(no subject)
May. 18th, 2010 12:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hnpccTexas schools board rewrites US history.
The board is to vote on a sweeping purge of alleged liberal bias in Texas school textbooks in favour of what Dunbar says really matters: a belief in America as a nation chosen by God as a beacon to the world, and free enterprise as the cornerstone of liberty and democracy.
That doesn't seem so much "history" as "propaganda" myself.
The new curriculum asserts that "the right to keep and bear arms" is an important element of a democratic society. Study of Sir Isaac Newton is dropped in favour of examining scientific advances through military technology.
And now I'm seriously curious as to what they're going to teach. Chinese discovery and use of gunpowder? Soviet development of the AK47? Development of the long and cross bows? Somehow I have the feeling that all scientific advances are likely to occur post-US Civil War, and in the US. I could be wrong here though.
Among the advisers the board brought in to help rewrite the curriculum is David Barton, the leader of WallBuilders which seeks to promote religion in history. Barton has campaigned against the separation of church and state. He argues that income tax should be abolished because it contradicts the bible.
Dude. Matthew 22.15-21. The short version: wtf does he take "render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's" to mean exactly?!
(I know it's wrong, but there are times when I really hope that Arizona or Texas or one of the other hugely libertarian states goes the full hog and abolishes all taxation. Because I just want to see how it would work - all roads toll roads, all school fees paid up front, all hospitals paid up front etc. I'm curious is all.)
I have to admit, I'm kind of hoping all this goes through. Because then I'd like to see just how many history teachers either ignore the State-Approved Curriculum (heh, how very Soviet sounding), or encourage their students to look outside the Approved Texts and discover for themselves how off the mark some of this actually is. It could also be kind of funny when an entire generation of Texan students hits college and suddenly discovers how bad their high school history education actually was (I'm getting mental images of the first Jonathon episode of Buffy in S5. "Jonathon didn't star in The Matrix??").
On the other hand I'm really hoping this gets knocked down, because some people never look outside what they were officially taught at school, and their half-remembered memories are what they fervently believe happened. So for the sake of future generations, it's probably better that it's protested against and knocked back now.
I know all this is the US equivalent of the White Blindfold/Black Armband culture wars, on a slightly larger scale. It's more worrying because:
By some estimates, all but a handful of American states rely on text books written to meet the Texas curriculum. The California legislature is considering a bill that would bar them from being used in the state's schools.
I wonder if this will push electronic textbooks in more quickly - much cheaper to produce for starters.
Ah well. The way demographics are going in the US this textbook is unlikely to last that long. Before long Texan students will be being taught that the Mayflower arrived several hundred years after the Vikings and the Spanish and learning about the massive treks of Coronado, de Vaca and de Soto before getting into the fundamentalist nature of the Mayflower settlers.
The board is to vote on a sweeping purge of alleged liberal bias in Texas school textbooks in favour of what Dunbar says really matters: a belief in America as a nation chosen by God as a beacon to the world, and free enterprise as the cornerstone of liberty and democracy.
That doesn't seem so much "history" as "propaganda" myself.
The new curriculum asserts that "the right to keep and bear arms" is an important element of a democratic society. Study of Sir Isaac Newton is dropped in favour of examining scientific advances through military technology.
And now I'm seriously curious as to what they're going to teach. Chinese discovery and use of gunpowder? Soviet development of the AK47? Development of the long and cross bows? Somehow I have the feeling that all scientific advances are likely to occur post-US Civil War, and in the US. I could be wrong here though.
Among the advisers the board brought in to help rewrite the curriculum is David Barton, the leader of WallBuilders which seeks to promote religion in history. Barton has campaigned against the separation of church and state. He argues that income tax should be abolished because it contradicts the bible.
Dude. Matthew 22.15-21. The short version: wtf does he take "render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's" to mean exactly?!
(I know it's wrong, but there are times when I really hope that Arizona or Texas or one of the other hugely libertarian states goes the full hog and abolishes all taxation. Because I just want to see how it would work - all roads toll roads, all school fees paid up front, all hospitals paid up front etc. I'm curious is all.)
I have to admit, I'm kind of hoping all this goes through. Because then I'd like to see just how many history teachers either ignore the State-Approved Curriculum (heh, how very Soviet sounding), or encourage their students to look outside the Approved Texts and discover for themselves how off the mark some of this actually is. It could also be kind of funny when an entire generation of Texan students hits college and suddenly discovers how bad their high school history education actually was (I'm getting mental images of the first Jonathon episode of Buffy in S5. "Jonathon didn't star in The Matrix??").
On the other hand I'm really hoping this gets knocked down, because some people never look outside what they were officially taught at school, and their half-remembered memories are what they fervently believe happened. So for the sake of future generations, it's probably better that it's protested against and knocked back now.
I know all this is the US equivalent of the White Blindfold/Black Armband culture wars, on a slightly larger scale. It's more worrying because:
By some estimates, all but a handful of American states rely on text books written to meet the Texas curriculum. The California legislature is considering a bill that would bar them from being used in the state's schools.
I wonder if this will push electronic textbooks in more quickly - much cheaper to produce for starters.
Ah well. The way demographics are going in the US this textbook is unlikely to last that long. Before long Texan students will be being taught that the Mayflower arrived several hundred years after the Vikings and the Spanish and learning about the massive treks of Coronado, de Vaca and de Soto before getting into the fundamentalist nature of the Mayflower settlers.
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no subject
Date: 2010-05-18 06:57 am (UTC)The US is like another country.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-19 03:18 am (UTC)I have no problem with nativity plays, or plays about rainbow serpents or plays about quite a few things actually. I do have problems with the actual curriculum being biased and/or wrong.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-21 01:01 am (UTC)there are times when I really hope that Arizona or Texas or one of the other hugely libertarian states goes the full hog and abolishes all taxation
Texas is close to this. We are one of I think 2 or 3 states that has no state income tax (Arizona does have state income tax). The state budget is completely funded by sales tax and the Lottery.
how many history teachers either ignore the State-Approved Curriculum
High school teachers already do, in their AP classes. Mainly because they're teaching you what you need to know to pass the AP exams, which are administered by the College Board, which is not based in Texas (New Jersey, I think?). But only smart kids who are into taking hard classes take AP classes--maybe 20% or so of any given graduating class.
Before long Texan students will be being taught that the Mayflower arrived several hundred years after the Vikings and the Spanish and learning about the massive treks of Coronado, de Vaca and de Soto before getting into the fundamentalist nature of the Mayflower settlers.
Texans are already taught this. I was taught this, in Texas History class, when I was in school. Texas is one of the few states that actually requires a "history of our state" class, in 4th grade and 7th grade (used to be 10th too, before they added a World Geography requirement in the mid-'90s).
no subject
Date: 2010-05-21 02:16 am (UTC)Cool. :-) You see I read this and think "wow, that's really good, teaching the actual history of the area and state" and then you have this Schools Board fiasco. Weird.
And yay for World Geography!! Although I'm not sure how some schools would go with that, what with the tectonic plates thing and all. (Either way it's got to be less boring than the "Fishing the Seas" thing we did in year 8 geography. Which should have been much more interesting and relevant than the way it was taught.)
I'm currently reading "A voyage long and strange" by Tony Horwitz, which is about the pre-Mayflower European settlements in the Americas. Hence my sudden interest in/knowledge of some of the more interesting Spanish stuff. I'd be interested to see the Mayflower charter though, will have to check it out. And compare it to the Jamestown charter etc.
The state budget is completely funded by sales tax and the Lottery.
I do wonder how many people play the lottery, and don't realise it's voluntary taxation. Heh.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-21 03:57 am (UTC)Don't get me started on sex ed. Completely nonexistent. Health classes were required, but invariably the chapter on reproductive health was skipped. The prevailing argument here is (1) parents should decide when their kids should hear about these things, and (2) if kids are told about sex they'll do it (LOL).
Seriously, science education is far more of a shambles than history.