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Islam and the Textbooks The American Textbook Council examined the coverage of Islam in seven widely adopted world history textbooks used in grades seven through twelve. In February 2003, it published its findings in a review, Islam and the Textbooks. To go directly to the original report, Islam and the Textbooks: To go to Islam and the Textbooks: A Reply to the Critics, December 2003: During the last two years, beginning with the American Textbook Council report, Islam and the Textbooks, several reports have documented bias and evasions in world history textbooks on the subjects of militant Islam and Islamic...

Three federal appeals court judges today indicated a lower court judge got key facts wrong in declaring unconstitutional an evolution disclaimer sticker put in Cobb County science books. During oral arguments, all members of the federal appeals court panel noted that U.S. District Court Judge Clarence Cooper made incorrect findings as the basis for his decision that the stickers violated the First Amendment by endorsing a religious viewpoint. Judge Ed Carnes dominated much of the 40-minute arguments by tearing apart sections of Cooper's January ruling that ordered the stickers, which declared evolution "a theory, not a fact," removed from almost...

Broward County on Thursday narrowed its choices for high school Biology I textbooks to two finalists, both of which have been under scrutiny by Christian conservatives who want to change the way students learn about the origin of life. Both have edited passages about evolution theory during the past few years after receiving complaints from the Discovery Institute. The think tank sponsors research on intelligent design, which argues life is so complicated, it must have been fashioned by a higher being. One of the books also has added a short section on creationism.

"The favored game at the moment has to be price-gouging the natural way, riding the bandwagon of organic food...For example, in the UK, organic milk commands a premium of around 50 cents per quart, but the farmer sees less than twenty cents of this." -- Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist, p. 42-43. What does buying organic food say about you? It might say that you believe that it is healthier to ingest food grown in a certain way. But to Tim Harford, it also says that when it comes to price, you are a sap, willing to hand a store...

Pakistan deletes 'pro-Bush' poem Mr Bush (left) is a key backer of President Musharraf Pakistan's government is to remove a poem from a school textbook after it emerged the first letters of each line spelt out "President George W Bush".The anonymous poem, called The Leader, appeared in a recent English-language course book for 16 year-olds.Critics say it praises Mr Bush. Its rhyming couplets describe someone "solid as steel, strong in his faith".Officials cannot explain how the poem entered the curriculum. Pupils are to ignore it ahead of a reprint next year.Not deliberate'The BBC's Zaffar Abbas in Islamabad says it...

Textbook teaches Bible literacy By DAVID YONKE BLADE RELIGION EDITOR After five years of work involving 41 scholars and a cost of $2 million, the Bible Literacy Project has released a textbook designed to bring academic study of the Bible into the public high school. The Bible and Its Influence (BLP Publishing, $67.95) is an oversized, 388-page book lavishly illustrated with glossy photos and drawings, published just in time to hit the high school classrooms in the 2006-07 school year. The publishers cited the need for a textbook offering objective and fair presentations of the Bible without crossing the First...

Specific Evaluation Criterion In general, an "A" requires full disclosure of the truth, discussion of relevant scientific controversies, and a recognition that Darwin's theory -- like all scientific theories -- might have to be revised or discarded if it doesn't fit the facts. An "F" indicates that the textbook uncritically relies on logical fallacy, dogmatically treats a theory as an unquestionable fact, or blatantly misrepresents published scientific evidence.

IS TEACHING TRADITIONAL “HISTORY” HISTORY IN CARSON CITY’S HIGH SCHOOL? Meet Joe Enge. Joe is an award-winning, 15-year veteran history teacher in Carson City who has, among other things, written two history textbooks and served on the 1997 task force which drew up Nevada’s history standards. But according to school district administrators, he’s a “bad” teacher. You see, Joe has this crazy idea that American history should include our colonial period, as well as the Revolutionary War period. You know, where the Founding Fathers fought for independence from England and wrote the greatest governing document the world has ever...

NEW YORK, Oct. 23 (JTA) — The state of California is on the brink of a major election that involves neither Arnold Schwarzenegger nor Clint Eastwood. The candidates are textbooks and other teaching materials that will influence what schoolchildren across the state — and across the United States — will learn for more than a decade. With a debate under way over evolution and intelligent design in science textbooks, a less-publicized battle is being waged over the content of social studies and history materials — some of which are pro-Islamic, anti-American, anti-Israel and even anti-Semitic. California is in the final...

HARRISBURG, Pa. - References to creationism in drafts of a student biology book were replaced with the term "intelligent design" by the time it was published, a witness testified Wednesday in a landmark trial over a school board's decision to include the concept in its curriculum. Drafts of the textbook, "Of Pandas and People," written in 1987 were revised after the Supreme Court ruled in June of that year that states could not require schools to balance evolution with creationism in the classroom, said Barbara Forrest, a philosophy professor at Southeastern Louisiana University. Forrest reviewed drafts of the textbook as...

MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) - Members of a suburban district's school board plan to challenge a federal judge's order to remove stickers in science textbooks that call evolution ``a theory, not a fact.'' In a 5-2 vote, the Cobb County school board decided to appeal last week's ruling. Board members said U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper's order to remove the stickers immediately ``amounts to unnecessary judicial intrusion into local control of schools,'' according to a statement. Monday's decision came after board members met with lawyers for three hours in a closed session. -- snip --

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A group representing religious schools in the state is suing the University of California admissions officials for allegedly discriminating against high schools that teach creationism and other conservative Christian viewpoints. The Association of Christian Schools International, which represents more than 800 schools, filed a lawsuit Thursday in federal court claiming UC officials have refused to certify high school science courses that use textbooks challenging Darwin's theory of evolution. The suit said the Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murrieta, a co-plaintiff, was told its courses were rejected because they use textbooks printed by two Christian publishers, Bob...

Textbooks will be history in Keys BY MANDY BOLEN Citizen Staff KEY WEST — The days of dog-eared textbooks with notes from students past scribbled in the margins and a list of previous stewards inside the front cover are coming to an end. The Monroe County School District is heading toward a textbook-free school atmosphere, one in which students in sixth through 12th grades have a laptop computer they take home and use in school. Superintendent Randy Acevedo was learning how to use his new Apple iBook laptop on Monday as part of the first phase of transition. The goal,...

Washington, August 19: The United States has expressed 'serious concern' over anti-Christian and anti-Jewish passages in Pakistani textbooks and termed them as "unacceptable and inciteful". The issue is a matter of concern for the US even though Pakistan is in the process of reviewing the educational system, State Department spokesman Sean Mccormack said. "These type of reports are of serious concern to us," he said referring to reports in a section of the US media that 'jihad' was still a part of school curricula in Pakistan. The United States has specifically raised the issue of "unacceptable and inciteful" textbooks with...

VAIL, Ariz. - Students at Empire High School here started class this year with no textbooks — but it wasn't because of a funding crisis. Instead, the school issued iBooks — laptop computers by Apple Computer Inc. — to each of its 340 students, becoming one of the first U.S. public schools to shun printed textbooks. School officials believe the electronic materials will get students more engaged in learning. Empire High, which opened for the first time this year, was designed specifically to have a textbook-free environment. "We've always been pretty aggressive in use of technology and we have a...

Each year, thousands of Pakistani children learn from history books that Jews are tightfisted moneylenders and Christians vengeful conquerors. One textbook tells kids they should be willing to die as martyrs for Islam.

Revisionism is the common method employed by those seeking to subvert American culture and society. The dictionary defines revisionism as an “advocacy of the revision of an accepted, usually long-standing view, theory, or doctrine; especially a revision of historical events and movements.” Revisionism attempts to alter the way a people views its history and traditions in order to cause that people to accept a change in public policy. For example, during the 150 years that textbooks described the Founding Fathers as being devout men and Christians who actively practiced their faith, civic policy embraced and welcomed public religious expressions. But...

I just got my school books yesterday. My bio book, Biology: Concepts and Conections, talks about the theory of evolution as if it's not theory, or ever was. Did I miss something? Did someone prove it true? I don't care in any fanatical way whether or not evolution is true. Whatever you believe, if a school science book presents a theory as if it's true, isn't that a problem? If I did miss the proof, what is it? On a related note, my text book says "Evolution is biology's core theme." Huh? Isn't the core theme of biology how living...

My son is taking an algebra course this summer at the Catholic preparatory high school that he is entering as a freshman this year. It's also a political indoctrination course. Neither my son's excellent school nor his excellent math teacher is the source of the indoctrination. The source is the textbook, which is designed to do more than teach algebra. As I will show momentarily, it is also designed to convey politically-correct group-think. Because government schools have a near-monopoly over K-12 education, textbook publishers cater to their largest customer, the government. As a result, Catholic schools and other private schools...

TUCSON, Ariz. (July 11) - A high school in Vail will become the state's first all-wireless, all-laptop public school this fall. The 350 students at the school will not have traditional textbooks. Instead, they will use electronic and online articles as part of more traditional teacher lesson plans. Vail Unified School District's decision to go with an all-electronic school is rare, experts say. Often, cost, insecurity, ignorance and institutional constraints prevent schools from making the leap away from paper. ''The efforts are very sporadic,'' said Mark Schneiderman, director of education policy for the Software and Information Industry Association. ''A minority...