Texas Board of Education back in the News...Again

[uruk]

The Texas Board of Education will consider a ruling on Islam's portrayal in history and social studies text books.

Apparently the Board of Education in Texas is concerned that Islam is given more coverage than Christianity in history and social studies text books and that it is skewed to an "Islam good, christianity bad" paradigm. The ruling will warn publishers not to "push pro-islamic, anti-christian viewpoints in world history textbooks".

Members of the Conservative bloc in the School Board are contending that "Middle
Easterners are increasingly buying into companies that publish text books" also, "reviewers have repeatedly documented gross pro-Islamic, anti-Christian distortions in social studies texts" across the U.S. and that past social studies textbooks in Texas also have been "tainted" with pro-Islamic, anti-Christian views."


Opponents are saying that the Conservative bloc of the Texas School Board are "manufacturing a bogus controversy" and "that current books offer a balanced treatment of the world's religions".
This could be response to the social conservative bloc loosing two seats in the republican primary and fearing that they may loose thier influence.

Anyhoos, there are two problems with thier argument. The review powers of the board was restricted in a 1995 ruling and the textbooks in questions haven't been used since 2003.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/091510dntexeducation.28d07a4.html

[Spindrift]

Can they publish anti-islamic, anti-christian viewpoints?

[uruk]

Doesn't say, But something tells me the Texas Board of Education would not raise quite the same brouhaha.

[TubbaBlubba]

I don't see how you would avoid that while portraying history accurately. It's pretty obvious that Europe sucked more as Christianity became more prevalent and sucked less as it disappeared. Meanwhile, the Arab world bloomed during the first 5-6 centuries of Islam.

[uruk]

That may have been the information put forth in the history books that the Board of education objected to. History shows that during the dark ages Christianity had a strong hold on governments and the people fared far better once that type of Christian influence had been reduced.

There seems to be a strong streak of historical revisionisim in the Texas Board of Education. Hope fully the reign of terror will end soon.

I am going to make it a point to retire to Austin and try to run for a seat on the Board.

[Nova Land]

I am going to make it a point to retire to Austin and try to run for a seat on the Board.


You might also be interested in following the Texas school board campaigns of Rebecca Bell-Metereau (http://www.voterebecca.com/) (who is running in District 5) and Judy Jennings (http://www.votejudyjennings.com/) (who is running in district 10). Both appear to me to be good candidates worthy of support.

In addition to going to their websites, you can also learn more about them from the diaries they have been posting at Daily Kos regarding their races and the issues they are concerned with. Here is a list of the Rebecca Bell-Metereau's diaries (http://rebeccabellmetereau.dailykos.com/); and here is a list of Judy Jennings' diaries (http://judy-jennings.dailykos.com/).

(Or, you can find their diaries, as well as stories and diaries others have written about them, by doing a tag search on Judy Jennings (http://www.dailykos.com/tag/Judy%20Jennings) and on Rebecca Bell-Metereau (http://www.dailykos.com/tag/Rebecca%20Bell-Metereau).)

Both candidates posted diaries this week. I especially liked the one Judy Jennings posted, "I Aspire to Obscurity" (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/9/22/904278/-I-Aspire-to-Obscurity), in which she wrote:

In the last several years, the SBOE has had a few members whose grandstanding and partisan politics have made the SBOE the subject of attention from not just the Texas press, but from the national media. Unfortunately, the attention has not been about our wonderful teachers, principals, and active parents who are doing their best to make sure our children receive the best possible education. Instead, the attention has been all about board members who are more interested in getting attention than in educating our children.

... Board members have made all of Texas look bad by their efforts to remove Thomas Jefferson from a list of enlightenment thinkers, in one location changing the words “slave trade” to “Atlantic triangular trade”, and other non-sensical moves. They even ignored sound fiscal policy and voted to invest a portion of Texas education dollars in risky real estate deals...

Let me be clear about why I am an alternative to these current Board members: I do not want to be interviewed on Fox News. And I really don’t want to see Jon Stewart making fun of me on television. All I want to do on the SBOE is to attend meetings on issues like textbook standards and how best to lower the dropout rate of our schoolchildren.

[Nursefoxfire]

Here's an interesting rebuttal of many of the points brought up in this debate:

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/Islam_Resolution_Brief_LH.pdf

[Vortigern99]

Here is a sample from the linked PDF:

CLAIM
World history textbooks
provide, in some cases, twice as
much coverage for Islamic
beliefs, practices and holy
writings than they do for
Christianity.

FACT
This claim is based on an incomplete review of the textbooks.
In fact, the review appears to ignore whole sections of
textbooks that discuss Christianity. Among the ignored topics
were the church in the Byzantine Empire; monasticism and
church reform in the Middle Ages; the Holy Roman Empire;
canon law; religion as a unifying force in Europe; the
Reformation; and Christian influences on art, architecture
and culture in the Renaissance and other eras. Example:
· McDougal’s world history textbook, p. 425, in a
discussion of writers during the Northern Renaissance:
“Although some of Erasmus’s most stinging barbs were
aimed at the clergy, his work is strongly Christian.
Erasmus believed in a Christianity of the heart, not one
of ceremonies or rules. He thought that in order to
improve society, all people should study the Bible.”

CLAIM
World history textbooks “dwell”
on atrocities committed by
Christian Crusaders during the
Middle Ages while ignoring
similar atrocities by Muslim
leaders such as Tamerlane.

FACT
These claims are based on passages often taken out of context
or ignored altogether. That the Crusaders were guilty of
various atrocities against Muslims, Jews and Christians is
historical fact. In addition, however, nearly all world history
textbooks used in Texas classrooms also discuss conquests
and atrocities committed by Muslim leaders, including those
by Tamerlane. Examples:

· Glencoe’s textbook, p. 269, includes this passage about a
Muslim attack on Delhi in India in the 14th century: “As
many as 100,000 Hindu prisoners were massacred before
the gates of the city. It was India’s first meeting with
Timur Lenk (Tamerlane).”
· McDougal’s textbook, p. 444, discusses the same
massacre: “In 1398, he swept through northern India,
leaving destruction and decaying corpses in his wake. He
butchered the inhabitants of Delhi and made a pyramid
of their skulls.”
· The same McDougal textbook also describes how Timur
the Lane (Tamerlane) burned Baghdad to the ground.

[uruk]

You might also be interested in following the Texas school board campaigns of Rebecca Bell-Metereau (http://www.voterebecca.com/) (who is running in District 5) and Judy Jennings (http://www.votejudyjennings.com/) (who is running in district 10). Both appear to me to be good candidates worthy of support.

In addition to going to their websites, you can also learn more about them from the diaries they have been posting at Daily Kos regarding their races and the issues they are concerned with. Here is a list of the Rebecca Bell-Metereau's diaries (http://rebeccabellmetereau.dailykos.com/); and here is a list of Judy Jennings' diaries (http://judy-jennings.dailykos.com/).

(Or, you can find their diaries, as well as stories and diaries others have written about them, by doing a tag search on Judy Jennings (http://www.dailykos.com/tag/Judy%20Jennings) and on Rebecca Bell-Metereau (http://www.dailykos.com/tag/Rebecca%20Bell-Metereau).)

Both candidates posted diaries this week. I especially liked the one Judy Jennings posted, "I Aspire to Obscurity" (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/9/22/904278/-I-Aspire-to-Obscurity), in which she wrote:

Great! Some sanity folding into the TBoE

[aggle-rithm]

FACT
This claim is based on an incomplete review of the textbooks.
In fact, the review appears to ignore whole sections of
textbooks that discuss Christianity. Among the ignored topics
were the church in the Byzantine Empire; monasticism and
church reform in the Middle Ages; the Holy Roman Empire;
canon law;

"Catholic don't count. It's a made-up religion."

*Spit*

[shadron]

"Catholic don't count. It's a made-up religion."

*Spit*

Damn, aggle, you beat me by, oh.... 6 hours. I read that first paragraph, and said to myself - "Ahah, they're doing the old 'Catholics aren't Christians' thing here, cutting off about 75% of Christian history."

PS: Erasmus and Jefferson would have seen eye-to-eye. Maybe Jefferson knew that.

[Nova Land]

Judy Jennings, who is running in District 10, has a new diary up today (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/10/21/16932/061) about the upcoming election and the differences between her and her opponent:

Perhaps my biggest frustration in running for Texas State Board of Education District 10 has been the way certain editorial boards have been unable to see the differences between me and my Republican opponent. These people look at us, two women with Ph.D.s in education, and conclude that the safer choice is to back the Republican in red-state Texas. Safer for their reputations, perhaps, but certainly not safer for Texas children...

I have worked hard in my career as an educator and in this campaign to think first about the interests of children: what is best for their education? I think the best answer is that we need to prepare children to succeed and thrive in the world. We accomplish that by putting the advice and insights of teachers, parents, and subject-matter experts ahead of partisan political agendas and not by injecting politics into the classroom or into our children's textbooks.


For those of you interested in the Texas Board of Education races who don't already frequent Daily Kos, I recommend getting an account there and subscribing to Judy Jennings (http://judy-jennings.dailykos.com/) and Rebecca Bell Metereau (http://rebeccabellmetereau.dailykos.com/).

[C_Felix]

Two things:
Texas and/or any school district isn't required to by a specific text book. Don't agree with the spin in the book? Don't buy it!

Also...
Extra coverage about Islam?
I'm going to compare it to Denmark's education system.
Elementary school is taught in English. Total submersion in English. The theory is, "The kids get their Danish language skills at home, and we're going to teach them a new language at school."
Using that logic, "The kids get their Chrisitian schooling at home, learn about Christianity at home, so, at the school we're gonna teach 'em something different."

[sadhatter]

Why is it that " fair and balanced" treatement of christianity , always means " not talking about anything bad it has done.".

For the love of crap, if all religions were given the same leeway with reality as christianity in textbooks, there would be almost no mention of any large scale strife in the world.

Why isn't just telling the truth good enough? Why do textbooks, intended to educate, have to pander to the insane requests of people who choose to gain their knowledge through bronze age literature?

[excaza]

Why is it that " fair and balanced" treatement of christianity , always means " not talking about anything bad it has done.".

For the love of crap, if all religions were given the same leeway with reality as christianity in textbooks, there would be almost no mention of any large scale strife in the world.

Why isn't just telling the truth good enough? Why do textbooks, intended to educate, have to pander to the insane requests of people who choose to gain their knowledge through bronze age literature?

Squeaky wheel, grease.


Though I suppose this would be loud ranting wheel of stupid, grease.

[uruk]

Everybody has this underlying idea in our heads that the world would be a better place "if.....".

There is a world we all have in our heads, a world formed from the "good ol' days built on the half truths we learned in school, the protected life of parential lies and half-lies we had as children and the treacle world of media entertainment where all of life's problems are solved in thirty minuets. A world where everything runs perfectly and everybody is happy because everyone in that world shares the same personal, philosophical belief system that we do.

When we look at the real world we see suffering and strife and we cluck our tongues saying to ourselves "Look at this, see how bad the world is? Now if everyone just believed in the same things I do, everybody and everything would be right as rain."

Some of the more industrious add " I gotta do something about this" at the end of that thought. So they form special interest and activist groups, get elected to municipal offices which seems to give them the idea that thier office allows them the authority to force thier ideals on everyone else to make the real world more like the world in thier heads.

But it is not desire to help thier fellow man that motivates them, it is fear (the kind of fear politicians and pundits are so eager to take advantage of). Fear that the ideals and beliefs and thus the world in thier heads are incorrect. That they have backed the wrong philosphical horse and that the "innocent good ol' days" of thier childhood really never existed.

The real world is filled with truth not fear. The truth that the real world will never be like the one in our heads. That is not to say that there are not things wrong with the world, but those things are usually caused by people trying to make the real world more like the world in thier heads.

[Garrison0fMars]

I'm thinking maybe succession for Texas isn't such a bad idea after all...

[uruk]

session would be devestating for the Union.

[Garrison0fMars]

It was a joke.

But if they wanted to succeed, I wouldn't stand in their way. :)

[uruk]

Not around here in Texas. You have wackadoos crying for secession from the union while at the same time forgetting all the pork barrel and tax money we recieve for infrastructure and programs from the fed.

[Weak Kitten]

So does that mean they'll be cutting out the massacres of Jews that happened throughout Europe in the lead-up to the First Crusade?

Or are the cutting out the part in the Third Crusade where Richard the "Lionhearted" slaughtered the population of the town of Acre after they had surrendered to him because Richard didn't feel like waiting for their relatives to get together the random money?

Or is it the unusual honor and nobility of the Muslim leader Saladin they object to? A man who, upon hearing that one of the Cristian leaders was suffering of a fever, sent his own personal physician and a shipment of snow from the mountains.

Let's face it, the Crusades were full of saints and sinners on both sides. It would be a shame to cut out any of the fascinating events. Children have enough trouble getting interested in history without having the textbooks sanitized and robbed of all their best stories.

[Vortigern99]

It was a joke.

But if they wanted to succeed, I wouldn't stand in their way. :)

The word is "secede", and your opinion on the subject is not sufficiently informed to be of much consequence.

In short, you don't know what you're blathering about.

[uruk]

So does that mean they'll be cutting out the massacres of Jews that happened throughout Europe in the lead-up to the First Crusade?

Or are the cutting out the part in the Third Crusade where Richard the "Lionhearted" slaughtered the population of the town of Acre after they had surrendered to him because Richard didn't feel like waiting for their relatives to get together the random money?

Or is it the unusual honor and nobility of the Muslim leader Saladin they object to? A man who, upon hearing that one of the Cristian leaders was suffering of a fever, sent his own personal physician and a shipment of snow from the mountains.

Let's face it, the Crusades were full of saints and sinners on both sides. It would be a shame to cut out any of the fascinating events. Children have enough trouble getting interested in history without having the textbooks sanitized and robbed of all their best stories.

It seems to me that the radical right and teapartiers use this "good guy vs. Bad guy" meme all throughout thier rhetoric in order to get thier danders up. So to maintain this dicotomy they have to rewrite history in order to vilify whoever thier latest boogey man is.

They seem to operate on the notion that the world is an episode of 24 or a John Wanye movie.

[Garrison0fMars]

The word is "secede", and your opinion on the subject is not sufficiently informed to be of much consequence.

In short, you don't know what you're blathering about.

Uhn, what "opinion"? What am I blathering about? All I did was make a passing joke about succession in regards to Texas in response to their silly behavior on educational textbooks. In reality I don't really have much of an opinion one way or the other on Texan succession.

[Garrison0fMars]

Not around here in Texas. You have wackadoos crying for secession from the union while at the same time forgetting all the pork barrel and tax money we recieve for infrastructure and programs from the fed.

Well, no one ever said Texan secessionists were smart...

[Dragonrock]

Two things:
Texas and/or any school district isn't required to by a specific text book. Don't agree with the spin in the book? Don't buy it!

Not quite. You see, The Texas Board of Education sets up standards for their textbooks. Publishers then write books that meet these standards. Then the state of Texas purchases hundreds of thousands of copies of each book and stores them in schoolbook repositories. Local school districts get a list of the books by grade and subject and pick which books they want to use. Those books are then furnished free of charge to the school that wants them. School districts don't have to use the books on the list, but then they would have to purchase the books themselves.

These large orders by the state of Texas (which has a rather large population with millions of kids in school) mean huge sales by the publishers. Other school districts in other states have their choices limited because so many publishers write their textbooks in the Texas standards in the hope that they will earn one of those lucrative contracts. So Texas standards end up being important across the nation.

[Elind]

It was a joke.

But if they wanted to succeed, I wouldn't stand in their way. :)

succeeds?

[Normal Dude]

So does that mean they'll be cutting out the massacres of Jews that happened throughout Europe in the lead-up to the First Crusade?

Or are the cutting out the part in the Third Crusade where Richard the "Lionhearted" slaughtered the population of the town of Acre after they had surrendered to him because Richard didn't feel like waiting for their relatives to get together the random money?

Or is it the unusual honor and nobility of the Muslim leader Saladin they object to? A man who, upon hearing that one of the Cristian leaders was suffering of a fever, sent his own personal physician and a shipment of snow from the mountains.

Let's face it, the Crusades were full of saints and sinners on both sides. It would be a shame to cut out any of the fascinating events. Children have enough trouble getting interested in history without having the textbooks sanitized and robbed of all their best stories.

Hey now, I've plenty of Robin Hood movies, and in them Richard seems like a cool dude.

[uruk]

Well, no one ever said Texan secessionists were smart...

Amen to that brother. Only the lower brain stem needs to be working for knee jerk reactions.

[Garrison0fMars]

succeeds?

Yup, it was a pretty dumb spelling error, but what can I do about it?

[cwalner]

Hey now, I've plenty of Robin Hood movies, and in them Richard seems like a cool dude.

Check out the newer one with Russel Crowe. He's not portrayed as a Grade A bastard like John, but he is quite a bit of a douche.

[Elind]

Yup, it was a pretty dumb spelling error, but what can I do about it?

It happens, but I might not have posted if I wasn't wondering that you perhaps actually meant succeed.
;)

[Dr. Keith]

Not quite. You see, The Texas Board of Education sets up standards for their textbooks. Publishers then write books that meet these standards. Then the state of Texas purchases hundreds of thousands of copies of each book and stores them in schoolbook repositories. Local school districts get a list of the books by grade and subject and pick which books they want to use. Those books are then furnished free of charge to the school that wants them. School districts don't have to use the books on the list, but then they would have to purchase the books themselves.

All true.

These large orders by the state of Texas (which has a rather large population with millions of kids in school) mean huge sales by the publishers. Other school districts in other states have their choices limited because so many publishers write their textbooks in the Texas standards in the hope that they will earn one of those lucrative contracts. So Texas standards end up being important across the nation.

Not as much as they used to be. With modern publishing it is easier to make a "Texas Edition" that they can sell to schools in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas without poisoning their entire line of books. So, the national importance of this small groups of idiots is fading.

Personally, I don't like the Texas Edition. I'm waiting for the King Ranch Edition, I hear is has a silver buckle!

[shadron]

Almost all other states buy their textbooks by the school district rather than by the state. That gives Texas the reach it enjoys, as California would easily out buy it were they buying across the whole state.