Shodan quoting:
You were quoting from the NYT article, but you failed to mention that the comment itself is from a fundamentalist involved in the Texas textbook selection process and not from the person covering the story. Naughty, naughty.
You didn’t do this article justice.
The Texas Freedom Network has been worried about this stuff for a long time. But the group also works to counter the efforts of our more reactionary Fellow Texans.
How did thestate school board get that way?
Yes, the board members were elected. Mostly because many voters, alas, don’t really pay attention to that part of the ballot–unless they have axes to grind. And we’ve got some unelected idiots appointed as advisors!
Please follow the links to get more info on these fools.
If you’re a Texan, join the TFN! Even if you aren’t, you might wish to check out some of the information at the website. Because students in many states could be affected.
ETA: Not only recent “troublemakers” might be removed from history.
To the extent that I understand what you are claiming, it is false.
The comment you quoted is indeed from the reporter, and Martin Marty is not a fundamentalist and (AFAIK) is not involved in the Texas textbook selection process.
Bridget Burke - what exactly did Anne Hutchinson achieve, apart from being exiled, that affected the Massachusetts Bay Colony to such a degree that she should be included instead of people like John Cotton or Roger Williams? Perhaps they should include a session studying their Thanksgiving. Or, perhaps, some of the other significant events of the period.
The Right wants to present history as an uninterrupted upward sweep from glory to glory, under the rule of Almighty God. The Left wants to present it as a series of massacres of the politically correct by the Evil White Hegemony[sup]TM[/sup].
'Twas ever thus.
Regards,
Shodan
Anne Hutchinson would not be studied “instead of” the other worthies. Read the text of the objections, linked fromthis page:
Looking to Wikipedia for a middle-of-the-road opinion, I find:
Also, she was one of the founders of Rhode Island.
I left in the second section just for fun. Ben Franklin was a great American & a delightful fellow. But, surely, he got up to some antics that Rev Marshall would consider sinful.
This quotation from the Rev gives a clue to his problem with Anne Hutchinson:
Anne got a Parkway named after her, all the way down in New York State, too. Early feminist, and a rabble rouser. I generally approve of as many rabble rousers, rebels, and ne’er do wells being taught in our history classes as possible. Especially if they made things happen.
The basic issue is that it is ludicrous to compare Cesar Chavez and Ben Franklin as if they were figures of equal historical import. Likewise with Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams - it becomes fairly obvious fairly quickly that one is included because of his significant role in American history, and the other simply out of political correctness.
Regards,
Shodan
True, Roger Williams isn’t that important, unlike Anne’s critical role in what became the suffrage movement.
You act as if that’s not true. I’m sure Catholics and Protestants differed civilly and simply decided to ignore each other for being heretics. Or that women such as Hutchinson wasn’t rebelling against an oppressive patriachal environment. For her to do that at that time is both courageous and worthy of veneration. Probably much more so than some guys who escaped England simply so they could teach their own brand of narrow-minded religious intolerance without interference.
Member, State Board of Education, District 9
Don McLeroy - Incumbent REP 21,755 50.25% 55,368 49.62%
Thomas Ratliff REP 21,536 49.74% 56,207 50.37%
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http://enr.sos.state.tx.us/enr/results/mar02_148_state.htm
Good news, everybody!
Under the standard that you’ve listed, Cesar Chavez belongs there just as much as Benjamin Franklin. The only difference is that Chavez had brown skin and organized other people with brown skin into a labor union. Thus, Benjamin Franklin is venerated because he’s white and part of our country’s creation, and Cesar Chavez shouldn’t be included in the curriculum except out of pity and white guilt.
So McLeroy loses his seat. Which is great, assuming the guy he lost to isn’t equally or more retarded - I have no idea what his story is. It’s depressing that it was by such a slim margin, though.
Without McLeroy, who’s going to stand up to all these experts!?
There is no statutory requirement that your school board buy books approved in Texas. You school board may buy it’s books, or refuse to buy books, anywhere. Texas chooses to centralize it’s purchases, and chooses to have a single authority over those choices. Your school board is not required to do that. But the only real difference is that your school board mostly does what takes the least effort, and lowest dollar cost. That means you, by electing your school board, endorse the choice of Conservative, politically motivated social engineering by the secular power of Protestant Christian Church groups.
Given that book publishing is a contracting market, and text books are the strongest sector of that market, purchaser power should be as powerful a force as economics will allow. If you really care about your own children, and you disagree with the Texas School Board, you will need to actually do something about it. Overwhelmingly, that is not the case. The evil book manufactures sell the books approved in Texas at a lower cost, because they have a ten year contract to produce millions of books.
Pay more. Buy books selected by your local school board. Buy books selected by yourself. There is no law preventing you from telling your children the truth, if you think that modern educational methods do not. Hearing from both points of view will make your children actually have to decide on their own opinions. Of course, that would require you to spend a bit more time actually speaking with your children.
Tris
This is, strictly speaking, true in 30 states. In the other 20, school boards must buy books from the “state adoption” list – the list approved by the state board. Cite. Approval usually hinges on whether state standards are covered sufficiently; committees on or formed to advise state boards recommend adoptable books and the state board votes on them. In non-adoption states, there is still frequently pressure on teachers and administrators to demonstrate that they’re covering all the state standards, so books that obviously do that have an edge in all states.
Keep in mind that there are currently only three major textbook providers in the US K-12 market: Pearson, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and McGraw-Hill. These three have various subsidiaries and the subsidiaries have various programs in each discipline, but it really comes down to just three corporations. (There are a handful of independents, but they generally lack the resources to develop full programs – schools usually like to purchase a set of the same brand across several grades, and get all the integrated extra stuff that comes with a main textbook – so they are very minor players in practical terms.)
While there’s no requirement that adoption states buy Texas-approved books, the way the big 3 companies develop books right now does mean that Texas has an influence. I think the influence is exaggerated and soon to fade, but the influence is there.
In short, companies develop books that offend no state, and then add things to satisfy individual states’ requirements for state editions as needed. If, for instance, no state pipes up saying they’d be offended if Joe McCarthy were featured as a great American, but Texas requires this, Joe would most likely show up in all the books. However, if California et al squawk, as I’m pretty sure they would, Joe would be featured in a special Texas section glued into Texas editions at the press, or in a separate booklet or something.
This has not been my experience. They are definitely interested in low cost, but “least effort” – not so much. I would agree that few school boards do an excellent job of evaluating textbooks – it’s a Herculean task – but not for lack of trying. I really think the biggest problem is not that school boards can’t be bothered to do a thorough job, but that too many people can be bothered, and you get way too many cooks advising the soup. (Phonics! No, whole language! Facts! No, thinking skills! Standards and accountability! No, teachers’ choice and kids’ individual needs!)
I must confess to being a bit to angry about this. My underlying point is that the religious right is reliably more active on local school issues in more places than the more liberal portions of the population. The reason that text books skew to the right, and to religious based views is that those are the characteristics of the people who care most ardently about doing something about the issue. The point you make about the herculean effort needed to counter it is only half the story, the other side is that the herculean effort is pretty much in place, and active on the conservative side, and not just in Texas.
Tris
The vote wasn’t even close. 9-5 says Jesus founded the US riding on a dinosaur.
:dubious: Waitaminnit, why isn’t Cesar Chavez the kind of role model that ought to be held up to our children as someone worthy of emulation?
Woops, just noticed there’s a new pit thread to cover this.
I was wondering who had revived this Zombie thread. Don McLeroy is, indeed a lame duck. The Republican who won the primary is fairly conservative but is not a Young Earth Creationist. Their district is Bryan, Texas. Aggieland.
Once again, I recommend the Texas Freedom Network. Why does Texas have such a voice in national textbook selection? If you are not a Texan, what are you doing to improve things in your state? If you* are* a Texan, contribute!