This kind of stuff is happening with alarming frequency

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/1 ... 98003.html

I think we have dismissed these wing nuts at our peril.

The whole textbook thing is way too politicized and it's from both sides.Everybody in the process seems to have an agenda other the kids.

All tho I think the actual impact and relevance of this is WAY overblown.

Those are the only lyrics I can reacall of the song some school children were practicing. There is even a song praising The President that uses the tune of "Battle Hymn of the Republic"

Arrgghhhh! Its the Invasion of the Fundies!

ruveyn

It's funny that they see the word "capitalism" as a dirty word.

Who needs these textbooks anyway when this propaganda has been broadcast through all media in the U.S. incessantly for years. In textbooks at least, they can no longer claim this to be a forbidden, alternative view, people who want to rebel against authority will no longer do so by taking up this pack of lies.

The textbooks probably also say that the Holocaust is a myth, and that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were good because a lot of Muslims got killed.

Thank goodness I am out of college. I plan to move to Hawaii, so when I have kids, they won't be trained to be a bunch of little BIGOTS.

All Christians are bigots, and all bigots are Christians. And bigots are worse than serial killers, wife beaters, and child molesters put together.

The Christo-Fascist nut-jobs are on the move!

The New York Times has also been covering this. Apparently every few years, Texas revises its requirements for a different subject; a few years ago, it was science, so we got the huge controversy over evolution by natural selection vs. "intelligent design." The issue at stake is that, since Texas is such a large market, its requirements tend to set the pace for the rest of the nation (in some other states, for example, this kind of decision is made at the school-district level, which further reduces clout).

I really find it sickening how blatantly these people on the Texas Board of Education want to push their ideological and religious agenda. The social/religious conservative bloc seems to be pushing for as much as they possibly can get away with without any regard for fairness or just a basic accurate view of history. The underlying attitude—I am right, no discussion needed, and it is my holy duty to save the ignorant masses—is pretty much antagonistic to a democratic society with a plurality of viewpoints and backgrounds. In some circles, this "faith" and willingness to "defend" it is seen as virtuous; however, anyone who does not share their point of view is going to find their approach supremely arrogant and hostile.

How were these people elected to the BoE in the first place?! I find it distressing that our BoE is populated by people who put their own ideological agendas ahead of students' education!

I cannot believe this sh*t. I am so ashamed for my home state of Texas right now. I can guarantee you that once I am financially able to do so, I am going to make a grand exodus from this f***ed up state; and I'm going to look back and give it the finger as I am driving through the border.

Perhaps the solution is to get rid of textbooks. They are heavy and clumsy and archaic instruments. A mere list of sites on the internet for students to view and use as the basis for classes would be cheaper and more flexible for daily classes and probably more interesting and have more penetrating material than the standard textbook.

I view this as a sign of a sea change in thinking on the Right. The way they see it, the Left has dominated the education field for many years, and has used their control to instill their values into the students, evidence of this train of thought can be seen in the large number of evangelicals who choose to home school rather than send their children to what they view as indoctrination centers. As a product of the US public school system, I have to say that their fears aren't entirely baseless, that educators tend to skew Left is fairly well documented, and it's not unreasonable to expect some of those views to filter down to the students. I certainly experienced it, my 10th grade social studies teacher had quotes by Chomsky painted on his walls, ran for congress on the Green party ticket, and staged personal "interventions" on any of his students who expressed interest in joining the military, and that's just what I recall off the top of my head.

So, while on the one hand I revile the politicizing of the education system that's going on here, on the other I feel that education has skewed to the opposite set of politics for years, and that having another dog in the race might help balance that out in the long run. The evangelical set might be able to flex it's muscles in their traditional strongholds such as Texas, over the rest of the country the impact will be mitigated by the politics local to those areas. In a perfect world I'd prefer neutral education taught by neutral instructors, but given what we have to work with, I'm hoping for ideological stalemate.

What's worse is that I think the Texas School Board is a bunch of traitors. The Republican Party is normally *against* regulating stuff, including textbooks.