Texas Textbooks.
February 15, 2010, 8:35 am
Posted by Cathleen Kaveny
An absolutely fascinating article on religion, American history–and school textbooks. I had no idea that TEXAS controlled so much of the market in textbooks.
I went to public school, but never had too much history–we got out of some history if we took languages. So I don’t really recall this being an issue. Anybody remember their history textbooks?
You didn’t know Texas controls textbooks?
Four million leads:
http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS257&q=texas+controls+textbooks&btnG=Google+Search
Scott Foresman’s textbooks in the old days were great, packed with real information, and it looks as if they still are unafraid of those who seek to suppress and/or dumb down our history:
http://www.scottforesman.com/socialstudies/cahistory/revolutionary.cfm
More on Scott Foresman history:
http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS257&q=scott+foresman+history&btnG=Google+Search
Parents can watch shows like Ken Burns’s Civil War, The War, etc., with their children. It’s a mistake to rely on schools to educate children, particularly in history.
Cathleen,
It’s more than just fascinating, it’s dangerous that a state intentionally wishes to teach its residents things that are demonstrably false.
It makes perfect sense that it would–capitalism works in education, too. Yes, R.P. that too–but I didn’t realize they were teaching other states’ residents the same thing.
I second what RP Burke says.
I more than second what Burke said. As a history teacher and native Texan, this battle has been going on for years. The political appointments and sub-committees in Texas are an embarrassment – talk about lack of transparency; pay back system; croninism, etc.
Like the recent debacle in Kansas over teaching evolution, Texas has both the history and evolution battles and ignorance seems to be the order of the day. Of course, look at the current governor who wants to be re-elected again – not the sharpest crayon in the box.
And folks wonder why the large Texas urban school districts have no money; 76% don’t meet national standards, etc. So, the rest of us go in hock so our children can attend private schools and get an education that is not influenced by these ridiculous troglidytes.
“Troglidytes” -twisting history for reasons of power, cronyism etc.
Hmm -where have I heard that before?
Here is some history on Don McLeroy who is single-handingly trying to re-write history:
“A creationist, McLeroy is known for his criticism of evolution and has tried to convince textbook publishers to demonstrate what he considers the weaknesses of the theory of evolution. The board can refuse to place materials it disagrees with on the state approved list. If school districts want textbooks not on the list, the districts must purchase such materials entirely from their own funds. The board thus selects the textbooks for the entire state’s 4.7 million schoolchildren, where in most other states this selection is made in individual school districts. As a result, it “has outsized influence over the reading material used in classrooms nationwide, since publishers craft their standard textbooks based on the specs of the biggest buyers.”
According to Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, since his election, McLeroy had dragged the Texas State Board of Education into a series of “divisive and unnecessary culture-war battles”. This included McLeroy voting in 2001 to reject the only advanced placement environmental science textbook proposed for Texas high schools even though panels of experts – including one panel from Texas A&M – found the textbook free of errors. Baylor University in Waco used the same textbook.
In 2003 McLeroy led efforts by proponents of creationism and intelligent design to de-emphasize discussion of evolution in proposed new biology textbooks. He was one of only four board members who voted against biology textbooks that year that included a full account of evolution.
Over objections by experts in 2004, McLeroy voted to approve health textbooks that stress “abstinence-only” in regard to instruction about pregnancy and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.
In 2005, McLeroy conducted a sermon in his church, talking about the Board of Education, saying naturalism is “the enemy” and he said: “Why is Intelligent Design the big tent? Because we’re all lined up against the fact that naturalism, that nature is all there is. Whether you’re a progressive creationist, recent creationist, young earth, old earth, it’s all in the tent of Intelligent Design.” An mp3 of the sermon remains online as well as McLeroy’s powerpoint and notes.
According to a 2008 article in The New York Times, “Dr. McLeroy believes that Earth’s appearance is a recent geologic event — thousands of years old, not 4.5 billion. ‘I believe a lot of incredible things,’ he said, ‘The most incredible thing I believe is the Christmas story. That little baby born in the manger was the god that created the universe.’” McLeroy’s statements regarding science have been criticized. McLeroy and other Board members who want to challenge evolution have received criticism from more than fifty scientific organizations over an attempt to weaken science standards on evolution. In particular, biologist Kenneth R. Miller called McLeroy’s statements on science “breathtakingly” incorrect.
In March 2008, McLeroy was criticized for racially and culturally insensitive remarks saying: “What good does it do to put a Chinese story in an English book?” he said. “So you really don’t want Chinese books with a bunch of crazy Chinese words in them.” He later apologized.
In 2009, McLeroy spoke at a board meeting using several quotes from scientists in an attempt to discredit evolution. A biology teacher later found the quotes to be incomplete, out of context, and/or incorrectly taken from a creationist website. McLeroy said that while “some of the material was taken from the creationist site […] a lot of the quotes I did get on my own.”
On May 28, 2009, McLeroy’s nomination as Chair of the Board of Education failed to gain Senate approval since only 19 of 31 Senators voted for him, falling one vote short of the 2/3 majority needed for approval. Gail Lowe became the new Chair, but McLeroy remained dominating board meetings in what Russell Shorto described as “a single-handed display of archconservative political strong-arming.”
In an interview in October 2009 he explained his approach to public school history textbook evaluation: “…we are a Christian nation founded on Christian principles. The way I evaluate history textbooks is first I see how they cover Christianity and Israel. Then I see how they treat Ronald Reagan—he needs to get credit for saving the world from communism and for the good economy over the last twenty years because he lowered taxes.”
With this guy on board, who needs Tea Baggers? Need to see if he has some distant family connection to Sarah Palin.
Check out this Washington Monthly article:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2010/1001.blake.html#Byline
Also, TPM Muckraker
(http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/conservative_vision_ascendant_in_latest_texas_hist.php?ref=fpa ) reports the following:
[Texas State school board member Don McLeroy] proposed a clause in the civil rights section that read “Evaluate changes and events in the United States that have resulted from the civil rights movement, including increased participation of minorities in the political process and unrealistic expectations for equal outcomes.”
And this:
McLeroy and company had also hoped to require science textbooks to address the “strengths and weaknesses” of scientific theories, including evolution. Scientists see the phrase, which was first slipped into Texas curriculum standards in the 1980s, as a back door for bringing creationism into science class. But as soon as news broke that the board was considering reviving it, letters began pouring in from scientists around the country, and science professors began turning out en masse to school board hearings. During public testimony, one biologist arrived at the podium in a Victorian-era gown, complete with a flouncy pink bustle, to remind her audience that in the 1800s religious fundamentalists rejected the germ theory of disease; it has since gained near-universal acceptance. All this fuss made the bloc’s allies skittish, and when the matter finally went to the floor last March, it failed by a single vote.
Overall, there’s lots of huffing and puffing about how terrible the “new atheists” are but the damage done to the credibility of religion by zealots like these guys is simply shrugged off. Why is that?
I always thought a purpose of education was to learn how to reject books, ideas, etc as inadequate. If a curriculum is meant to propagate particular ideas as facts, there is far more wrong with it than just having incorrect facts.
My mother kept a history book from her catholic grammar school. It is fascinating. In public school, it’s all about the Pilgrims, but in her book Maryland was very prominent, as were the first bishops in the Colonies–something completely absent in my public school texts.
Within reason, I think it good for local school boards to control curriculums/textbooks. Of course, they shouldn’t make things up–like the founders being fundies–but there is a lot of room for debate about what to include and what to omit, as my mom’s book shows.
You got out of history by taking a language? What state was this?
Two languages at the same time–Latin and French. We had a half year of history, everything crammed in. So I didn’t get out of it altogether. But it was a lot of facts and dates, which I don’t really remember any more. No real ideology that struck me at the time.
No geography either. Can’t find most things on a map. But that’s why God wants me to get an iphone–as soon as it moves to Verizon!
Rhode Island.
For about 10 years, I taught sixth grade social studies which is world history. I always enjoyed and was fascinated by the treatment of world religions. The 10 commandments were spelled out for the students in the text, as well as the “middle way” of Buddhism, the important gods of Hinduism, and the inception of Islam and the Quaran. This information is extremely valuable to the students, and they delighted in receiving it. For many unchurched students, the mere mention of God was quite interesting to them, and in a good way comforting to them. I always wanted to be on the social studies selection committee to make sure we picked a text that gave religion its due in the world. It not only has a place in social studies, but it is the driving force of social studies.
James Kabala,
Understand that you recently completed a diss on this topic, not textbooks, but the founders and Chrisitianity. I would be interested in your thoughts on how well this article tells that part of the story.
Joe