This blog on Texas education contains posts on higher education, as well as preK-12 policy accountability, testing, bilingual education, immigration, school finance, race, class, and gender issues at both the state and national level. It also represents my digital footprint, of life and career, as a community-engaged scholar in Texas.
It is my wish that all of my friends sign this petition against the racist and otherwise highly problematic treatment of Mexican Americans in the book titled, "Mexican American Heritage," written by Jaime Riddle and Valarie Angle. It is currently under consideration for statewide adoption by the Texas State Board of Education.
Mexican American Studies—of which Ethnic Studies is a part—is a large and growing movement that is taking place right now in Texas and California, two bell weather states with respect to both education and trends in the Mexican American community, in particular.
It is an inspired movement with many adherents of which the publisher and authors of this racist textbook were obviously unaware.
But then, their cluelessness on the matter maps on perfectly to their woefully inaccurate and offensive interpretation of the Mexican American experience. This non-trivial, major blind spot explains a lot.
The irony here is—who are they to talk about our heritage without including our decades upon decades worth of research and writing in the area of Mexican American Studies in their book? How is such a gargantuan oversight even possible?
This area of scholarship is so vast that from where I stand, it takes more effort to ignore than not to. In contrast, these authors are unknown by the Mexican American Studies scholarly community.
It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out at the September and November meetings of the board. And not just for the publisher and authors, but for the SBOE members, as well.
Not unlike children of other races/ethnicities in the teaching of their respective heritage and notwithstanding this proposed text, our children and grand children still need to know their Mexican American heritage and history. They need to know who they are, where they came from, and how their personhoods were formed as a consequence. From a position of strength and self-awareness, they need to know what their responsibilities are to society and to furthering the public good.
A well taught and well designed Mexican American or Ethnic Studies course will guide them along in this direction. This proposed book will not only not take them there; it misrepresents and derogates their experience.
I should know. I have been teaching Ethnic Studies for over 26 years. I see many of my students—minority and majority alike—blossom and unfold before my very eyes in ways that are life changing, as well as personally and professionally meaningful.
Your signing this petition will help block the book.
Our students deserve to see an accurate and fair representation of their communities, elders, and ancestors in their classrooms and schools through the textbooks that they read.
If our children are to assume power and a sense of ownership over the profound demographic, political, economic, social, and cultural challenges of the 21st century, every last one of them will benefit greatly from learning about this diversity, addressing important research questions on which we have staked our careers and reputations and to which we have dedicated our lives.
We know that curriculum is the reproduction of consciousness and so I am very pleased about the great presentations delivered today on the racist textbook currently under consideration by the Texas SBOE. See earlier post in order to listen to the different presentations. And here are a set of news clippings that came out of today's press conference. The textbook may be viewed here. Angela Valenzuela c/s
Magazine/News Media
Patrick Michels, Texas Observer, The
Scholarly Reviews are in on that ‘Deeply Offensive’ Mex-Am Studies
Text: And they are not good: 'Willfully irresponsible, culturally
chauvinist and discriminatory."
Boasting an excellent set of studied presentations, this press conference video was recorded today on July 18, 2016 at the Texas Education agency in Austin, Texas.
In order of presentation by highly-regarded Mexican American Studies scholars, they collectively amount to a solid protest primarily against the controversial Mexican-American textbook authored by Jaime Riddle and Valarie Angle titled, "Mexican American Heritage," that is currently getting considered for adoption by Texas' State Board of Education (SBOE).
The SBOE will take up the matter at their September 13, 2016 meeting (which continues through Friday, September, 2016), with a final vote on the textbook taking place at their November 15, 2016 meeting—both in Austin, Texas, William B. Travis Building, 1701 North Congress, Austin, TX.
PLEASE PUT THESE TWO DATES ON YOUR CALENDARS SO THAT YOUR VOICE CAN BE HEARD.
Today's press conference takes place on the heels of the June 16, 2016 Mexican American Studies Summit that took place in San Antonio, as well as on 4 years of organizing by the NACCS-Tejas Foco statewide organization that is a regional member site of its national parent organization by the same name (i.e., National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies).
The San Antonio summit addressed the textbook and other matters pertinent to Mexican American and ethnic studies, generally. What follows are scholar's expressed critique of the textbook:
Dr. Emilio Zamora-UT-Austin
Dr. Liliana Patricia Saldaña-UTSA
Dr. José María "Chema" Herrera-Cotera-UTEP
Kathy Miller, Director of the Texas Freedom Network, along with others that made comments like Dr. Emilio Zamora, Juan Tejeda, and Anita Quintanilla who caps off the whole press conference by saying that Texas and the Southwestern United States is our "Motherland" and that we (Mexicans/Mexican Americans) are not illegal.
A lot of work has gone into this in our state. To this end, there will be a press conference at 11:00AM on Monday, July 18, 2016, in support of ethnic studies at the Texas Education Agency located at 1701 Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas. UT History Professor Dr. Emilio Zamora—representing the ad hoc committee of the Rio Grande Valley reviewing the proposed textbook—will be among the presenters, along with Celina Moreno from MALDEF, President/Executive Director Kathy Miller of the Texas Freedom Network, and others. Please join us on Monday with your support.
A textbook on Mexican-American history that some
scholars and activists say is poorly written and contains "racist"
passages is on a list of proposed books for use in Texas public schools.
The book, called "Mexican American Heritage" is on the list of proposed textbooks that the Texas State Board of Education is considering to use as part of instructional materials for the newly created Mexican-American studies class.
If approved, the book would be used in
classrooms as early as next year, something critics are trying to
prevent from happening.
They say the book is filled with inaccurate
depictions of Mexican-American history and culture. They also point out
that the book was written by two authors, Jaime Riddle and Valarie
Angle, who aren't known in the field of Mexican-American studies.
"It is one of the most racist textbooks I've
ever had the displeasure of reading," said Tony Díaz, a Houston-based
educator, community activist and author who spearheaded the Librotraficante movement, which transported books to Arizona that had been banned by the Tucson school district. RELATED: 'Nuestra Palabra' Celebrates 18 Years Showcasing Latino Literature
Díaz was one of the educators who pressed the state board to create a Mexican-American studies class last year.
"The people who wrote it obviously have no
understanding of the difference between the term Chicano, Latino,
Hispanic so that any time the word is uttered in the book, it's used
incorrectly," Diaz said of the proposed textbook. "There's no way to
edit it to fix it. The book needs to go."
Díaz is one of the organizers of a community meeting on Tuesday night to step up the opposition to using the book.
One passage of the book links Mexican Americans
to undocumented immigrants and claims that illegal immigration has
"caused a number of economic and security problems in the United
States," including "poverty, non-assimilation, drugs, crime, and
exploitation."
In another passage, Chicanos in the 1960's civil
rights era are described as people who "adopted a revolutionary
narrative that opposed Western civilization and wanted to destroy this
society."
The "Mexican American Heritage" textbook was published by Momentum Instruction, a company that according to Houston Chronicle
appears to be owned and operated by Cynthia Dunbar, former member of
the Texas State Board of Education who critics call right-wing.
Momentum Instruction did not immediately return a call or respond to an email from NBC News Latino.
Lauren Callahan, spokesperson for the Texas
State Board of Education, said the book will be reviewed by a panel of
educators over the summer. The panel will determine the extent to which
the book meets state standards and will look for factual errors.
In September, the state board will hold a public
hearing to go over the panel's findings and to hear comments from the
public. The public also has until September to visit the state board's website and submit factual errors or comments regarding the book.
A final vote by the state board on whether to approve or reject the book will come in November.
"It is a long process, and it's a long process
for that reason - so that people have ample time to go through and
review the materials," Callahan said.
She added that even if the book is approved,
school districts are not required to use it and may purchase other
instructional materials for use in the Mexican American Studies class.
Diaz said he and other scholars and activists
are teaming up to hold community meetings across the state to educate
people about what's in the book and what they can do to prevent it from
going into Texas classrooms. The first in the series of community
meetings was scheduled for Tuesday night.
There's also an online petition
calling on the state board to remove the "Mexican American Heritage"
from the list of proposed textbooks and to reopen the call for textbooks
used for Mexican American studies.
Diaz said Tuesday night's community meeting is
one of the first steps to getting the public "deeply involved" before
the state board votes on whether or not to approve the textbook.
"We have about 20 weeks before the vote, so we're going to start now and keep constant pressure," he said.
"As the amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse
gases increase, the Earth warms. Scientists warn that climate change,
caused by this warming, will pose challenges to society."
That language—featured in a fifth-grade Texas social studies textbook
from Pearson Education—is exactly the kind of global-warming alarmism
that Emily McBurney wants to protect schoolchildren from.
McBurney was a lot happier with an earlier version of the textbook
that said, "Scientists disagree about what is causing climate change."
But the publisher cut the material amid pressure from groups like the
National Center for Science Education.
The edited educational material, McBurney says, amounts to "a one-sided global-warming climate-change agenda."
McBurney is a member of the Truth in Texas Textbooks coalition, a
volunteer-run organization of more than 100 activists that wants global
warming to be taught as an opinion rather than fact.
"If you're a car salesman and you have a car that has bad ratings,
that car is not going to sell," says Roy White, the founder of Truth in
Texas Textbooks and a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel. "That
is what is going to happen with these books."
To shape climate curriculum, the coalition plans to rate textbooks as
"good," "acceptable," "poor," or "worse." The group will score books on
an array of subjects—and any educational material that treats global
warming as settled science is guaranteed to get low marks.
Truth
in Texas Textbooks formed last year to shape how climate change and
scores of other topics are taught. It has no political or religious
affiliation but organizers recruit volunteers through tea-party networks
and church groups—as well as teachers associations, Rotary clubs, and
other civic organizations—and have accused publishers of creating
textbooks with an "anti-Christian" and "anti-American" bias.
Teaching that the global-warming theory is controversial reflects
public opinion, as there is a sharp divide over the connection between
human activity and Earth's evolving climate. But that approach is
sharply at odds with climate scientists, who nearly universally believe
the former is driving the latter.
Textbooks are often the first conduit between climate science and
young people. The books that the Texas truth coalition is fighting over
are expected to be used by more than 5 million Texas public school
students for at least a decade. Texas is also the second-largest market
for textbooks behind California, and publishers often peddle
best-selling Texas textbooks in other states.
And that's not all: The coalition's system of rating textbooks could
soon spread beyond Texas. White says that activists in California,
Florida, Indiana, Maine, Nevada, Ohio, Utah, and Wisconsin have already
contacted the coalition to learn how they can create their own rating
system.
Advocacy groups giving grades to Texas textbooks is not novel: A
conservative Christian organization called Educational Research Analysts
has been rating educational material in the state since the 1960s. The
group questions scientific evidence for evolution and supports education
that promotes abstinence until marriage. Educational Research Analysts
also has ties to the Texas truth coalition: Its president, Neal Frey,
advised White as he worked to get Truth in Texas Textbooks off the
ground.
But Educational Research Analysts hasn't worked on climate science, which is a targeted area for Truth in Texas Textbooks.
So far, however, the group has struggled. The coalition faced a setback when the Texas Board of Education voted last month to adopt
new social-studies textbooks for public schools. Ahead of the vote,
major publishers—including McGraw-Hill and Pearson—stripped out passages
that cast doubt on climate change. The revisions followed fierce
criticism of the content from groups like the Texas Freedom Network, a
left-leaning advocacy group that pushes for man-made global warming to
be taught in the books, and Climate Parents, an organization dedicated
to teaching climate science.
Eighty-nine
new social-studies textbooks have now been approved in the state. But
school districts have a lot of leeway over exactly which books to buy, a
series of decisions that they're slated to make this spring.
The coalition sees that policy as an opportunity. It plans to send
out a report to school districts detailing the grades assigned to each
book. Volunteers are also gearing up to distribute their ratings among
concerned-citizens groups and parent-teacher organizations.
"We have created a tool so that now people will have a sense of which books are best for their kids," White says.
Still, options for altering climate curriculum are limited. None of
the approved textbooks that will be used in classrooms next fall dispute
the scientific consensus that man-made climate change is underway.
The coalition is working to encourage publishers to make last-minute
changes before the books go to print this fall. Barring that, volunteers
hope public pressure will inspire teachers to teach climate controversy
even if textbooks do not mandate that approach.
"Children are so vulnerable in their younger years and what they hear
they believe is truth," said Karin Gililland, another volunteer with
the coalition. "Truth is what this is all about. We want truth."
Emily McBurney echoed that concern: "I'm afraid that [teaching
climate change] is instilling fear in children at a very young age that
either we're going to run out of something or overpollute the Earth. I
didn't want them to come away with the wrong impression of America."
But opponents of the coalition insist that teaching the controversy
and not the consensus on climate change will lead to devastating
consequences.
"Whether climate change is real and caused by humans is
not scientifically disputed, and textbooks or teachers who pretend that
it is would be miseducating students," said Josh Rosenau, the programs
and policy director for the National Center for Science Education.
Dan Quinn, a spokesman for the Texas Freedom Network, doubts the
coalition will gain traction. He called their reviews "amateurish" and
"overtly political" and believes "school administrators and teachers who
make the purchasing decisions will see right through the nonsense."
Volunteers with the coalition remain optimistic and determined to achieve their aim.
"This is just the beginning," McBurney said. "We're hoping to spread
the word throughout the United States, throughout the world."
The flip, easy thing is to scoff and view as ridiculous the SBOE, and Texas, generally. It's actually not funny at all if we unpack the bias contained within that is simply a more extreme version of what is otherwise generally the rule.
As Milton Gordon laid out in his definitive treatise, ASSIMILATION IN AMERICAN LIFE, the United States is not a pluralistic society where different groups with their own respective institutions thrive on relatively equal ground in harmony with other groups. Nor is ours a melting pot society that results in the creation of a new synthesis called "American." Instead, Gordon termed this "Anglo conformity," where the English language and Anglo cultural mores, and values (like individualism, a belief in a meritocracy, and free market capitalism) reign supreme.
Aside from the facts about Moses and the Constitution and the shady process of textbook adoption by the Texas SBOE that are serious enough issues, I underscore just how problematic it is to cast our country as a “redeemer nation,”when if anything, it needs redemption from its many atrocious and continuing sins, beginning with the genocide, conquest, and colonization of native people and slavery—a past with which it still needs to fully reckon.
My main point is that by using Moses as a symbol, this is a reinstantiation of Anglo, protestant (WASP) dominance and hegemony for public school students in Texas at a time of not only significant, but ground breaking demographic shifts. According to the September 10, 2013 issue of the Texas Tribune:
The unspoken logics of cultural bias, chauvinism, dominance and the fear of the "other," lay behind Anglo conformity as instruments of control—and the continuing agenda of historical erasure of the histories of native people—lay behind moves like these that are important to call out.
Young people, you have all the means at your disposal, to not only investigate all of this on your own, but to investigate the SBOE itself. Find out who represents you and how they voted on this decision and let them know what you think. Vote in school board and State Board of Education elections. Consider running for this office in your own district.
Educate yourself so that you, too, can stand up to these misrepresentations of the Bible and the U.S. Constitution and just as importantly, the larger, historic agenda to exercise cultural dominance and power over you behind lies and distortions like these.
So don't scoff at the board; get organized and get these right-wing zealots out. Because curriculum entails the reproduction of consciousness, there are perhaps no more important battles than these anyway. At the very least, liberate your minds!
Christian
conservatives win, children lose: Texas textbooks will teach public
school students that the Founding Fathers based the Constitution on the
Bible, and the American system of democracy was inspired by Moses.
On Friday the Republican-controlled Texas State Board of Education voted
along party lines 10-5 to approve the biased and inaccurate textbooks.
The vote signals a victory for Christian conservatives in Texas, and a
disappointing defeat for historical accuracy and the education of
innocent children.
The textbooks were written to align with instructional standards that the Board of Education approved back in 2010 with the explicit intention
of forcing social studies teaching to adhere to a conservative
Christian agenda. The standards require teachers to emphasize America’s
so called “Christian heritage.”
In essence, Christian
conservatives in Texas have successfully forced a false historical
narrative into public school textbooks that portray Moses as an
influence on the Constitution and the Old Testament as the root of
democracy.
Critics
called the whole process into question after publishers posted a number
of last-minute changes to the textbooks yesterday, leaving board
members and observers without time to figure out exactly what was in the
approved texts.
According to reports,
scholars did not have an opportunity to review and comment on the
numerous changes publishers have submitted since the last public
hearing. Some of those changes appeared to have been negotiated with
state board members behind closed doors.
Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller issued the following statement:
“What
we saw today shows very clearly that the process the State Board of
Education uses to adopt textbooks is a sham. This board adopted
textbooks with numerous late changes that the public had little
opportunity to review and comment on and that even board members
themselves admitted they had not read. They can’t honestly say they know
what’s in these textbooks, which could be in classrooms for a decade.”
In
addition to Miller’s complaints about the process, the Texas Freedom
Network issued a statement on today’s State Board of Education vote to
adopt new social studies textbooks for Texas public schools, noting:
the new textbooks also include passages that suggest Moses influenced the writing of the Constitution and that the roots of democracy can be found in the Old Testament. Scholars from across the country have said such claims are inaccurate and mislead students about the historical record.
Emile
Lester, a professor of history in the Department of Political Science
and International Affairs at the University of Mary Washington, claim
the textbooks contain “inventions and exaggerations” about
Christianity’s influence on the Founding Fathers and, by extension, the
formation of American democracy.
Credible historians warn
the misguided attempt to suggest biblical origins for the Constitution
would lead students to believe that “Moses was the first American.”
Scholars claim
the decision to include the biblical figure of Moses in social studies
education is part of a concerted effort by Christian extremists to
promote the idea that the United States is a “redeemer nation” – giving a
divine justification for supposed American exceptionalism.
The
proposed textbooks are deeply flawed, and have no place in a public
school classroom. It is wrong and factually incorrect to teach Texas
public school students that the Founding Fathers based the Constitution
on the Bible.
Despite the efforts of Christian conservatives to
pervert and twist U.S. history to satisfy their religious superstition,
the fact remains Moses was not the first American, and America is not a
Christian nation.
Consider signing this
petition for accurate textbooks. This reminds me of former Texas the first female Governor of Texas Ma Ferguson (1925) who was perhaps most famous for saying:
"If English was
good enough for Jesus Christ, then it's good enough for Texas."
When the State Board of Education held its first public hearing on proposed new social studies textbooks for Texas public schools, scholars from across the state (and from outside Texas) expressed their concerns about serious problems in those texts. Kathleen Wellman,
Dedman Family Distinguished Professor of History at Southern Methodist
University in Dallas, was particularly concerned with how the textbooks
exaggerate Judeo-Christian influences on the American founding.
That exaggeration goes so far, Wellman notes in the video clip of her
September testimony above, that the textbooks essentially make Moses “the Founding Father.” The impression students will get? Wellman, with only a hint of sarcasm:
“I think they’ll believe that Moses was the first American.”
Religious-righters on the State Board of Education in Texas hoped for
this kind of textbook content when they passed deeply flawed and
politicized new curriculum standards for social studies classes in 2010.
The new textbooks must cover those standards.
You can read more about the problems in the proposed new social studies textbooks for Texas public schools here: tfn.org/history.
While you’re there, sign the petition calling for textbooks based
on honest, accurate history, not the ideological beliefs of politicians
on the State Board of Education. The State Board of Education is set to
vote in November on which textbooks to approve.
This relates to my previous post on Moses, the U.S. Constitution and accuracy in social studies textbooks. Important debate continuing today at Texas' State Board of Education.
-Angela
Texas' New Public School Textbooks Promote Climate Change Denial and Downplay Segregation
And they could end up in your kid's classroom too.
Citizens gathered outside a 2010 Texas State Board of Education meeting to protest changes to the social-studies standards.
Larry Kolvoord/Austin American-Statesman/AP
The battle over Texas textbooks
is raging once again. On Tuesday, hundreds of citizens turned out for
the first public hearing on the controversial social-science materials
now under review as part of the state's contentious once-in-a-decade
textbook adoption process. During the all-day proceedings, activists and
historians pointed out numerous factual errors and complained that the
books promoted tea party ideology while mocking affirmative action and
downplaying the science linking human activity to climate change. "They
are full of biases that are either outside the established mainstream
scholarship, or just plain wrong," Jacqueline Jones, who chairs the
history department at the University of Texas-Austin, said from the
podium. "It can lead to a great deal of confusion in the reader."
Other speakers raised concerns about the
treatment of religion, especially the tendency of some books to play up
the role of Christianity in our nation's founding. Kathleen Wellman, a professor of history Southern Methodist University,
noted with dismay that a popular civics text was filled with references
to Moses and claimed that the biblical prophet had inspired American
democracy. If the draft texts are adopted as is, she argued, Texas
children could grow up "believing that Moses was the first American."
Conservatives, meanwhile, complained that the books gave too much space
to liberal figures such as Hillary Clinton.
It's a high-stakes debate. Because Texas has one
of the nation's largest public school systems and some of the most rigid
textbook requirements, publishers have traditionally tailored textbooks
they sell nationwide to the Lone Star market.
Ads by Rubicon Project
Tuesday's
hearing comes on the heels of several reports claiming the proposed
social-science textbooks, which span grades K-12, are rife with bias and
factual errors. One analysis commissioned by the Texas Freedom Network,
a nonprofit watchdog that advocates church-state separation, found that
some materials downplayed the hardships blacks faced under segregation
and "gave nods to neo-Confederate arguments" that states' rights rather
than slavery was the driving issue behind the Civil War. The group also
maintains that some books take a tea party line on issues such as
taxation. As an example, TFN cites a passage in the high school American
government text submitted by Pearson, the world's largest textbook
publisher:
In the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. taxes
are "what we pay for civilized society." Society does not appear to be
much more civilized today than it was when Justice Holmes made that
observation in 1927. However, "what we pay" has certainly gone up.
The book makes no mention of the potential
benefits of taxation, including safety net programs such as Social
Security and Medicare, that have been adopted since 1927 and have
slashed poverty, especially among the elderly. In another chapter, the
Pearson text takes aim at affirmative action with a cartoon showing two
aliens in a space ship landing on Earth. Pointing toward a man in a suit
and tie, one of them exclaims: "This planet is great!—He says we
qualify for affirmative action!" The only context is a caption asking
readers to parse the cartoon's meaning.
Another report,
released Monday by the Oakland-based National Center for Science
Education, which has previously clashed with the Board of Education over
its dubious treatment of evolution, highlights a handful of "deeply
concerning" passages in those social-science texts that deal with
climate change. The report cites a passage in the teacher's edition of
the sixth grade World Cultures & Geography text issued by McGraw-Hill, the nation's second largest textbook publisher:
Scientists agree that Earth's climate is
changing. They do not agree on what is causing the change. Is it just
another natural warming cycle like so many cycles that have occurred in
the past? Scientists who support this position cite thousands of years'
worth of natural climatic change as evidence. Or is climate change
anthropogenic—caused by human activity? Scientists who support this
position cite the warming effect of rapidly increasing amounts of
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
The book goes on to quote two reports on global
warming. One is from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a
global outfit comprised of climate scientists who have assembled a vast
body of evidence that human beings are to blame; the other is from the
Heartland Institute, a conservative think thank, which has a long
history of shilling for dirty industries (including Big Oil) and has
tried to undermine the science linking human activity to climate change.
"Scientists who study the issue say it is impossible to tell if the
recent small warming trend is natural," reads the Heartland passage
quoted in the book. "Thousands of peer-reviewed articles point to
natural sources of climate variability that could explain some or even
all of the warming in the second half of the twentieth century."
Pearson's fifth-grade social-studies book contains a similarly skewed description of climate change:
Burning oil to run cars also releases carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere. Some scientists believe that this carbon
dioxide could lead to a slow heating of Earth's overall climate. This
temperature change is known as global warming or climate change.
Scientists disagree about what is causing climate change.
In reality, as NCSE points out, there's no
indication that climate change is a passing phase, and 97 percent of
climate scientists agree that human activity is the primary driver.
Besides distorting the underlying science, NCSE's
programs and policy director Josh Rosenau says many of the 104
social-studies textbooks up from review give climate change short
shrift. "In this day, social-studies education ought to include an
in-depth discussion of climate change," he told Mother Jones.
"There are serious policy implications. There are cultural, geographic,
and economic consequences. But if you include the topic, it becomes a
flash point with conservatives on the Board of Education."
The current crop of textbooks were written to comply with a set of standards that the Texas State Board of Education, then controlled by a group of ultra-conservatives,
crafted in 2010 with input from a cadre of hand-picked "experts." Among
them were conservative culture warriors such as David Barton, a
self-styled historian with deep ties to the Republican Party who argues
that the principle of church-state separation is a myth. As a result,
the books are required to glorify free-market capitalism, promote
America's Christian heritage, and pay tribute to conservative icons,
such as Newt Gingrich and Phyllis Schlafly.
Comments from Tuesday's hearing will be forwarded
to publishers, who are allowed to make changes but tend to be wary of
doing anything that will put them at odds with the board. The final vote
on which books to adopt will be held November. Under a new Texas law,
board members can only vote to reject books that have blatant factual
errors or fail to meet at least half of the state's requirements,
meaning it may be too late to address some of the concerns raised by
Texas citizens. As Republican board member Thomas Ratliff put it last week, "If there's a complaint about the standards, that ship has sailed."
Ratliff struck a more diplomatic note during
Tuesday's meeting. "This process is not going to be perfect," he said.
"These books are not going to be perfect from anybody's perspective, and
so what we got to do is remember these are put in the hands of
hopefully trained professionals that will teach these subjects in a fair
balanced and comprehensive way to get these kids ready to think for
themselves."
Texas' State Board of Education is currently discussion social studies textbooks as part of our adoption process. While I totally dig Moses, I agree with SMU Dallas history professor Dr. Kathleen Wellman that Moses' connection to the founding of the U.S. Constitution is highly problematic as follows:
She flatly rejects these requirements as “ahistorical” and calls the textbook passages about them overt factual errors: “The most problematic is Moses, who shows up everywhere [in the textbooks] doing everything.” She suggests that the publishers tried to conform to the flawed requirements without really knowing how to do so. Board member David Bradley asks whether Wellman is affiliated with and compensated by TFN. Her (entirely accurate) answer is no to both. Bradley’s continuing petty attempts to suggest that scholars are influenced by TFN rather than having formed their own professional opinions in their many years of
research, writing and teaching are not surprising.
On the topic of (in)accuracy, I'm sure that these textbook are also not acknowledging the influence of American Indians, specifically, the Iroquois nation and its Constitution upon the American Constitution.
The debate continues today. You can follow this blog for more info from the Texas Freedom Network.
