Posted on 03/16/2010 6:08:47 AM PDT by Kaslin
"Don't Mess With Texas" is a popular slogan in our most prosperous state. By a 10-to-five margin, the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) just told liberals to stop "messing" with social studies textbooks.
For years, liberals have imposed their revisionist history on our nation's public school students, expunging important facts and historic figures while loading the textbooks with liberal propaganda, distortions and cliches. It's easy to get a quick lesson in the virulent left-wing bias by checking the index and noting how textbooks treat President Ronald Reagan and Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
When parents object to left-wing inclusions and omissions, claiming they should have something to say about what their own children are being taught and how their taxpayers' money is spent, they are usually vilified as "book burners" and belittled as uneducated primitives who should allow the "experts" to decide. The self-identified "experts" are alumni of liberal teachers colleges and/or members of a left-wing teachers union.
In most states, the liberal education establishment enjoys total control over the state's board of education, department of education and curriculum committees. Texas is different -- the Texas State Board of Education is elected, and the people (even including parents!) have a voice.
Texas is uniquely important in textbook content because the state of Texas is the largest single purchaser of textbooks. Publishers can hardly afford to print different versions for other states, so Texas curriculum standards have nationwide influence.
The review of social studies curriculum (covering U.S. government, American history, world history and economics) comes up every 10 years, and 2010 is one of those years. The unelected education "experts" proposed their history revisions, such as eliminating Independence Day, Christopher Columbus, Thomas Edison, Daniel Boone and Neil Armstrong, and replacing Christmas with Diwali.
After a public outcry, the SBOE responded with common-sense improvements. Thomas Edison, the world's greatest inventor, will be again included in the narrative of American history.
Schoolchildren will no longer be misled into believing that capitalism and the free market are dirty words and that America has an unjust economic system. Instead, they will learn how the free-enterprise system gave our nation and the world so much that is good for so many people.
Liberals don't like the concept of American exceptionalism. The liberals want to teach what's wrong with America (masquerading under the code word "social justice") instead of what's right and successful. The SBOE voted to include describing how American exceptionalism is based on values that are unique and different from those of other nations.
The SBOE specified that teaching about the Bill of Rights should include a reference to the right to keep and bear arms. Some school curricula pretend the Second Amendment doesn't exist.
Texas curriculum standards will henceforth accurately describe the U.S. government as a "constitutional republic" rather than as a democracy. The secularists tried to remove reference to the religious basis for the founding of America, but that was voted down.
The Texas Board rejected the anti-Christian crowd's proposal to eliminate the use of B.C. and A.D. for historic dates, as in Before Christ and Anno Domini, and replace them with B.C.E., as in Before the Common Era, and C.E.
The deceptive claim that the United States was founded on a "separation of church and state" gets the ax, and rightfully so. In fact, most of the original 13 colonies were founded as Christian communities with much overlap between church and state.
History textbooks that deal with Joseph McCarthy will now be required to explain "how the later release of the Venona papers confirmed suspicions of Communist infiltration in U.S. government." The Venona papers are authentic transcripts of some 3,000 messages between the Soviet Union and its secret agents in the United States.
Discussions of economics will not be limited to the theories of Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes and Adam Smith. Textbooks must also include Milton Friedman and Friedrich von Hayek, two champions of free-market theory.
History textbooks will now be required to cover the "unintended consequences" of Great Society legislation, affirmative action and Title IX legislation. Textbooks should also include "the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s."
Texas textbooks will now have to mention "the importance of personal responsibility for life choices" instead of blaming society for everything and expecting government to provide remedies for all social ills.
It's no secret that the people who control public schools are at war with our nation's history, culture and achievements. Since taxpayers foot the bill, it is long overdue for a state board of education to correct many textbooks myths and lies about our magnificent national heritage and achievements.
After a public comment period, a final vote on the Texas standards is expected in May.
God bless Texas!!
The tide is turning. Slowly. But it’s a start.
Thank you, Texas. This is truly inspiring...
Here is my long term prediction. Eventually textbooks will be electronic and students will carry something like a tablet pc that is loaded with all their texts for the school period. Because there won't be printing and distribution costs it will be easier for publishers to customize books to fit the requests from each state.
The net result of that (over a period of decades) will be that the quality and accuracy of education that students receive will be controlled by which state they reside in. Students will have huge difficulties when families move out of state because of the divergence of educational quality. And ultimately, some of the continuity of American society will erode because we will have fewer educational experiences in common.
There can be advantages to this as well...it could put the control and power of curricula closer to the hands of the parents.
What great news! Good job, Texas!
I reside in Austin and the raging anger that the lefties have for the Texas textbook ruling is wonderful to enjoy.
I love the smell of self rage hippies burning in the morning!
Whoa, Adam Smith was a good guy!
Well, happy that Texas started the take back of education. But the current public school system is disgusting in every aspect.
Way to Go, Texas.
NEA website where they recommend Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals”. God help America.........
http://www.nea.org/tools/17231.htm
I sure wish it could happen in Alaska, our schools are terribly infested with liberal propaganda.
This is good. All States should have elected B.O.E.’s.
While in the short term this is good news. In the long run, the liberal states will just pass laws (thank you NEA) to force the publishers (regardless of cost) to create separate textbooks. This will of course create jobs won’t it? The libs will not let this stand and force workarounds to accomplish their goal. The destruction of future minds.
My thought exactly.
Perhaps in the decades that follow someone will ask "When was the moment that turned America away from liberalism?" and they will be able to point to this act where our young were once again taught respect and pride in our country, and those youngsters grew up to be adults who made the country work again, ran for public office and then one became President, a President in the model of Reagan, someone they once read about in their history books and wanted to emulate.
Hey, we can hope.
But for us, now, there are only years and years of darkness ahead while the corrupted youths of today wind their way through life as Takers, hopefully not sucking all of the life out of our country.
“I reside in Austin and the raging anger that the lefties have for the Texas textbook ruling is wonderful to enjoy.”
If you ever want to see a soiled community, look for a major university. It never fails!
The way I understand is, that most states use the Texas schoolbooks as standard
When the SHTF...
I hope I have enough gas to get to Texas...
Amen!
A good friend of mine was responsible for translating a portion of these and related intercept transcripts. The above statement is an understatement since the real transcripts show that McCarthy was radically underestimating the real commie infiltration.
Zinn had this take on history: "Objectivity is impossible and it is also undesirable. That is, if it were possible it would be undesirable, because if you have any kind of a social aim, if you think history should serve society in some way; should serve the progress of the human race; should serve justice in some way, then it requires that you make your selection on the basis of what you think will advance causes of humanity.""I wanted my writing of history and my teaching of history to be a part of social struggle," said Zinn. "I wanted to be a part of history and not just a recorder and teacher of history. So that kind of attitude toward history, history itself as a political act, has always informed my writing and my teaching."
This is the predominate history text for our colleges.
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