New textbook standards approved in Texas are poised to revolutionize public-school curricula nationwide, and liberal educators are furious. Every year the Texas State Board of Education revises a particular subject curriculum, outlining rules that school districts must follow in purchasing teaching materials with state money. Since Texas is the single largest purchaser of textbooks in the country, it holds sway over content of books available on the market to all states.

This year's revisions focus on the social studies curriculum and promote a more patriotic position than current texts endorse, according to Cynthia Dunbar, one of 10 Republicans on the 15-member board. The revisions were codified at a full board meeting in Austin, Texas, last week and are up for a final vote in May.

"I think [the standards] are pro-American, but not to the extent that the other side is saying we're whitewashing history," explained Dunbar in a March 15 Fox News interview. A Wall Street Journal editorial belittled her for calling public education "clearly tyrannical" and a "subtly deceptive tool of perversion" in her 2008 book One Nation Under God. The article said critics view the school board as "a sort of Texas inquisition, in which buffoons who believe they're authorities hand down half-baked opinions from overstuffed chairs."

The new social studies revisions include:

• an "America is exceptional" theme;

• changes in the Middle East curriculum;

• broad use of terms like free enterprise and expansionism instead of capitalism and imperialism, respectively;

• a requirement to "analyze any unintended consequences" of 1960 reforms such as affirmative action;

• inclusion of information about "communist infiltration in the U.S. government," vindicating Senator Joseph McCarthy;

• use of the term "constitutional republic" rather than "democratic" or "representative democracy" in reference to the U.S. form of government;

• de-emphasis on the history of the civil rights movement and on the concept of separation of church and state;

• emphasis on the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms;

• use of traditional date references as B.C. and A.D. rather than B.C.E. and C.E.;

• removal of the term "Enlightenment ideas" from reference to political revolutions;

• exclusion of art work involving nude figures; and

• analysis of devaluation of the dollar since the inception of the Federal Reserve and abandonment of the gold standard.

Dunbar explained the board's efforts as necessary "clean-up" of a curriculum tainted with a "subtle trend" toward negativity about America, which explains their reason for using terms like free enterprise in place of capitalism. "We wanted to make sure ... there was a patriotic position promoted, because America, after all, is still the greatest nation on Earth."

Critics view the changes as part of a right-wing conspiracy. "Religious conservatives began a concerted effort to take control of the state board beginning in 1992" when it became a "culture war battleground" bewails the Texas Freedom Network (TFN), which bills itself as an organization founded "to counter the religious right." It accuses the board of poor scholarship in enacting "numerous and outrageously foolish, intolerant and ignorant changes based on little more than their own (limited) knowledge and personal beliefs." TFN spokesman Kathy Miller complained in a Fox News broadcast, "This is not a good way to make sound education policy."

The Washington Post quotes one textbook author, Paul S. Boyer, expressing his uneasiness. "I'm made uncomfortable by mandates of this kind," said the University of Wisconsin-Madison professor. He worries the changes might make him reluctant to endorse his own work.

Yet others are less quick to judge. "If the textbooks are shifting right, is that a departure from accuracy or a move toward it?" queried Dallas Morning News columnist Mark Davis.

Jonathan Saenz with the conservative think-tank Free Market Foundation (FMF) told Fox News, "What [critics] support is a review committee that took out Independence Day, a review committee that took out Veterans Day, a review committee that took out Christmas, took out Rosh Hashanah, took out Neil Armstrong and Albert Einstein." Saenz explained FMF's involvement in the textbook wars, saying, "We're trying to make sure that any religious heritage of our nation is not censored."

As to rumors the Texas school board stripped Thomas Jefferson from the school curriculum, Dunbar chuckled, "Thomas Jefferson is still in."

The board adopted new science standards last year after an equally controversial battle over creationism versus evolution, acknowledged as a conservative victory. In 2008, updates to language arts standards were enacted. A full webcast of last week's board meeting about the social studies curriculum is available at this link.

Photo: The Alamo

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (5)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Dr. C. Riley said:

Chuck Norris article actually pretty good I actually think Chuck Norris’s double-length exclusive column on the issue is pretty good ("Don't mess with Texas...textbooks") http://www.wnd.com/index.php?f.....eId=127935 Here's a sample: “Limited federal government is what has allowed us to be independent and autonomous over our curriculum. For example, while federal courts have banned educational options like Intelligent Design in biology, many who are involved in the curricula decision-making process in the Lone Star state believe there is a place for it somewhere in academia, if even in classes on government. If God was good enough for our Founders, and Creator-language important enough to be in pivotal documents like the Declaration of Independence, then why can’t our kids be educated about that Creator from at least their original documents? “Opponents’ primary rebuttal to Creator education is often to retort that the First Amendment prohibits it, but America’s founders penned the First Amendment to protect not prohibit the practice of religion, even in public arenas. That misunderstanding was witnessed again on the SBOE, as Democratic board member Mavis B. Knight introduced an amendment covering the separation of church and state. She explained that it was "intended to inform students that there is a political and legal doctrine out there that addresses the issue.” But Republican board member Ken Mercer rightly rebutted, "I think [the Founders’] point was that they did not want a separation from religion, they just wanted to avoid having a national denomination...one religion everyone would have to follow. I think they had a different understanding of religious freedom." Mrs. Knight’s amendment was voted down by the SBOE.” For another 1000 additional words from Norris on this issue, go to http://www.wnd.com/index.php?f.....eId=127935

March 17, 2010

No More NEA, Lowly rated comment [Show]

Baskar Guha said:

Texas. The Lone Dwindling Star State. The beginning of the end for Texas has begun. Taliban rulers in far reaches of Afghanistan and Pakistan will be proud of the intolerant revisionism of the Texas school board. Maybe like-minded Texans and Talibans should fight on the same side against the civilized world.

March 18, 2010

Lurline Pickles said:

Parents be vigilent. This just adds to the importance of parents vigilence over their childs' curriculum so that corrections can be emphasized as needed. I attended public school in the DFW area and found it to be a quality education. Unfortunately for my children there is too much religious dogma and pro-americanizing of historical events in the current curricula. Thank god for the internet and sites like wikipedia that portray both sides of issues, allowing my child to logically deduce fact. We usually have a good laugh at some of the textbook information. So sad however for uneducated/brainwashed parents who allow their children to absorb this propaganda as fact.

March 18, 2010

mcr said:

The whole of history Should we just ignore the wrongs America has committed in the past so we can continue America's #1! chants? Our treatment of the Indians was abominable, in many ways much worse than the slaves that had been imported. We have supported and installed dictators from Pinochet to Noriega to Saddam Hussein to the Shah of Iran. In every instance, these policies have come back to bite us. Those who forget history will be doomed to repeat it. If we are to continue to be a great nation then we have to face up to the fact that we are not faultless. We have committed errors in the past. We should acknowledge them. This is not a left-wing de-Americanization, it is facing the facts of the past, which many people seem to already have forgotten.

March 18, 2010 | url