Texas Textbook Massacre
Posted: Saturday, May 22, 2010
by e
Dhammabucha Rocksprings Meditation
Reflecting the deplorable job that the Texas "Taliban" Board of Education has shamefully foisted on the citizens of one of the largest, most populous states in America, here are some statistics:
Texas is #49 in verbal SAT scores in the nation (493) and #46 in average math SAT scores (502).
Texas is #36 in the nation in high school graduation rates (68%).
Texas was the only state in the nation to cut average per pupil expenditures in fiscal year 2005, resulting in a ranking of #40 nationally; down from #25 in fiscal year 1999.
Between school years 1999 and 2005, the number of central administrators employed by Texas public schools grew by 32.5%, overall staffing in public schools grew by 15.6%, while the number of teachers grew only 13.3%.
These statistics reflect non professional and just plain dumb headedness regarding the Texas Board of Education. To exacerbate the problem, now a handful of right wing, fundamentalist Christians with way too much power with respect to their mentality, have hijacked the educational system and pushed through a rewrite of Social Studies with a fundamentalist, Christian bias that replaces truthful history with a right wing agenda. These changes will appear in all new Texas Textbooks, and because of the way textbooks are printed nationally, will remain in print for ten years, and will show up in all other states as well. This happened even while the protestant Christian faith in Texas is declining rapidly, down 20%. This is an aberration, an unfairness to the vast majority of Texans and Americans that aren't of this narrow minded camp.
Here are some examples of the changes that have been made:
(By TERRENCE STUTZ / The Dallas Morning News):
"Before approving the standards on Friday, board members adopted scores of additional changes – including the restoration of Thomas Jefferson's name (they were going to eliminate Thomas Jefferson from th history books because he promoted separation of church and state) to a list of political philosophers that students will study in world history. Board members had come under criticism for removing Jefferson's name earlier this year though they pointed out that Jefferson would still be studied in other areas of the curriculum such as U.S. history and government.
Board members also adopted a standard that calls on high school students to "compare and contrast" the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment – barring establishment of a state religion – with the legal doctrine of church-state separation that emerged from U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
"We need to have students compare and contrast this current view of separation of church and state with the actual language in the First Amendment," said McLeroy, who like other social conservatives contends that separation of church and state was established in the law only by activist judges and not by the Constitution or Bill of Rights.
Knight led opposition to the proposal, saying it "implies there is no such thing as the legal doctrine of separation of church and state" despite numerous rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court and other courts that have firmly linked the requirement to the First Amendment.
The approved curriculum standards have a definite political and philosophical bent in many areas. For example, high school students will have to learn about leading conservative groups from the 1980s and 1990s in U.S. history – but not about liberal or minority rights groups that are identified as such.
Board members also gave a thumbs-down to requiring history teachers and textbooks to provide coverage on the late Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy, while the late President Ronald Reagan was elevated to more prominent coverage in the curriculum.
In addition, the requirements place Sen. Joseph McCarthy in a more positive light in U.S. history despite condemnation by most historians of the late Republican senator's tactics and his view that the U.S. government was infiltrated by communists in the 1950s."
Also, some other changes: "In final edits leading up to the vote, conservatives rejected language to modernize the classification of historic periods to B.C.E. and C.E. from the traditional B.C. and A.D. They also required that public school students in Texas evaluate efforts by global organizations such as the United Nations to undermine U.S. sovereignty.
McLeroy offered the amendment requiring students to evaluate efforts by global organizations including the U.N. to undermine U.S. sovereignty, saying they threatened individual liberty and freedom.
During the months long process of creating the guidelines, conservatives successfully strengthened the requirements on teaching the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation's Founding Fathers and attempted to water down rationale for the separation of church and state.
The standards will refer to the U.S. government as a "constitutional republic," rather than "democratic," and students will be required to study the decline in the value of the U.S. dollar, including the abandonment of the gold standard." (April Castro - Nation).
Students would learn about the "unintended consequences" of Title IX, affirmative action, and the Great Society, and would study such conservative icons as Phyllis Schlafly, the Heritage Foundation, and the Moral Majority.
There's also more emphasis on religion's role in US history. This was evident in the opening prayer at Friday's meeting in Austin by education board member Cynthia Dunbar made "in the name of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ … [on behalf of] "a Christian land governed by Christian principles." (Christian Science Monitor - Brad Knickerbocker)
I personally would not recommend a move to Texas if you view the above changes as deplorable. Businesses and families must be alerted to the backward culture here and understand that their children will be brainwashed in school, and culturally tainted by their peers regarding the right wing agenda. On a recent visit to the dentist in a small Texas town, the bible was the only book displayed on the waiting room end table. And that same day at the Chevy dealership, all the service advisers had little pictures of Jesus all over their computers.
And a side note about the health care system you will be faced with when moving to Texas:
The Houston Chronicle reports: "A recent spate of national studies paint a dark portrait of the state of health care in Texas. Not only does the Lone Star State lead the nation in its uninsured population, adults and children alike, but the percentage of residents without health coverage could balloon from 27.5 percent to as much as one-third of the population in the next 10 years, a new study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute predicts. Another gloomy report, issued by the Commonwealth Fund, ranked Texas among the 10 worst states for health-care access, prevention of disease, medical treatment, avoidable hospital use and inequality of health care between rich and poor. Texas topped the nation in the percentage of residents who avoid physicians because they can't afford it and ranked 49th for adults without a regular doctor"
This is the culture and this is what you will have to live with in Texas.
Of course, if you have right wing leanings, you should flock to Texas or some other red state, but if you are independent and value your privacy, and your right to truth rather than distortion, then "Don't Mess With Texas."
I call on all fair minded, freedom loving people to gird their loins and begin courageously speaking out. Silence has always been fascism's coconspirator.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)Hey RaymondIt ain't just Texas -- the right wing idiocy preached by FALSE conservatives (No real conservative believes this poppycock) is occurring everywhere. I had occasion to visit the doctor not to long ago and he handed me a copy of the New Testament and urged me to read it (his assumption being that I hadn't already).Of course a few short months later he was convicted of sexual abuse of a patient, lost his license to practice medicine in the province of Ontario and promptly moved to the United States!!One of our government ministers -- Stockwell Day -- a Christian fundamentalist who really believes the Earth was created on Oct 14 6213 BC or whatever and when it was pointed out that the fossil record goes back millions of years. He explained his God put those bones in the ground to trick people. Meaning of course his God is one of lies and deceit.Unfortunately these twits are showing up all over the world not just in Texas!It's unbelievable Terry, but then when we look back to the build up of wars, people must be insane to go along, and what we are witnessing here in America is the beginnings of the same sort of insanity.You Know RaymondI still believe there are enough 'Real Americans' to turn the tide once the truth gets out. I have hope -- because there are more and more folks like yourself putting out this enormous effort to help other folks understand!I hope you're right Terry, because if not, the suffering of humanity will be unimaginable. In the meantime, I will do what I can to peacefully write about what I discern as injustices, things that make people suffer, usually the minority. A society can predicated regarding its eventual success or demise based upon its treatment of minorities, because a society steeped in hatred and separatism will eventually eat itself alive. When there are no little fish left, the sharks eat themselves.So Very TrueKind of amazing what the pursuit of power can make one do and say, isn't it?
Worse, believe!
Scary, huh? I live right in the middle of a small town too, where young impressionable minds are so easily influenced by the shouts of the silent majority speaking out against the evil liberal persecution of God fearing patriots.
It's all I can do to combat the crap that my child comes home from school with, and after vomiting, I do my best to try and appeal to her sense of humanity and the need for her to critically evaluate the sad cries of those who pretend to be oppressed.
Extra curricular activities are like a who's who of Judeo-Christian supremacy. Now I know what KKK assemblies felt like.
My home has been too devalued from recent conservative economic leadership to move, I'd lose my butt! To tell these people out here how their homes were worth what they paid for them only as recently as the Clinton admin, and they return with ya we know Obama is destroying everything. It's that critically thinking thing, it runs rampant around these parts!
So until and unless Obama gets the economic climate turned around, which signs here indicate are beginning to happen, but conservatives are fighting it tooth and nail, then I am probably imprisoned in hell on earth.You would love Boulder, Colorado. The consciousness there is unbelievable. I hope you make it someday to a place that's sane. I've been fortunate enough to be able to live in progressive surroundings. When I found myself in situations where controllers attempted to take me over, I would spit in their faces which I admit lost me a lot of good jobs - one really good one with a large corporation that I was with for ten years before discovering their hidden agenda. I quit the next day! The only thing we can do is live for our principles and let the chips fall where they may. You have to be fearless to stand up to fascism and all its evil tentacles. My principles are doing good for humanity with loving kindness and compassion, which equates to fighting against evil and close mindedness, racism, bigotry, ego centrism and hatred.
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