What can be done about the Texas Textbooks?

[cap]

It looks like the board will vote on party lines 10-5 Republican to Democrat for these textbooks. How can this be stopped?

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Homeschool

[seabeyond]

2. sigh. now teacher..... having kids in texas system i will say that ALL the teachers my children

have encountered has taught academically correct without bigoted belief added in. they are professionals. they take their responsibility teaching our kids correcting as any other teachers across the nation. i have been impressed, relieved and have faith that regardless of what is in these books, the teachers will continue to represent their profession honorably.

i have real issue with the slamming of an effort when it is not warranted.

i am curious too, with these new texas books. i think i will sit down and tlak to the principal at sons middle school to get an idea of what the schools think and are prepared to do.

silly woman

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Well if it's any consolation, when the evolution crap happened in Kansas

the standards voted on by the state board of Ed were just suggested. So the district where I live didn't adopt them. Meanwhile, we voted the anti evolution idiots off the board and changed the standards.

But ignoring what's written in a textbook might be more difficult :shrug:

At any rate, good luck.

[seabeyond]

11. i was talking about this thread with highschool son. he brought up text in book that was one sided

and how his teacher was sure to speak up about one sided and continued the education.... to balance.

evolution, i dont know what the state govt or ed board wants taught. but in the classes for kids, creationism is scorned adn rejected, evolution taught.

[mzteris]

39. NOW you support homeschooling...

:thumbsup:

I've been telling you guys since I joined, you'd pick hs'ing, too, under the right circumstances!

[no_hypocrisy]

3. There should be an injuction and new organization of historians to vote on

history textbooks.

[depakid]

4. Federal standards...

[MattBaggins]

22. Nah let California and New York do it

Cali and NY refuse these text books and work on a joint standards system and the rest of the North East and West Coast will follow us. Plenty of printing companies outside of Texas that will gladly jump for the chance to print our books.

[seabeyond]

23. agreed. i am appreciative of calif. didnt hear about NY. nt

[marmar]

25. I think he's proposing that California and New York do it....it's not actually happening.

[seabeyond]

26. i thought i heard about calif refusing the books? nt

[marmar]

29. Yes. Leland Yee, a CA state senator has proposed legislation, but there's no joint effort with NY

[seabeyond]

32. thank you. that is what i was thinking. appreciate. nt

[redqueen]

47. CA already gets their own versions. (nt)

[MattBaggins]

27. Actually California is looking into the issue

and NY will follow suit when those morons on the Texas school board approve this crap.

What we need is to get NY and Cali on the same sheet of music since we have the political power to do this.

[redqueen]

48. CA already gets their own versions.

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_15098236

[mainer]

54. Who is this Yee guy? I like him!

Sounds like a real progressive.

[proud2BlibKansan]

31. On their way

In place in some states and being piloted in a few districts.

So 5 years from now we'll have federal standards. If all goes as planned.

[Swamp Rat]

5. Demand they be printed on soft, absorbent material.

[mmonk]

6. By banning graduates of these schools from attending public universities.

[seabeyond]

7. respectfully, because you are great..... that is such bullshit and a stupid suggestion, lol

surely you say it in jest. surely you do not feel penalizing kids for stupid adults and fucking with their future is the answer

parent to two texas educated boys

[mmonk]

8. Then how about requiring they take tests on the subject matter involved

before entry. We can't acquiesce to a dumbed down society standard in a competitive world.

[seabeyond]

12. so you are serious? these are minimal changes comparatively speaking to the whole of the kids

education. it is ridiculous that this little bet has to do with a childs worth in university

[mmonk]

13. See my post #10.

[seabeyond]

15. ya, pretty offensive, not accurate (dummy), nor a solution. nt

[mmonk]

18. Too bad you took it that way.

I was saying people need to organize to protect their kids education. Other than that, I see no solution short of some sort of national standard for textbooks done by educators.

[seabeyond]

21. back pedalling. you said a hell of a lot more than that. that is a reasonable statement.

i took it the way you intended. i simply found it absurd

[mmonk]

28. Not back peddling.

I gave an answer to the op if people wanted to slam the brakes on such textbooks. A kind of that would do it answer. It is a free country (so to speak) so I guess you can take it anyway you like. To take it as I want to seriously punish Texas kids or I'm calling them dummies is up to you but not my intent.

[seabeyond]

33. "Dummies" admissions testing act. " that isnt calling the kids dummies? lol

denying them admission to university is a servere punishment to the kids for adult decisions.

i dont know how it can be anything than it is.

hey

peace

[mmonk]

36. Emoticons sometimes don't work on this site.

Anyway, good luck in battling these school boards. I'm battling one myself.

[seabeyond]

37. i am going ot talk to principal at a middle school and pres of education board to better understand

the issues, where we are and how they see it and plan to deal with it. these two people are profession. balanced. they allow conflicting views of the mass majority. (my boys in their democratic opinions). with respect.

anyway... i will become better informed myself.

i am certainly not defending this. but i also see too many people not playing the game. people where it counts

[mmonk]

38. Our school board was taken over.

Some people orgainized in the community to create a new organization to work on things. Here is their http://wakeupwakecounty.com/cms/greatschools">website. On their site, they linked a piece I did titled "Suffer The Children" (4/11/2010). They will be ready next election cycle concerning the board's recent takeover. Get as many like minded people together and voice your concerns as you plan. It is probably the way to go on such matters.

[seabeyond]

41. thanks. the board pres i know is one of the very few democrats in this area. the board here, tend

to draw more liberal people. apprecitate the info.

[mmonk]

52. You're welcome.

Going to the board president is a good idea. I'm sure he or she is probably already thinking about the book situation. Good luck.

[Llewlladdwr]

35. "requiring they take tests on the subject matter involved"?

Ever heard of the SAT? How about the ACT?

Jesus, some people are just plain stupid.

[backscatter712]

42. How about requiring Texas graduates to take remedial course in college...

It's done already today, might as well extend it - make them take real biology and real American history in college their freshman year...

Already, colleges have freshmen test their mathematics skills and take catch-up courses in algebra and trigonometry, since high schools can't seen to teach those subjects adequately.

[seabeyond]

43. or ignoring all the students that dont need the remedial courses, how about the student

being the issue in not learning the subject that the teacher taught and all the many students learned the first time?

and where the fuck do you get the kids arent learning REAL biology or american history.

are you guys dense. purposely obtuse. just mouthing off denigrating all the many many kids getting a nationwide comparative education so you can be snarky.

a few very stupid things were changed. not nearly the level of hysteria i am seeing on this thread.

shameful, truly, at the expense of kids.

[Llewlladdwr]

44. How about not?

If a student scores high enough on the SAT or ACT to qualify for entry into a particular college or university why should the state they graduated high school in matter?

[mmonk]

10. We could call it "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be

Dummies" admissions testing act.;)

In reality, people need to organize on behalf of the kids' education. How to do it, I don't know. That is why I suggested a harsh solution (and unfair) to make people realize they are hurting their children.

[seabeyond]

14. wow.... wow.... hm. i will put my dummies kids education up against anyones kids on the board

btw

whenever youngest said mama.... i would break into song, dont let your babies grow up to be cowboys. here he is 12 and he still says mama occassionally just to hear me break out in song.

i have told them since babies, .... earrings, tattoos, spiked purple hair, but no cowboy music boots or hats. family joke.

[alcibiades_mystery]

16. It's all about you

:eyes:

[seabeyond]

19. nowhere is it about me. it is about kids though. and not an absurd theory to punish them for adult

decisions.

do tell me how it is all about me.

we have progressive people on here advocating denying children further education because of a FEW absurd changes in a book. do we need to address this as a state, .... damn straight. do we know what schools will do with this? not even, but we are not willing to acknowledge that. do we know they wont address this in class even given previous record of being professinal? not even giving them an opportunity. are we being reasonable trashing 13 yrs of education for these few changes, ..... no way.

then you are going to lecture me?

hm

[tabbycat31]

17. states need to stop using Texas as the standard

[redqueen]

50. Check out this article - CA has more students and already gets their own versions.

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_15098236

I don't understand why other states aren't already opting for the CA versions.

[krabigirl]

55. Perhaps they will now, or other states will have their own versions. There will be a demand.

[WolverineDG]

20. Send money, resources, & manpower to the Texas Democrats

that would really help restore sanity in this state.



dg

[tammywammy]

24. +1 !!!!!

[proud2BlibKansan]

34. Best solution yet!

That's how we fixed the evolution mess in Kansas.

[nykym]

30. One big F'en

Bonfire. Burn Baby Burn all Halloween orange and chimney red!

[slackmaster]

40. If Texans want to raise their children to be ignorant of science and history, that's OK with me

It means less competition for good jobs.

[Spike89]

45. Be glad it's not 1960

The textbook problem is sad and potentially can harm the academic progress of some students. Fortunately, the controversy itself opens the doors to alternate sources and of those, there are many. The Internet is firmly established in schools, even in Texas. Intellectually curious students and effective teachers should (and never have) relied solely on any single textbook.

[redqueen]

46. CA has more students and gets their own versions.

States could opt to order their versions instead.

[AngryAmish]

49. A good ole fashioned book burning

[marshall]

51. Don't buy 'em!

Each state can cough up the money to produce their own, and stop riding Texas.

[mainer]

53. With e-books, it's easy to have non-Texas editions of textbooks.

Maybe we should encourage students to make the move to e-book readers. That makes it easy for publishers to release different versions of the same textbook. The stupid Texas edition, and the edition for the rest of the country.

[Greyhound]

56. Pressure your board to refuse those texts. There's nothing you can do about TX.

they're bound and determined to enslave themselves.

[TheKentuckian]

57. Remove their accreditation if such textbooks are used.

This should be top down anyway. These kids aren't competing with Billy down the street or even Sally in Des Moines but with Kuan in S. Korea and Depa in India.

Local control of the schools, funding, and curriculum is a major piece of the problem, in my opinion