Just How Ridiculous Are Texas’ Textbook Standards?

by Byard Duncan  

First, a high school in Mississippi announced it would rather call off its annual senior dance than let two lesbians attend (according to a statement, the district’s policy requires that dates be of the opposite sex). Officials said the cancellation was due to “recent distractions.”

Then, the Texas school board pushed ahead with its plans to overhaul the state’s textbook curricula. Diverging sharply from suggestions laid out the same day by educators, the board’s template emphasizes Christianity’s role in the founding of America. It also calls for a larger focus on conservative movements and downplays the civil rights era.

The board’s recommendations have already been written about at some length. But at risk of leaving anything out, here’s a few of the greatest hits. Via The NYTimes:

…one guideline requires publishers to include a section on “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract with America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.”

Okay…not so bad. One might even agree that high schoolers aren’t given enough information about modern political movements — right or left. But the NRA? Anyway, let’s keep this ball rolling.

There have also been efforts among conservatives on the board to tweak the history of the civil rights movement. One amendment states that the movement created “unrealistic expectations of equal outcomes” among minorities. Another proposed change removes any reference to race, sex or religion in talking about how different groups have contributed to the national identity.

This one’s a little more problematic, especially given the fact that you can actually quantify the ways in which various strains of minority activism have shaped America’s legal and political landscape. It’s not even hard to do – just open a law book. Yet under this recommendation, a passage about, say, Brown v. Board of Education would read something like, “Some people were mad, then stuff changed.” Verrryyy informative.

Some on the board have suggested that the Tea Party movement be included in the textbooks. Fine. Others have insisted that names like Ralph Nader and Ross Perot be stricken. Not so fine. But perhaps the most egregious feature is this one relating to foreign policy:

Throughout the standards, the conservatives have pushed to drop references to American “imperialism,” preferring to call it expansionism.

Got that? The message for our children: America has never acted out of line — not when we toppled Democratic regimes in Iran and South America, not when we invaded Iraq for no reason. We were just “expanding.” It’s the American way.

You can imagine this mode of thinking working great for teachers when disciplining children: “No, Timmy. You were wrong to put your head directly in Bobby’s kicking range. Bobby was expanding.” Or, “That ought to teach you for trying to nationalize your drawing supplies, Billy.” I could go on.

Certainly, the push to develop more inclusive textbooks — textbooks that incorporate many different viewpoints, including those on the right — is essential. The real issue here is what stands to be removed. That’s the point at which “education” turns into “brainwash.”

Byard Duncan is a contributing writer and editor for AlterNet. His work has appeared on AlterNet, Truthout, Common Dreams and the China Daily.

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Texas education board refuses to require religious-freedom lesson

By TERRENCE STUTZ

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-sboe_12met.ART.State.Edition2.4bcac76.html

AUSTIN – Republicans on the State Board of Education soundly rejected a Democratic-backed proposal Thursday that would have required Texas students to be taught the reasons behind the prohibition of a state religion in the Bill of Rights.

The contentious decision in curriculum standards for U.S. government classes appeared to signal the unhappiness of several board members with court rulings that have affirmed the separation of church and state – including a longtime ban on school-sponsored prayer.

Board members defeated an amendment by member Mavis Knight, D-Dallas , that would have required students to examine the reasons the Founding Fathers "protected religious freedom in America by barring government from promoting or disfavoring any particular religion over all others."

The seven social conservatives on the panel – several of whom openly question the legal precedents affirming the separation of church and state – were joined by the three moderate Republicans in voting no.

All five Democrats – three Hispanics and two blacks – voted for the amendment.

Board members are scheduled to tentatively approve their first draft of the social studies standards today. A final vote will occur in May.

Knight said all she was trying to do in her proposal was to let students study the First Amendment language that states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

A succession of court rulings have relied on that language to uphold the separation of church and state in a section of the Bill of Rights referred to as the "Establishment Clause."

But many religious conservatives – including a board-appointed curriculum expert – contend that separation of church and state was established in the law only by activist judges and not the Constitution or Bill of Rights.

Republicans said Knight's proposed requirement was based on an inaccurate interpretation of what the Founding Fathers wanted. One called her proposal a "half-truth" that would play down the importance of religion to the nation's founders.

Board members also disagreed on dozens of other amendments as they continued to write the curriculum standards that will be the basis for future textbooks and classroom instruction in U.S. history, government and other social studies subjects.

Curriculum standards adopted by the board will remain in place for the next decade, dictating what is taught in all public elementary and secondary schools.

Texas standards often wind up being taught in other states because national publishers tailor their materials to those standards – a result of Texas' status as one of the nation's biggest textbook purchasers.

Among the amendments proposed by social conservatives and adopted Thursday were requirements that students understand how taxes and regulations restrict private enterprise, and that students analyze the importance of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Gun rights were given the same importance as free speech rights.

The board agreed to strengthen nods to Christianity by adding references to "laws of nature and nature's God" to a section in U.S. history that requires students to explain major political ideas.

Knight's proposal on religious freedom triggered swift criticism from some Republicans after she said it was "important for students to know the Founding Fathers supported a strong wall of separation between church and state."

She said her addition to the curriculum standards "has nothing to do with the left or the right but what is best for the children to know."

Board member Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond, said Knight's proposal was "not an accurate perception and not what the Founding Fathers intended."

Dunbar denied the criticism by some that social conservatives on the board want to put religion into the curriculum. "We are not trying to inject religion," she said.

Board member Don McLeroy, R-College Station, also said Knight's proposal was based on a "half-truth" and did not accurately depict what the Founding Fathers wanted. McLeroy, a conservative Christian, is among the board members who question the doctrine of separation of church and state.

Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, said the board action "represents an irresponsible rewriting of American history and a stunning triumph of politics over education."

On the other side, Jonathan Saenz of the conservative Liberty Institute applauded the board's decision. "Thus far, the liberal efforts to infiltrate, indoctrinate and saturate our social studies with narrow ideology have failed," he said.

Minority board members were frustrated by their inability to get more minority figures included in the social studies standards and what they said was an effort by social conservatives to "whitewash" the harsh treatment of minority groups in U.S. history.

"To say America has treated minorities well is a gross distortion. They don't want to talk about the bad things in the past, just the good things," said Mary Helen Berlanga, D-Corpus Christi.

Before she walked out of the meeting while the board was still considering amendments, Berlanga offered a parting shot to Republicans, saying, "We can just continue to pretend that America is white and Hispanics don't exist."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - A far-right faction of the Texas State Board of Education succeeded Friday in injecting conservative ideals into social studies, history and economics lessons that will be taught to millions of students for the next decade.

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.

"We have been about conservatism versus liberalism," said Democrat Mavis Knight of Dallas, explaining her vote against the standards. "We have manipulated strands to insert what we want it to be in the document, regardless as to whether or not it's appropriate."

Following three days of impassioned and acrimonious debate, the board gave preliminary approval to the new standards with a 10-5 party line vote. A final vote is expected in May, after a public comment period that could produce additional amendments and arguments.

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 publishers' biggest clients.

Ultraconservatives wielded their power over hundreds of subjects this 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."

Board members argued about the classification of historic periods (still B.C. and A.D., rather than B.C.E. and C.E.); whether students should be required to explain the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its impact on global politics (they will); and whether former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir should be required learning (she will).

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.

Conservatives beat back multiple attempts to include hip-hop as an example of a significant cultural movement.

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."

Democrats did score a victory by deleting a portion of an amendment by Republican Don McLeroy suggesting that the civil rights movement led to "unrealistic expectations for equal outcomes."

Fort Worth Republican Pat Hardy, a longtime teacher, voted for the new standards, but said she wished the board could work with a more cooperative spirit.

"What we've done is we've taken a document that by nature is too long to begin with and then we've lengthened it some more," Hardy said, shortly after the vote. "Those long lists of names that we've put in there ... it's just too long.

"I just think we failed to keep that in mind, it's hard for teachers to get through it all."