'Texas schoolbook massacre' rewrites American history

[babsbunny]

'Texas schoolbook massacre' rewrites American history

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/texas-schoolbook-massacre-rewrites-american-history-1929320.html

Country music and the speeches of Jefferson Davis could soon be taught in the nation's classrooms

By Guy Adams in Los Angeles

Country music
is an important modern cultural movement; hip-hop isn't. Thomas Jefferson deserves to be erased from a list of "great Americans", but Ronald Reagan doesn't. And we should re-evaluate Senator Joe McCarthy: he was almost certainly a national hero.

If you think that sounds like a quirky rewriting of American history with a right-wing twist, then you're not alone. But if the state of Texas gets its way, it'll be what teachers across the rest of the nation are required to tell their students.

[donco6]

1. Well, no -

Just because Texas adopts it, doesn't really mean the rest of the country is REQUIRED to teach it. Here in Colorado, we don't have a statewide curriculum. We buy our own texts - and yeah, I know Texas can have a huge impact on what's in texts. But we don't usually use texts for history. We use a collection of other materials.

Don't get me wrong, it's bad. But maybe not quite THAT bad.

[enlightenment]

2. Wish they hadn't used texts when my son was in high school there.

Mesa County - can't recall what it was called, but the US history textbook was utter dreck. I supplemented with my undergrad history survey books at home. The teacher didn't care; he was looking at retirement and was running on full automatic.

[donco6]

5. Mesa 51. Grand Junction. That's unfortunate.

Texts are a mistake, in history, IMO. They try to distill so much into a few paragraphs - it reduces it to worthlessness.

We use Expeditionary Learning in a number of our schools. They pick a segment of history and dive deep into it. They may not cover everything from 1812 to 1945 (like most texts are organized), but they learn how to think critically about their readings, they learn how all aspects of life impact what we know of history (art, music, literature, science, philosophy, etc.), and they learn how to learn more about any subject that intrigues them later. These survey courses they teach are so easy to slant one way or another. . . .

[enlightenment]

15. I teach college history now -

I wouldn't use a textbook at all for survey except that I choose not to spend my time with the basic content (names/dates) - so it's convenient to point them back to a simple source for that stuff. Gives me more time to talk about the context.

As for GJ; I have no idea what they're doing now . . . my son graduated in 1998.

[donco6]

16. Yes, a text for reference makes sense.

But to just slog through it? Ugh.

[DCKit]

4. Yeah, but if we can have the smallest influence on what's being taught in TX....

we'll all be better for it. Ignorance IS dangerous.

Think of the Children!!!!!

[donco6]

6. True - and we certainly should oppose it.

But the uk article is maybe a bit too hysterical about the impact of TX on the rest of the country.

[marshall]

3. History is constantly being rewritten

At least that's the post-modern observation. For some historians even Hitler deserves a second look, because he was acting within a certain set of social forces and reacting to what happened to him.

[texastoast]

7. It's not over yet

The texts haven't been confirmed. There is a period of public hearing, and believe me, there is a bunch of testifying going on.

God bless the Texas Freedom Network and Kathy Miller and may Cynthia Dunbar, Don McElroy, and the rest of their wingnut ilk rot in their hell full of open-minded, multicultural people.

What has happened here is a lesson for the rest of the country to not let the nutters into such "low-profile" elected positions of such great power.

[LWolf]

8. "...it'll be what teachers across the rest of the nation are required to tell their students. "

It's normal for text book publishers to put state standards and frameworks into the text books. This was a given when the state board voted to change the state standards a few weeks ago.

What goes into text books from CA and TX affect the rest of the nation, because they are two of the biggest customers of text books.

It doesn't matter what is in the text book; I have to teach what is in MY state standards, not TX'. Of course, with the current focus on moving away from state standards to national standards, that could change.

Unless my district or school mandates a "scripted curriculum," I don't have to use my adopted text verbatim. I've worked for districts that did, and did not, mandate following a "script." That's a whole different issue.

Meanwhile, I don't have to change what I'm teaching, because I'm not in TX. But teachers in TX are required to teach state standards.

With the anti-teacher and anti-public education atmosphere in the nation today, I'm willing to bet that teaching this drek will now be the fault of teachers, not the state board of education and the conservatives who voted them in.

[donco6]

10. Yes, that's my big worry with national standards, too.

Who will make up the national standards board? Political appointees? Will they change with every political wind? Of course.

[LWolf]

12. Of course.

I saw this happen in the 90s in CA; when a group of educators rewrote math standards for CA, Pete Wilson's administration didn't like them, threw them out, and had them rewritten by an appointed committee.

[UTUSN]

9. I can't find the link, think it was from Salon.com, said, "Relax: TX doesn't control

the market anymore, and, besides, IT'S NOT LIKE KIDS PAY ANY ATTENTION TO TEXTBOOKS!1" (paraphrasing)

[Roland99]

11. Link to the actual proposed changes in the Texas history textbooks >>>>>>>

http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=3643

They have added Phyllis Schlafly, Billy Graham, Barry Goldwater, Ann Richards, John Tower (who voted *against* the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts), Kay Bailey Hutchison, more Adam Smith,
and more Reagan.

Appears to be no discussion on Keynesian economics but, rather, a much larger focus on the *benefits* (and no negatives) of a free-market, capitalist economy with fewer regulations.

A dressing up of Nixon and Reagan as leaders. The inclusion of the impeachment trial of Clinton.

There is also a very noticeable alteration of the text to have a Nationalistic overtone, pushing patriotism more and more as if patriotism will make them good student citizens.

This is NOT a good direction to take in history textbooks, esp. when this will effect the rest of the nation, too.

[ZombieHorde]

13. Freaky, recommended. nt

[lunatica]

14. In this case I'm all for burning all but one of those books

I never thought I'd say this or feel this, but the damage that these books will do is monumental and would stretch out for generations. I say keep one of those history textbooks to show in a traveling freak show as an example of what Big Brother types do to indoctrinate the youth.