Textbooks flunk test

THE WASHINGTON TIMES ^ | March 28, 2004 | George Archibald

[neverdem]

Social studies textbooks used in elementary and secondary schools are mostly a disgrace that, in the name of political correctness and multiculturalism, fail to give students an honest account of American history, say academic historians and education advocates.

"Secondary and college students, and indeed most of the rest of us, have only a feeble grasp of politics and a vague awareness of history, especially the political history of the United States and the world," says Paul Gagnon, emeritus professor of history at the University of Massachusetts.

[mewzilla]

That surprise is the biggest part of the problem.

[Savage Beast]

"Waitress???" Oh, I forgot: "waitperson".

This explains a lot. Who can learn history while dancing around the definition of what "is" means?

Judging from present behavior, European history textbooks must be worse than American ones, if that's possible.

As a society ages, it tends to become more complex. The complications weave a tangled web that interferes more and more with the functioning of the society and the clear thinking of its people. This is decadence.

The "fine tuning" and "multiple shades of gray" that "sophisticates" cherish and condemn the rest of us for not appreciating--let alone aspiring to--are worth considering, yes, but are in fact the very complications that destroy the society itself. It becomes decadent, crashes to oblivion. The complications that destroyed it are destroyed with it. If the people are lucky, a new society arises from the ashes--fresh, uncomplicated, clear-thinking. As it ages, more and more complications breed decadence. And the process repeats itself.

It's the "Pheonix Phenomenon."

Contemporary "Liberals" consider themselves sophisticated. They pride themselves on comprehending fine nuances. They love countless laws and regulations, countless labels, countless complications. They love control, which, though they have difficulty understanding this, means diminution of liberty.

What they are too unsophicticated to comprehend is that these very things that they adore are symptoms of a disease--a disease as old as civilization itself: decadence.

What "Liberals" cannot bring themselves to understand is that they are not ahead of the rest of us, they are behind us--we have already been there in our minds; that they are not sophisticated (one of their favorite endowments of self-praise), they are unsophisticated; they are not forward thinking and progressive, they are backward; they are not healthy, they are infected with the disease of decadence; what they have to offer is not new, it is old; they are not liberal and free-thinking and open-minded, they are the opposite.

Bogged down in endless complications and a tangled web of their own spinning etc., et al., ad infinitum--

"Liberals" flunk history.

The clear mind can comprehend all that "Liberals" have to say, reject it, and reduce it to a laconism:

"Liberalism" is decadence.

[BoozeHag]

One of the most memorable readings from graduate school was an essay by Gatto called " A Confederacy of Dunces".

[BoozeHag]

One of the most memorable readings from graduate school was an essay by Gatto called " A Confederacy of Dunces".

[jimtorr]

As well, reading "contemporary" books on physics and astronomy by authors such as Asimov and Feynmann

Arthur C. Clarke's work as well.

These authors "popular" books on science are far better than even intermediet college textbooks. In some cases, they are better than advanced textbooks, in explaining what all the theories and postulates actually mean in the real world.

I learned most of the science I know through reading fiction written by these scientists and others, such as David Brin.

I learned history the same way, by choosing only authors that I knew did their best to get the history correct.

[Carry_Okie]

I made a search for a decent history text for my kids. It doesn't exist. I had to pull from the classics and they had to grow up to read them. They read the Iliad and Odessey (in poetry) and then Herodotus at the age of eight. They loved those books. Not only are they engaging and full of imagery, but they gain an appreciation for what they have.

This year, it will be Plutarch.

[WhiteyAppleseed]

Just goes to show that an education is the only thing an American is willing to pay for...and hopes he don't get.

Edison had little formal schooling and look what he did. I attribute it to taking naps and I've discovered the method works wonders for my mentality. Since I've almost duplicated the process, one could argue its scientific, and perhaps we should adopt a caring attitude toward Congress and assemble some rooms, off-chamber, for the purpose.

[WhiteyAppleseed]

You realize that now I'm going to have to add Plutarch to the numerous list of books that I should read, but haven't? I read one of your kid's essays here--something about Dickins--as I recall. Amazing.

[cyborg]

Textbooks across the board are pretty worthless and overpriced.

[Carry_Okie]

I read one of your kid's essays here--something about Dickins--as I recall. Amazing.

This year NattieShea read all the Sherlock Holmes stories. Her paper is about the literary devices Sir Arthur Conan Doyle used to construct those stories to engage the reader. This will be the first paper she writes virtually alone. There were 22 drafts on her Dickens paper and I pored over it with her each time. This one will probably have less than five, with but minor spoken feedback from me on each draft.

She's learning. She just turned twelve and is now doing integral calculus at the college level. Her sister is not far behind.

[ladylib]

They already have little rooms off-chamber, but they don't use them for "napping" in the conventional sense if you catch my drift.

[TaxRelief]

Thread for the second article in the series (March 28, 2004)
Context and balance often found lacking [ More on the US Textbook Scandal ] by George Archibald

[bannie]

Shakespeare only went to school until he was 14 or 15. A bitter, dying, university man named Green called him an "Upstart Crow" who didn't have the credentials to be respected.

[somniferum]

Thank goodness I went to a private school that taught American history as it should be taught! Although I dont remember much from grade school, I think in 2nd or 3rd grade our social studies book consisted of short biographies of great figures in American history. I remember being so interested that I read the whole book on my own. In high school I was lucky to have a great history teacher, who loved what she did. She expected you not just to learn facts and regurgitate them, but to actually think critically about what you were learning. At the time I used to dread her "blue book" tests, but now, at college, while other students cringe over essay tests, I find myself thanking Mrs. Gist. :))

[endthematrix]

Who controls the past, controls the future.
Who controls the present, controls the past.
---- 1984 by George Orwell

[BykrBayb]

Pearl Harbor was not bombed by the Germans. Sheesh, where did you go to school? We bombed it ourselves, and blamed it on the Germans. Then we dropped an atomic bomb on China, because we were too racist to drop it on the white people we were at war with. We stole land belonging to Japan, and gave it to the Jews. Now it's called Israel. We had concentration camps in the U.S. where we tortured and killed African-Americans. We started little wars with almost every nation on Earth. Thankfully, the french stepped in and saved the day. They fought their way through our Navy in the ocean, then through our Marines on land to put a giant statue in New York Harbor, to watch our every move and make sure we don't try to take over the world again.

I don't know why everybody's complaining about McGraw-Hill, Harcourt, and Houghton Miflin. Those are the books I was taught with.