Brody's Scribbles... American History (REVISED) 7.0 Texas Ultraconservatives Approve Their Version For Textbooks

Political Cartoon By Ben Sargent

The Austin American-Statesman

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Mar 15 | It's a not so well kept open secret that the State Of Texas' Texas State Board of Education wields considerable power over the materials & contents of school text books that are used in classrooms all over the United States. Decisions by the board -- made up of lawyers, a dentist and a weekly newspaper publisher among others -- can affect textbook content nationwide because Texas is one of U. S. publishers' biggest clients.

Last Friday, that board voting along party and ideological lines, voted 10-5 to give preliminary approval to new standards injecting conservative ideals into social studies, history and economics lessons that will be taught to millions of U. S. pupils for the next decade or so. The final vote is expected in May, after a public comment period that could produce additional amendments and arguments.

How far to the right did the board shift? Teachers in Texas will be required to cover the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation's Founding Fathers, but not highlight the philosophical rationale for the separation of church and state. Curriculum standards also will describe the U.S. government as a "constitutional republic," rather than "democratic," and students will be required to study the decline in value of the U.S. dollar, including the abandonment of the gold standard.

Ah but that's just the opening salvo fired in what had ended up being a considerably impassioned and acrimonious debate. Ultraconservatives exerted their power over hundreds of subjects this past week, introducing and rejecting amendments on everything from the civil rights movement to global politics. Hostilities flared and prompted a walkout Thursday by one of the board's most prominent Democrats, Mary Helen Berlanga of Corpus Christi, who accused her colleagues of "whitewashing" curriculum standards. By late Thursday night, three other Democrats seemed to sense their futility and left, leaving Republicans to easily push through amendments heralding "American exceptionalism" and the U.S. free enterprise system, suggesting it thrives best absent excessive government intervention.

"Some board members themselves acknowledged this morning that the process for revising curriculum standards in Texas is seriously broken, with politics and personal agendas dominating just about every decision," said Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, which advocates for religious freedom.

Republican Terri Leo, a member of the powerful Christian conservative voting bloc, called the standards "world class" and "exceptional." Among the standards Leo deems "world class" is this tidbit: 

"The Board removed Thomas Jefferson from the Texas curriculum's world history standards on Enlightenment thinking, “replacing him with religious right icon John Calvin.” 

Board member Cynthia Dunbar wants to change a standard having students study the impact of Enlightenment ideas on political revolutions from 1750 to the present. She wants to drop the reference to Enlightenment ideas (replacing with “the writings of”) and to Thomas Jefferson. She adds Thomas Aquinas and others. Jefferson’s ideas, she argues, were based on other political philosophers listed in the standards. 

Board member Bob Craig of Lubbock pointed out that the curriculum writers clearly wanted to students to study Enlightenment ideas and Jefferson. Could Dunbar’s problem be that Jefferson was a Deist? 

The board then approved the amendment, taking Thomas Jefferson OUT of the world history standards. The board’s far-right faction has spent months now proclaiming the importance of emphasizing America’s exceptionalism in social studies classrooms. But today they voted to remove one of the greatest of America’s Founders, Thomas Jefferson, from a standard about the influence of great political philosophers on political revolutions from 1750 to today.

Unfortunately, it gets worse.  In addition to learning the Bill of Rights, the board specified a reference to the Second Amendment right to bear arms in a section about citizenship in a U.S. government class. Hmm, there's a great idea as if the American nation already didn't have a serious gun problem to start with. Can anyone say "Remember Columbine?"
The board's conservatives also beat back multiple attempts to include hip-hop as an example of a significant cultural movement. I see, so apparently whitey music is good and black music is not good.  Oh wait, have any of them heard of Will Smith? You know, famous Hollywood actor who got his start in hip-hop?

Numerous attempts to add the names or references to important Hispanics throughout history also were denied, inducing one amendment that would specify that Tejanos died at the Alamo alongside Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie. Another amendment deleted a requirement that sociology students "explain how institutional racism is evident in American society." I see, okay, so this lot apparently thinks that throwing the proverbial baby out with the bath water is acceptable.

Oh and then this: The Board refused to require that “students learn that the Constitution prevents the U.S. government from promoting one religion over all others.”  This group is now scaring me..this smacks of censorship eh? 

Then of course in keeping with the other ludicrous and quite frankly whites only Christiban ideology, the board members also rejected requiring history teachers and textbooks to provide coverage on the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy and new Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, while the late President Ronald Reagan was elevated to more prominent coverage. 

Hey there's an excellent idea, lets promote the actor turned politician that ignored the HIV-AIDS pandemic, damn near bankrupted the entire U. S. Government in his race to outspend the Soviet Union into oblivion, oh and lest I forget, laid the groundwork for the loss of American Civil Rights and Liberties by encouraging some rather questionable behaviours by government agencies that were fine tuned nearly 25 years later by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney into the Patriot Act, spying on U. S. citizens, and a host of other measures that have left the U. S. resembling George Orwell's nightmarish vision of a big-brother future.

Finally, there's this gem:

"Board member Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands, objected to a standard for a high school sociology course that addressed the difference between sex and gender. It was eliminated in a 9-to-6 vote. She worried that a discussion of that issue would lead students into the world of 'transvestites, transsexuals and who knows what else."

All of this matters because this is what U. S. children in numerous states will be taught unless teachers, principals, and administrators in other states' school systems have the courage, no, make that have the balls to not purchase these proposed revisionist and twisted textbooks. Some are calling this the Texas Textbook Massacre. 
Me? I'm in favoring of siccing the Southern Poverty Law Center & the ACLU on these morons as all I see are a bunch of folk wearing metaphorical white hoods & sheets and carrying burning crosses. Oh, did I mention that Reverend King's contributions were marginalised and minimised?  Ah yeah, LGBT rights and the fight for equality, such as Stonewall or the White Night Riots? Nope...not happening folks, at least not as far as these Christibans are concerned with their version of history.
Last month, The New York Times Magazine published an article by Russell Shorto about the influence of that school board. It included an interview with leader of the board’s conservative faction, Dr. Don McLeroy. “I’m a dentist, not a historian,” Dr. McLeroy told Mr. Shorto. “But I’m fascinated by history, so I’ve read a lot.”
This recent video report from ABC News includes an interview with Dr. McLeroy in which he defended his work to correct what he sees as the liberal bias of the experts who write American history textbooks: