Texas Approves Conservative Curriculum 999
Macharius writes "Today, the Texas Board of Education approved 11-4 a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the role of Christianity in American history and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light. The article goes on to mention that Texas's textbook approvals carry less influence than they used to due to digital localization technology, but is that even measurable given how many millions of these textbooks will still be used across the country?"
Re:Really? (Score:3, Informative)
I'm not sure how "conservatives" ever became associated with Christian values.
I believe it was a fairly well documented strategic move by the Regan administration. Or was it Bush senior? Either way, the Republicans did it to counter act the image of them being all about the rich protecting the rich and grab some extra working class votes.
Panned out pretty well, much to the annoyance of anyone who believes in conservative economic policies, but not in Jesus.
Hah! (Score:5, Informative)
Take that, O reality with your liberal bias!
Re:Can someone explain please (Score:5, Informative)
You could RTFA :) It contains several of the amendments that were passed.
To comment on a few:
Mr. Bradley ... won approval for an amendment stressing that Germans and Italians were interned in the United States as well as the Japanese during World War II, to counter the idea that the internment of Japanese was motivated by racism.
Yes, obviously that means it can't have been an issue of race...
In the field of sociology, another conservative member, Barbara Cargill, won passage of an amendment requiring the teaching of the importance of personal responsibility for life choices in a section on teen suicide, dating violence, sexuality, drug use and eating disorders.
The topic of sociology tends to blame society for everything, Ms. Cargill said.
Wow - are they going to stop blaming images, films, porn, rock music and computer games for these things too?
Re:Why Texas? (Score:5, Informative)
From the NY Times:
"California is the largest textbook market, but besides being bankrupt, it tends to be so specific about what kinds of information its students should learn that few other states follow its lead."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/magazine/14texbooks-t.html?scp=3&sq=texas%20education&st=cse [nytimes.com]
Re:Can someone explain please (Score:5, Informative)
Here's an excerpt from: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/us/politics/11texas.html?src=me [nytimes.com]
There have also been efforts among conservatives on the board to tweak the history of the civil rights movement. One amendment states that the movement created “unrealistic expectations of equal outcomes” among minorities. Another proposed change removes any reference to race, sex or religion in talking about how different groups have contributed to the national identity.
The amendments are also intended to emphasize the unalloyed superiority of the “free-enterprise system” over others and the desirability of limited government.
One says publishers should “describe the effects of increasing government regulation and taxation on economic development and business planning.”
Throughout the standards, the conservatives have pushed to drop references to American “imperialism,” preferring to call it expansionism. “Country and western music” has been added to the list of cultural movements to be studied.
References to Ralph Nader and Ross Perot are proposed to be removed, while Stonewall Jackson, the Confederate general, is to be listed as a role model for effective leadership, and the ideas in Jefferson Davis’s inaugural address are to be laid side by side with Abraham Lincoln’s speeches.
Early in the hearing on Wednesday, Mr. McLeroy and other conservatives on the board made it clear they would offer still more planks to highlight what they see as the Christian roots of the Constitution and other founding documents.
“To deny the Judeo-Christian values of our founding fathers is just a lie to our kids,” said Ken Mercer, a San Antonio Republican.
Re:Really? (Score:4, Informative)
Various institutions have co-opted the name (most notably the Catholic Church, but there have been many others including the Republican Party). But just using the name doesn't make it Christian. I don't think an institution or organization can even be christian, I think that's reserved for people.
Jesus was completely clear that we should lead by example, and not by ordering each other around, claiming moral superiority, or threat of force. That puts just about every political party and government institution outside the realm of practicing Christian values.
Re:It's about time (Score:5, Informative)
80-90% of them quickly sink to -1 and all the rest get 5, which probably reflects a political polarization among moderators.
Re:It's about time (Score:3, Informative)
Re:"I reject notion of separation of church and st (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Anonymous Coward (Score:4, Informative)
They did. They walked out of the meeting in protest, because they are in the minority on the board. Would you prefer they stay in the meeting and still lose the vote?
Instead, they created a big enough fuss to gain a lot of media attention, and the conservative board members are actually having electoral troubles.
Re:Damn intarweb! (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.aynrand.org/site/News2?id=6177 [aynrand.org] is good for general quotes from the Founding Fathers regarding religion. I like:
"The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion." - John Adams
"...Thirteen governments [of the original states] thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, and which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of mankind." - John Adams
"...an amendment was proposed by inserting the words, 'Jesus Christ...the holy author of our religion,' which was rejected 'By a great majority in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mohammedan, the Hindoo and the Infidel of every denomination.'" - Thomas Jefferson
"Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, more than on our opinions in physics and geometry....The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." - Thomas Jefferson
"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise....During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution." - James Madison
"All natural institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit." - Thomas Paine
Re:Anonymous Coward (Score:3, Informative)
When a system is broken, like this ultra-politicized textbook process, its justifiable to give up on it. Some people take principled stands in life. Sometimes you just need to walk away from a game that's impossible to win.
Id also walk out if a room full of fundies told me that the best compromise is "making sure to list evolution as an untested theory full of flaws and we'll consider mentioning that man and dinosaurs didnt live together, but we're not budging on Christian values forming America."
Its these bullshit compromises that have lead to the US being mocked by other western governments for its pitiful education system.
Oh well, a small percentage of them will go away to college away from their right-wing monoculture and be exposed to different ideas. Lets just ignore this headline then: Texas graduation rate worst in nation, again [chron.com]. Theyre up to 69.2 percent now, err, I guess thats progress.
Godless liberal countries with universal healthcare like Canada and Finland have the best graduation rates in the world. Sorry Texas conservsatives, youre on the losing side of history.
Re:What? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Anonymous Coward (Score:3, Informative)
Every side is entitled to try and promote their viewpoint. To let them get a vote like that by leaving is certainly an emotional statement but completely lacks the realization that; the vote was held, the tally counted, and voluntary absent to make a statement still means factual defeat.
There are 15 members of the board. All 15 voted. All 15 votes were counted. Exactly what is your point?
On top of that, when you have a majority of votes already publicly declared, the other side has lost. The anonymous coward OP is just spewing FUD because it is obvious that uninformed and biased non-educators have done something publicly shamming to us all and wants to defend them.
For Gods sake, the new rules state that Thomas Jefferson's writings were not important to the revolution. You know him, the AUTHOR of the DECELERATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
Re:What? (Score:5, Informative)
Like England is? Last I looked, they were a pretty secular, post-xian society
I agree that the OP is an idiot (substituting one set of religious rulers for another set is hardly an improvement), but note that we still have issues such as the bishops who get given seats in our House of Lords, or the legal requirement for Christian worship in all UK schools (including state schools - the only exception is Faith schools where they can teach myths of a different kind instead). Hell, I even have to pay £100 for insurance when buying a house, because of the medieval Chancel repair liabilities [chancelrepair.org] that the Church still has on thousands of properties.
It's interesting that despite the legal grip of Christianity on the state, compared with the US's separation of church and state, the UK has a far less religious population (both in terms of raw numbers, and also in terms of fundamentalist beliefs). But that doesn't mean the UK is a secular society - I still wish I wasn't under the rule of the Anglican church.
Though to get back to the earlier post - despite the UK still having state religion, I find it funny that at least we print Darwin on our bank notes [wordpress.com] :)
Re:"I reject notion of separation of church and st (Score:2, Informative)
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof
The key word here is "respecting". They cannot make a law that RESPECTS an establishment of religion. Some people try and claim that the Constitution prohibits the ESTABLISHMENT of a religion, but that is obviously not the case. To understand why, simply change the first part of the sentence to something like:
Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of a religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof
Notice now that what this sentence prohibits the establishment of a state religion AND laws that prohibit the free exercise of state religions.... but that doesn't make sense, because why would you make sure that people have free exercise of a religion that can't exist because of the first statement?
It is clear what the founders meant in their papers and notes, as well. The first amendment establishes a clear and complete separation between church and state, for the mutual benefit of both.
Texas BOE Removes Jefferson From History Standard (Score:5, Informative)
emphasis added
The Texas Freedom Network continues to live blog the Texas State Board of Education hearings where the collection of ignorant dolts on that board debate and amend the social studies standards. And it's getting downright surreal. They actually removed Thomas Jefferson and the Enlightenment from the history standards. Seriously.
9:27 - The board is taking up remaining amendments on the high school world history course.
9:30 - Board member Cynthia Dunbar wants to change a standard having students study the impact of Enlightenment ideas on political revolutions from 1750 to the present. She wants to drop the reference to Enlightenment ideas (replacing with "the writings of") and to Thomas Jefferson. She adds Thomas Aquinas and others. Jefferson's ideas, she argues, were based on other political philosophers listed in the standards. We don't buy her argument at all. Board member Bob Craig of Lubbock points out that the curriculum writers clearly wanted to students to study Enlightenment ideas and Jefferson. Could Dunbar's problem be that Jefferson was a Deist? The board approves the amendment, taking Thomas Jefferson OUT of the world history standards.
9:40 - We're just picking ourselves up off the floor. The board's far-right faction has spent months now proclaiming the importance of emphasizing America's exceptionalism in social studies classrooms. But today they voted to remove one of the greatest of America's Founders, Thomas Jefferson, from a standard about the influence of great political philosophers on political revolutions from 1750 to today.
9:45 - Here's the amendment Dunbar changed: "explain the impact of Enlightenment ideas from John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and Thomas Jefferson on political revolutions from 1750 to the present." Here's Dunbar's replacement standard, which passed: "explain the impact of the writings of John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and Sir William Blackstone." Not only does Dunbar's amendment completely change the thrust of the standard. It also appalling drops one of the most influential political philosophers in American history -- Thomas Jefferson.
9:51 - Dunbar's amendment striking Jefferson passed with the votes of the board's far-right members and board member Geraldine "Tincy" Miller of Dallas.
The standard was about the Enlightenment and political revolutions that led to modern liberal democracy. So they removed the Enlightenment references and Thomas Jefferson, who played a key role in the two most prominent revolutions in the history of the Western world, and replaced them with Thomas Aquinas, who lived 500 years before the Enlightenment, and John Calvin, who lived 200 years before the Enlightenment and was a major figure in an entirely different period of history, the Reformation, which preceded the Enlightenment.
Yes, you should, in fact, be mouthing the words "what the fuck" right about now.
And the stupidity continues:
11:21 - Board member Barbara Cargill wants to insert a discussion of the right to bear arms in a standard that focuses on First Amendment rights and the expression of various points of view. This is absurd. If they want students to study the right to bear arms, at least try to find an appropriate place in the standards for it. This is yet another example of politicians destroying the coherence of a curriculum document for no reason other than promoting ideological pet causes. Republican board member Bob Craig of Lubbock is suggesting a better place for such a standard. But the amendment passes anyway. The board's far-right faction is simply impervious to logic.
11:30 - Board member Pat Hardy notes that elsewhere the standards already require students to study each of the freedoms and rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. No one seems to care.
11:33 - Bob Craig tries, once again, to talk some sense into these
Re:What? (Score:1, Informative)
Or you could have ended up lie - OMG - Canada. Canada didn't fight to be free of Britain, and look a them - still a British colony - except they're NOT ... and they're also a post-xian society, with universal health care.
And at the same time we Canadians have the following pre-amble for our Charter of Rights and Freedoms:
Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law:
http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/charter/1.html
Re:What? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Can someone explain please (Score:2, Informative)
Didn't pay much attention to the 2000 election or those shenanigans in Florida, did you?
Sure. The fact that he ransacked the economy, broke all spending records to double the deficit, alienated just about everybody else in the world, and was an unapologetic idiot had nothing to do with it.
"Insightful" my ass.
Re:Woah! (Score:5, Informative)
I dislike them because:
For all their vaunted Christian morals and breastbeating on the importance of marriage, they have a higher divorce rate than the national average [associatedcontent.com], and even 50% higher than the atheists and agnostics they despise.
After they fail and ask God for forgiveness, they go right back to the hookers with whom they got caught (c.f., Jimmy Swaggart).
They embezzle millions from their mega-churches, which makes me think they're in it for the money more than the God (c.f., Jim Baker).
They extort millions from their followers by claiming God will kill them if the sheep don't pay up (c.f., Oral Roberts).
They spend their Christian lives doing everything they can to make homosexuals suffer, only to get busted offering to pay guys at truck stops to receive blowjobs from them (c.f., Bob Allen), or tapping their foot in an airport restroom (c.f., Larry Craig), or using their ministry's travel budget to fund methamphetamine and gay sex party weekends (c.f., Ted Haggard).
In other words, I dislike them because they're hypocrites who claim they're better than everyone else when in fact, they're usually worse, but they're very happy to try to force their morals on me through laws and textbooks.
Re:Texas textbooks. (Score:3, Informative)
To clarify the AC's point below mine, Texas' market for textbooks is large enough that publishers write the textbooks to Texas standards and then sell them nationwide. West Virginia's (or South Carolina's, or Maine's, or Illinois') standards don't get considered.
Conservative California (Score:4, Informative)
Clearly you don't live in California. Only outside CA is the political system perceived as Liberal. Those of us who live within the state have learned that there are a few enclaves of urban liberalism, surrounded by by vast areas of rural conservatism rivaling those of Kansas or Texas.
And then there are a number of conservative urban areas, too, like San Diego, San Bernardino, Bakersfield and Orange County.
Case in point: look at the county by county results [google.com] for proposition 8 (banning gay marriage). Outside Alpine, Mono, and Santa Barbara counties, and the greater Bay Area (a shoe-in), the entire state voted "yes" to ban gay marriage. Honestly I'm rather surprised by Alpine and Mono, being some of the most inland counties, where inland is traditionally more conservative.
Re:"I reject notion of separation of church and st (Score:4, Informative)
"Respecting" is used in the sense of concerning or referring to, not in the sense of esteem. And establishment is used in the sense of an existing institution, not creating a new one.
Re:It was the answer to an important question. (Score:3, Informative)
As late as the middle of May Dukakis was leading 49 to 37 in the NYT poll.
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/17/us/poll-shows-dukakis-leads-bush-many-reagan-backers-shift-sides.html?pagewanted=1 [nytimes.com]
* Only 32 percent of registered voters said the Reagan Administration has done a good job handling the budget deficit; 60 percent said it has not.
* On the problem of illegal drugs, 36 percent said the Administration was doing a good job; 55 percent said it was not.
* On dealing with the conflicts in Central America, 35 percent rated the Administration as having done well; 52 percent said it had not. ...
Moreover, when voters were asked which party would do best at handling whatever they identified as the nation's most important problem - a question poll takers regard as a key leading indicator of voting decision - 40 percent said the Democrats and 29 percent said the Republicans. Democrats have never enjoyed such an advantage since the Times/CBS News Poll first asked the question in 1980, when indeed the Republicans had that big a margin before Mr. Reagan's first victory.
Re:Render unto Cesar. (Score:2, Informative)
Yet another prejudiced remark/insult (stereotyping based upon their group, rather than as individuals).
Boy you're really showing your superiority there. (Not.)
Re:What? (Score:1, Informative)
an argument that was somehow supposed to show that the 2nd law of thermodynamics made evolution impossible
In case anyone's curious, this argument is basically that cells organizing themselves into complex life forms constitutes a decrease in entropy, which, as the second law tells us, is impossible in a closed system. And of course Earth's biosphere is a closed system; it's not like there's A MASSIVE SUN SUPPLYING IT WITH ENERGY.
Re:Hahahahahah (Score:4, Informative)
Really? "Jesus waterboards!" "Jesus saves - at CitiBank - so it's God's will to bail them out!" "Jesus healed the sick - so you don't need universal healthcare. You need to PRAY more."
So while you're being effusive in pointing out the fallibility of the people you're satirizing, do you also deny that the ideas of the individual worth of every human in western culture was influenced by Jewish and Christian scriptures? If you're going to condemn the religious for their failings, do you also deny them credit for their contributions as well? Most of the things that progressives cherish... including the notion that healthcare is a right... arose from the work of people that were influenced by the Second Great Awakening. The people that came up with the idea of things like social insurance were not just religious, but deeply religious. The genesis of the whole progressive movement, somewhat ironically, came from how a generation of believers interpreted their scripture.
BTW - Jesus never said a word against gays or lesbians. Not one. So do like Jesus would - approve same-sex marriage.
How do you knew Jesus of Nazareth would approve of it? He never condemned slavery either. For that matter, he never said a cross word about jaywalking or smoking or grand theft auto. But he did say that he came to fulfill the scriptures, not invalidate them. And the Hebrew scriptures were pretty clear on the subject, wouldn't you say? He also told his apostles that would they declared on Earth would also hold in heaven. And they were pretty clear on the subject as well. Altogether, a theological argument for your position probably isn't your best bet for swaying people. And it's kind of hard to condemn Christianity on one hand, then then try to use it to justify your argument on the other.
Re:Note To Self: (Score:3, Informative)
Education here is terrible unless you pay through the nose for private - the cheapest around here is $4500/yr for elementary, rising to $10000/yr for jr high/high school.
Re:What? (Score:4, Informative)
Where did you hear that?
According to the National Assessment of Education Progress [ed.gov] Texas was doing just fine.
4th Grade Math: 242 (National Average: 237)
4th Grade Reading: 219 (National Average: 217)
8th Grade Math: 281 (National Average: 278)
8th Grade Reading: 258 (National Average: 260)
Re:healthcare debate (Score:3, Informative)
There's one thing I noticed in the health care debate, none of the Democrats proposed voters get the same health care as congress gets.
Actually, Congress uses an insurance exchange system (the FEHBP) that serves as the model for the Democrat's health care overhaul -- the FEHBP has a variety of plans in the exchange, and they can pick the one that best suits their needs. In fact, the Democratic plan actually states Congress and their staff will have to move from the FEHBP to the main insurance exchanges.
Re:What? (Score:1, Informative)
No, that would be because of all the Mexican children who can't speak English.
Re:"I reject notion of separation of church and st (Score:2, Informative)
Re:What? (Score:4, Informative)
Your knowledge of history is shockingly bad.
It's amazing how you can make such a sweeping statement from a simple seven line sentence.
...Hitler and his party (decidedly non-Christian)...
No Hitler was Catholic. If he was warping Christianity to suit his own sick views of world domination, well thats not really different that a lot of leaders in power. Take a look at the following for documented evidence of his (grantedly twisted) Christian views, if you have any intellectual curiosity that is. http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/quotes_hitler.html [stephenjaygould.org]
Oh, and universal healthcare is indeed socialist.
No it is not. This just means you have no idea what socialism is. Do you also consider the public school system, police, firefighters and the military to be socialist? Don't confuse socialism with social programs. They are two completely different things.
Your healthcare is way overpriced for the services you receive. You are paying for all the accountants and administration in the background to track every little nickel and figure out how to bill for it. If this was just paid for (as in Canada) then health cost for identical service would be halved (as in Canada). This has been analyzed and documented to be true.
It's often said that America has the best health care in the world. Well this is true but what isn't said is that the majority, upwards of 90% or more, of Americans cannot receive this type of care because they cannot afford it. The rest get good healthcare no different than say Canada, just twice as expensive. Then there is a sizeable group that cannot afford any healthcare.
Re:Render unto Cesar. (Score:2, Informative)
Manifest destiny has little to do with Christians spreading the word across the world. While the idea existed that it was ordained by the Christian God, Manifest Destiny was the idea that Americans were charged with expanding capitalism, democracy, and even the American government to all of North and Latin America.
"Christian Talibans" is a lovely buzz word... but wholly inappropriate as Taliban is neither an adjective or common noun. It is instead a proper noun describing a terroristic dictatorship that was formerly the ruling body of Iraq and had strong control over Afghanistan and is currently engaging in guerrilla and terrorist assaults to prevent the peoples of those regions from asserting their own power. The Taliban is 100% radicalize Islam in origin and operation. Associating Christians in this way is simply disingenuous. If you want a true analogy, try the Irish Republican Army.
Further, dominionists don't say in any way that they want to forcefully convert any one or that they intend to mass murder any people who will not believe in their exact form of Christianity. Reconstructionists have nothing to do with government or militant attitudes. They're basically the root of the protestant movement away from the control of the Holy See (the pope). Reconstructionism was in fact a break from religious control and not an instantiation of it.
Finally, using a blog to support a radical opinion is about as useful as using a tissue to clean up hurricane Katrina. However, reading it, you'll notice all references to slavery and the law of God are from the Old Testament. If you know anything about modern day apologetics and theism, its been generally accepted for several centuries that the coming of Christ eliminated the "old law" and brought His own based entirely around the premise of John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth and the life. None shall come to the father except through me." Which can in no way be interpreted as Christians enslaving other men.
After all that, I leave you with this: http://xkcd.com/386/ [xkcd.com]