Calif. Offers Textbook Case of Political Correctness

Fox News ^ | Wednesday, April 30, 2003 | Anita Vogel

[DeuceTraveler]

LOS ANGELES

[goldstategop]

History as rewritten by California liberals. <shudder

[TxBec]

ping.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

I've tried to review my kids' history textbooks and I really haven't seen this type of censorship. We're in Arizona but supposedly the textbook companies write their copy to suit the school boards in the big states---New York, Texas and California. Hmmmm, I'll have to look at the next book my kid gets. At least he's in a charter school. Thanks for posting this!

[NEWwoman]

Like "1984." Those who control the past, control the future. Those who control the present, control the past. And they did this through revising history. Kind of the former Soviet Union?

[NetValue]

Orwell predicted "new speak", "Big Brother", and "double think" (and I am sure I have missed a few more). They're alive and growing in California.

[Space Wrangler]

Revisionist History is almost as dangerous as tyranny itself. When history is revised to reflect our current values, we deny ourselves the truth. Those who refuse to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it. Too bad liberals possess no logic, because for that very reason, by forgetting history, we will be repeating the very things they try to forget. Typical idiot liberals.

[Adder]

"I think our textbooks should to our greatest capacity be free of any type of stereotyping," said Sue Stickel, deputy superintendent for curriculum and instruction for the California Department of Education (search). "We need to make sure that all ethnicities are represented. We need to make sure that both males and females are represented. We need to make sure that our materials cover the full gamut."

So isn't that a stereotype in itself? The gutless bureaucrat? The simpering twit?

WHY do we need to make sure all ethnicities are represented? Who worried whether Italians were represented in the 1960's? Who worried that Sally was baking a cake and needed four ounces of sugar: How many cups did Sally need?

I shudder for our children and our country. We are in the process of killing ourselves and our civilization.

[Alas Babylon!]

I think these rules have just been adopted so we won't see the changes until new textbooks are actually published and printed.

"We need to make sure that all ethnicities are represented. We need to make sure that both males and females are represented. We need to make sure that our materials cover the full gamut."

Gee, then why not just change Abe Lincoln to a black man and Robert E. Lee to a woman? Teddy Roosevelt can be Mexican, and FDR can be Gay (no wait, he was disabled, so we'll leave him), er... Truman can be Gay. Eisenhower can be transgender and JFK can be a pedophile. Now, have I made sure American history covers the full gamut of diversity?

[Joe Brower]

Sheesh. The inmates are in charge of the asylum.

Paging George Orwell, paging George Orwell...

[Hodar]

And there will be no more reading about Mount Rushmore (search), where the faces of four U.S. presidents are carved into stone, because it appears to offend some Native-American groups.

Huh? You certainly don't hear of them crying about the Crazy Horse monument being carved into stone nearby. Of course, that monument is being done by a white man and his family, funded by public donations. Far be it for the Native-Americans to help fund their own monument. Funny, they claim heritage to monuments after other people put forth the money and labor build them (Mt. Rushmore, Alcatraz, ect.)

[JohnGalt]

The past 3 generations have grown up believing FDR and Lincoln were great Presidents, beyond reproach, even as their tenures resulted in the deaths of more Americans than all others combined.

But then the goal of government schools is to teach government history.

[LiteKeeper]

read later - education

[EggsAckley]

Hmmm, does this mean that NOW I have to say "rain forest bunnies?"

[Iconoclast2]

What's far worse than mere political correctness is outright lies. My kids American history text teaches that the Constitution has an "elastic clause" so the federal government can address changing circumstances. It was written by a winner of the Bancroft History Prize. He knows better.

[coloradan]

Government schools bump.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

How sad. Kind of like Japanese textbook coverage of their history 1935-45. Guess it didn't happen.

[alloysteel]

These people bump into mirrors and say, "excuse me". Probably an improvement over stiff-arming the mirrors, but just as disconnected from reality.

[headsonpikes]

"We need to make sure that our materials cover the full gamut."

The full gamut-- from Marxism to Feminism to Black Consciousness to social Democracy...all the way over to Liberalism.

[Hugin]

It's not just California. It's all over the country. These dumbed down textbooks are the result of self-censorship by the textbook companies. They are so worried about being attacked by either the PC left or the religious right (no pictures of dinosaurs, as that might offend the creationists), that they are producing dumded down texts so bland that nobody will be offended. Or educated.