Texas textbook war

[Chris]

As goes Texas, so goes the nation....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/1 ... 98003.html

Because Texas is the nation's largest purchaser of textbooks, this decision could influence what students in my state have to study (using my tax dollars). People are laughing at Texas over this!

[Dave Roberts]

As I have followed this, it bothers me that we want to edit what children learn about history. To make it the story of "great white men" and to impose a Christian veneer onto the founding fathers, some of whom had it and some of whom did not, is to present a set of lies to children. At the same time, to dismiss the power of the Great Awakenings and the religious nature of abolition is also to tell lies. Texas wants to determine what all our children learn. What happened to trusting the story as story.

[William Thornton]

[Chris]

[William Thornton]

The gold standard inclusion is clearly a Ron Paul deal.

I guess I would want to know what you guys object to in the changes.

[Chris]

[Dave Roberts]

I find also the downplaying of the civil rights movement and the contributions of Hispanics to be both racist and a form of class warfare practiced in Texas. In addition, the efforts to make the founding fathers all mainline Christians is wrong, because they were not. Like Chris, I think that the Bill of Rights needs to be considered as a whole, not with emphasis on the 2nd Amendment. All 10 need equal emphasis as they were crucial in developing our self-understanding as a republic.

I question that hip-hop is a cultural phenomenon that needs attention. The BC/AD and BCE/CE issues do give weight to Christian tradtion above all others, and a Muslim suit could well have us forced to teach with a parallel set of dates from Mohammed. I too question the significance of Golda Meir.

I wonder why the emphasis on the decline of the dollar would be pressed and the gold standard would still be revived. Few world currencies are backed by precious metals alone in our day.

[Sandy]

Well, this is a state board of education that presides over a public education system that ranks near the bottom in academic achievement compared to the other 49 in just about every category.

[Chris]

[Gary]

This nonsense is thankfully repeated only every 10 years. We are now on the cusp of a sea-change w/r/t textbooks at all levels.

Many Universities have begun negotiations with publishers to use individual chapters and sections of books to comprise the texts of University-level coursework - all electronically. When these negotiations reach their foregone conclusion, gone will be the days of having to pay $100 for a university text of which the professor only refers to a chapter or two.

This will trickle down to the public schools as well. Most school children today are increasingly using "Blackboard"-type online resources so that parents can check up on schoolwork due or turned in, future assignments, weekly and daily reports from teachers to classes as a whole and to some parents in particular. Online references for students are linked from resources such as these - some paid for by the district, others freely available for all to see, use, and be used as reference. The electronic cut-and-paste textbook will be a reality Real Soon Now.

Yes, the parents will have to take an active role in the education of their children. They should anyway. But when the Texas Textbook Committee sits and makes its awful choices 10 years from now, they will have far less influence over the education of children everywhere, even in their own state.

Hopefully, this rising generation can be salvaged.

Gary

[Chris]

Thanks, Gary, for that enlightening post. I have a question. If students are going to be able to reference so many different sources, does the student (taking a test) get credit for the right answer only when he gives the answer in the "approved" textbook?

Example: The story of Creation in the Bible is just as credible as Darwin's Theory of Evolution....TRUE or FALSE?

[Gary]

[Haruo]

[Sandy]

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-a- ... 11399.html

Last paragraphs are telling

[Tim Dahl]

Our illustrious gov'ner wants us to go to internet based learning now. No more textbooks in Texas...

I'm not so sure I like that idea. Granted, I think our gov'ner is a crook; so I'm sure this bias' my opinion.

Tim

[Tim Dahl]

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archi ... teapot___/

Also see ed.com today on Thomas J and Jesus.

[Jonathan]

[Stephen Fox]

A Representative of this Group:

http://www.ameritianity.com/ameritianityhome.html

And Bruce Gourley are having an interesting discussion in the comment line at ABP on Texas Texts

Here:

http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/5141/53/

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispa ... 9755#c9755

[Stephen Fox]

Lebo's stream at RD.org has taken a fascinating turn in the comment lines if any of you deeep thinkers and cultural observers want to explore.
Link above and then navigate around to Lebo's several entries there and her Alabama post.

Tony Cartledge has weighed in here:

http://www.tonycartledge.com/2010/05/re ... story.html

And this morning I signed the guestbook in the hometown newspaper of George Truett, letting them know how I am convinced Truett would oppose the Texas Regular Conservative Textbook committee rewrite.

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispa ... 9996#c9996

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispa ... onal_ones/

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.ethicsdaily.com/news.php?viewStory=16278