's nothing new anywhere.

LC wrote:

Futhermore, if Muslims are a minority in this country, giving their religion more space than others in a general American history text seems particularly misleading.

Space quotas based on demographic ratios? How odd. What if it's just that there's more to say? What if it's just that the words are longer?

I still think that it's just that it's Texas.

So your parents totally shielded you from Christmas? Assuming you grew up in a Western civilization, they must have kept you out of town and forbade radio and TV. Oh, yeah, don't talk to any of your classmates, either. Do you really think that story is typical? Do you really think there are a lot of parents like yours in Texas?

LC wrote:

A good textbook leaves nothing "without saying."

That's just fundamentally not so. Why do think we have the word, "prerequisite?"

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Space quotas based on demographic ratios? How odd. What if it's just that there's more to say? What if it's just that the words are longer?

Not odd at all. If there's more to say, then it goes in a History of Islam book. Not a History of America book. How odd that you'd even ask that.

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So your parents totally shielded you from Christmas? Assuming you grew up in a Western civilization, they must have kept you out of town and forbade radio and TV. Oh, yeah, don't talk to any of your classmates, either. Do you really think that story is typical? Do you really think there are a lot of parents like yours in Texas?

They didn't "shield" me from Christmas anymore than they "shielded" me from Hannukah. I saw the decorations in the windows and the shopping ads. They just didn't facilitate learning anything about it (actually, it was stronger than that, they actively discouraged it). I didn't learn anything scholarly about the Christian or any religion, not even the rudiments, until I was an adult and looked it up on my own.

As for if there are a lot of parents like this in Texas, religion and church attending has fallen to the wayside here and other Western countries. Online articles about the Pope's recent visit to England kept describing England as "highly secular" and quoted him as saying that "atheism was on the rise."

Al Stevens wrote:

"A good textbook leaves nothing "without saying." That's just fundamentally not so. Why do think we have the word, "prerequisite?"

Where in a textbook is the word "prerequisite needed to read this?" That word applies to specific classes, and general classes -like K-12 Western civ- don't have prerequisites.

Al said:

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I still think that it's just that it's Texas.

I think that its about conservatives. Texas just happens to have a lot of them, and happens to buy a lot of textbooks.

So does California, and they are a blue state, so stuff generally balances, only right now, California cannot afford new textbooks.

Ann

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So does California, and they are a blue state, so stuff generally balances, only right now, California cannot afford new textbooks.

Funny, a couple of years ago Arnold made a big speech about how California was going to go to open source textbooks, how they'd be so much better and save California so much money. He carried print texts as props and said they were just good for weight-lifting.

To date, California hasn't produced one open source text deemed acceptable (scholarly and meets their myriad PC requirements). The open source community depends on volunteers to make it happen, but since Arnold didn't make any of his movies for free, I don't know why he expects authors and editors to do their thing for free.

LC wrote:

Not odd at all. If there's more to say, then it goes in a History of Islam book. Not a History of America book. How odd that you'd even ask that.

Well, since Islam is a religion and America is a country, I think you're twisting things around just to get in a shot.

But, that said, how odd that anyone would think that the history of Islam in America is not a part of the history of America.

You better give up while you're behind.

Al Stevens wrote:

Well, since Islam is a religion and America is a country, I think you're twisting things around just to get in a shot.

But, that said, how odd that anyone would think that the history of Islam in America is not a part of the history of America.

The BOE is concerned about the history of Islam in a textbook about the history of America. Try to keep up.

Yes, some history of Islam is a part of the history of America. Whether it's 159 lines worth is the problem.

LC wrote:

Where in a textbook is the word "prerequisite needed to read this?"

It's implied of course. Sometimes in the title. "Advanced Algebra," for example. Duh. Unless you begin all your textbooks with "Fun with Dick and Jane" and then proceed forthwith.

LC wrote:

Yes, some history of Islam is a part of the history of America. Whether it's 159 lines worth is the problem.

How many lines would make them Bible-thumpin' Texans happy? Sounds like line dancing to me.

How many lines have you written in this thread? Was it worth it?

Al Stevens wrote:

LC wrote:

Where in a textbook is the word "prerequisite needed to read this?"

It's implied of course. Sometimes in the title. "Advanced Algebra," for example. Duh. Unless you begin all your textbooks with "Fun with Dick and Jane" and then proceed forthwith.

You must be trolling at this point because you can't be this dense. The article doesn't describe the title as "Advanced U. S. History." If it did, maybe, just maybe, your "arguments" would make sense.

Al Stevens wrote:

How many lines would make them Bible-thumpin' Texans happy?

Apparently an equal number to the lines devoted to Christianity. Sounds reasonable to me.