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Group insists science books be thrown out
Houston Chronicle ^ | September 7, 2001 | JANET ELLIOTT

Posted on 09/07/2001 2:21:35 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

AUSTIN -- Newly drafted middle-school science textbooks contain errors and exhibit a pro-environment bias, more than two dozen speakers told the State Board of Education on Thursday.

The criticisms focused on the proposed textbooks' discussions of global warming, acid rain and rain forest destruction. Many of the speakers were affiliated with Texas Citizens for a Sound Economy, an advocacy and education organization dedicated to economic freedom.

Peggy Venable, director of that group, said one 8th-grade textbook "selectively uses data to frighten students about global warming and to motivate them to action."

"Many learned scientists and experts have differing opinions on global warming, endangered species, land management, and other topics in these texts," Venable said. "But rather than present an accurate picture of the different approaches to complex issues, these texts often depict the view that humans and the free enterprise system are driving forces behind our planet's destruction."

Michael Franks, a member of the State Republican Executive Committee, said the books should be thrown out.

"I think we've found the alternative fuel source that everyone is looking for and that is burning these," Franks said.

One speaker pointed out widely varying statistics in the different books about the number of acres of rain forest that are destroyed each year. Others decried a suggestion in a teachers' guide that students write their congressional representatives about environmental issues.

"These kids are not qualified to advise on national energy policy or to write their congressman, for God's sake," said Don Beeth of Friendswood.

The hearing was monitored by the Texas Freedom Network, a group that counters the religious right. Ashley McIlvain, research and press director for the network, called the meeting a "rather bizarre spectacle."

"These religious right groups are using the platform of fixing textbook errors to rant about a global conspiracy to indoctrinate students and accuse textbook publishers of pushing a political agenda by incorporating such radical notions as respecting the Earth," McIlvain said.

The State Board of Education will consider approving the books at its next meeting in November. Board Chairwoman Grace Shore said the board can make sure that factual errors are corrected, but can't do much about allegations of bias.

"We can only address errors. All we can do is give our moral indignation to the publishers over bias," Shore said.

Shore said she thinks some of the concerns are legitimate, such as having only environmentalist organizations listed for students to contact.

Shore said the local school boards who decide which textbooks to buy may be the campaign's real target.

"The publicity that this receives will influence local school boards because they are the ones that will ultimately choose the books," she said.

Publishers have 14 days to submit written responses to the public hearing. The board also will be considering an evaluation of the textbooks by a committee of educators and a review by Texas A&M University.

Joe Bill Watkins, who represents the Association of American Publishers, said there may be a difference of opinion on certain issues but that doesn't mean the books have a political agenda.

"It's not good business to present one-sided or biased instructional materials," he said.


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To: Ole Okie
Excerpted from: Hillary Clinton and the Radical Left----If others could understand your truth, you would not think of yourself as a "vanguard." You would no longer inhabit the morally charmed world of an elite, whose members alone can see the light and whose mission is to lead the unenlightened towards it. If everybody could see the promised horizon and knew the path to reach it, the future would already have happened and there would be no need for the vanguard of the saints.

That is both the ethical core and psychological heart of what it means to be a part of the left. That is where the gratification comes from. To see yourself as a social redeemer. To feel anointed. In other words: To be progressive is itself the most satisfying narcissism.

That is why it is of little concern to them that their socialist schemes have run aground, burying millions of human beings in their wake. That is why they don't care that their panaceas have caused more human suffering than all the injustices they have ever challenged. That is why they never learn from their "mistakes." That is why the continuance of Them is more important than any truth.

If you were active in the so-called "peace" movement or in the radical wing of the civil rights causes, why would you tell the truth? Why would you tell people that no, you weren't really a "peace activist," except in the sense that you were against America's war. Why would you draw attention to the fact that while you called yourselves "peace activists," you didn't oppose the Communists' war, and were gratified when America's enemies won?

What you were really against was not war at all, but American "imperialism" and American capitalism. What you truly hated was America's democracy, which you knew to be a "sham" because it was controlled by money in the end. That's why you wanted to "Bring the Troops Home," as your slogan said. Because if America's troops came home, America would lose and the Communists would win. And the progressive future would be one step closer.

But you never had the honesty-then or now-to admit that. You told the lie then to maintain your influence and increase your power to do good (as only the Chosen can). And you keep on telling the lie for the same reason.

Why would you admit that, despite your tactical support for civil rights, you weren't really committed to civil rights as Americans understand rights? What you really wanted was to overthrow the very Constitution that guaranteed those rights, based as it is on private property and the individual-both of which you despise.

It is because America is a democracy and the people endorse it, that the left's anti-American, but "progressive" agendas can only be achieved by deceiving the people. This is the cross the left has to bear: The better world is only achievable by lying to the very people they propose to redeem.[End Excerpt]------ Author: David Horowitz

21 posted on 09/07/2001 6:01:51 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: kassie
Sadly, there are a lot of parents who really don't care what the books say.

Some don't know any better themselves. They just feel good and informed when they take at face value
and blindly reinforce that which the environmental extremists are polluting their children's minds.

22 posted on 09/07/2001 6:52:15 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
pushing a political agenda by incorporating such radical notions as respecting the Earth," McIlvain said.

Opps, should be: respecting = worshiping

Must have been a typo < /sarasm>

23 posted on 09/07/2001 8:45:05 AM PDT by lafroste
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
I checked out the IPS website (won't dignify it with a link, besides, you really don't need to see it. Just picture whining demons with an HTML editor and you've got the jist of it).

Unbeleivable what junk is out there. Makes me appreciate FR all the more.

24 posted on 09/07/2001 8:49:27 AM PDT by lafroste
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To: WyldKard
I saw someone wearing a sweatshirt one day that said: "If in doubt, manipulate the data". Statistics thrown out from the blue without background information or baseline comparison is a sure sign of propaganda.
25 posted on 09/07/2001 6:33:31 PM PDT by virgil
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