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Texas Schools Board Rewriting US History
suraj.sun picked up a Guardian (UK) piece on the Texas school board and their quest to remake US education in a pro-American, Christian, free enterprise mode. We've been keeping an eye on this story for some time, as it will have an impact far beyond Texas. From the Guardian: "The board is to vote on a sweeping purge of alleged liberal bias in Texas school textbooks in favor of what Dunbar says really matters: a belief in America as a nation chosen by God as a beacon to the world, and free enterprise as the cornerstone of liberty and democracy. ... Those corrections have prompted a blizzard of accusations of rewriting history and indoctrinating children by promoting right-wing views on religion, economics, and guns while diminishing the science of evolution, the civil rights movement, and the horrors of slavery. ... Several changes include sidelining Thomas Jefferson, who favored separation of church and state, while introducing a new focus on the 'significant contributions' of pro-slavery Confederate leaders during the Civil War. ... Study of Sir Isaac Newton is dropped in favor of examining scientific advances through military technology."
"He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future."
They can do that?
They are not even trying to cover up that they are trying to indoctrinate everyone: "Dunbar says really matters: a belief in America as a nation chosen by God as a beacon to the world, and free enterprise as the cornerstone of liberty and democracy."
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
Of course it is absurd that the Texas school board is even considering such changes, but it really is up to the people of Texas to fix their school board.
On the other hand, if an education in Texas gets bad enough, universities and employers might start to pass over applicants from Texas because they are under qualified. This seems like a good thing as it is basically the free market sorting out the educated from the ignorant.
Zero comments after most of a day? Really?
Okay, I'll throw one down. Probably a bit OT, but WTF.
I live in Arizona, ground zero for this crap. I had an interesting conversation about Our State Issues this week.
And I left there thinking:
The problem is not the 25% hardcore dipshits who will always lean this way. Nothing can be done to help them.
The problem is the 30% of otherwise kind, intelligent, educated people who because of some flaw in their heads find themselves thinking things like: "Hmmm, that Glenn Beck fella makes some good points."
I wish there were more I could do to reach them, beyond conversing with them delicately and providing an alternative example by what I say and how I live my life. It will never be enough to turn the tide in the nation, or this state. Maybe not even enough to turn it in this town. But it's what I have. And hoping against hope, I'll keep going with it, and just pray to a god who doesn't exist that power ends up in the hands of better people.
"As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion..."
--Treaty of Tripoly
Ratified by the Senate, signed by President John Adams in 1797.
I hope that clears things up for these right wing wackos who are confused about our founding fathers' intentions. I hope to see this quote up on a sidebar in the next issue of their books.
I'm wondering why omit Newton, he was a very devout Christian. One of his greatest regrets was not making a theological breakthrough that matched his scientific discoveries. Heck, he was also a strong advocate of maintaining virginity (perhaps too strongly, he died a virgin and reputedly call that his greatest accomplishment).
while introducing a new focus on the 'significant contributions' of pro-slavery Confederate leaders during the civil war
I'm a little concerned about the way that is worded... Putting a pair of words in quotes generally means that the author doesn't share that opinion. So does someone really believe that slave owners contributed nothing of value to society? George Washington was a slave owner (albeit a progressive one), and he most certainly contributed greatly to American society. It's rather disturbing to me that someone might want to blackwash something like slavery as all bad and only practiced by vile, useless people.
OTOH, slavery is the antithesis of America. Slaves are neither free, nor can they improve their situation through hard work. I'm frankly worried that history is getting to be more focused on "good guys" and "bad guys" than an actual understanding of what lead the "bad guys" to do what they did, and why we see it as "wrong" given a modern perspective. If you just attribute evil acts to "evil" people then you lose sight of what caused those people to become "evil", and insight into how to prevent similar things from happening again. The only thing you can do with "evil people" that you don't understand is kill them, which hardly solves the long-term problem since it's very difficult to kill *all* of them.
That said, I have no idea how the Texas School Board is presenting the concept. They could easily paint slavery as the result of cultural sensitivity, since slavery was the traditional practice in Africa. (So many people seem to think slavery was about white guys going to African and throwing nets over random black villagers.) Or they could state that the Africans were less developed and imply that it wasn't so bad to use them for Western goals since most Americans descended from slaves are better off then their modern-day African counterparts. Presenting perspectives such as these would be very dangerous, since they're half-truths that ignore the bigger picture. Furthermore, they have a very obvious connection to modern politics.
*That* is a brilliant fucking idea.
No slashdot discussion of the stupidity of textbooks would be complete without a reference to Richard Feynman's little thing on the horribleness of how textbooks get approved. Spoilers: it involves sex, lies, bribery, political cronyism, plagiarism, and other delicious things.
Is there an easy way to find schools with curricula that are less dependent on what happens in Texas? I mean, without having to read hundreds of textbooks and do lots of gruesomely painful research on my own (I get enough of that in my day job).
But the textbook companies will not stand up to it. The Texas School Board has been influencing textbooks for all of America for many decades. Texas is a populous state, so it is a big market for textbooks. Furthermore, Texas is unique in that textbooks are adopted statewide for all the schools in the state. That means huge numbers for the publishers, and that gives the publishers' ears to the School Board.
I do not remember the attempts at influence of the fundamentalists to be quite so blatant in the past. Perhaps they are becoming emboldened in these times of the Tea Parties.
In addition to encouraging you to RTFA, let me strongly encourage you to consider the political position consistently advocated by the paper that published the FA. The Guardian makes no pretense at all of being balanced, centrist, unbiased, or apolitical. This is the British newspaper (and web site) that developed a web site with the names and addresses of registered voters in Ohio, and encouraged their readers to write to them to exhort them to vote for John Kerry rather than George Bush. (Bush won Ohio by a handful of votes--which Ohio politicos attributed to the furious backlash the Guardian created, but that's another story.)
In other words, the Guardian article is an advocacy piece meant to alarm, rather than enlighten. If you're a Brit, this will come as no surprise--if you're as Internet-savvy as a SlashDot reader should be, you shouldn't be surprised, either.
The sun will come up tomorrow, even in Texas...
Despite the panicked anxiety of the writer (and the New York Times, here), it's not terribly controversial to emphasize the strong Christian views of many of America's founders. Which is not to say that America's Constitution is a statement of Christian faith--which is often how this argument is misconstrued. (A standard freshman year American History exam question is to compare and contrast the Christian and Deist views expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.) But it is interesting to know that in most U.S. states you had to be a professing Christian in order to run for political office--it provides a perspective on our First Amendment that is all-too-often missing when discussing what the "separation of church and state" means. (What it meant, then, was that no state could "establish" a church--in the way that the Church of England is established in the U.K., or the Lutheran Church is established in Denmark. They're supported by taxes, their leadership is appointed by government, etc.--they are state religions. Jefferson wrote about a "vast wall separating church and state" to reassure Baptists in New England that they would not face oppression by Congregationalists.).
Isaac Newton vs. military technology:
Well gosh--I can see the insidious hand of Sarah Palin here, too. Or...perhaps, it might be worthwhile to consider that the intentional pursuit of military technology as a means of achieving battlefield superiority has been a hallmark of U.S. strategy since the Civil War. Especially in Texas, home to Ft. Hood, Ft. Sam Houston, Lackland AFB, and most U.S. Air Force pilot training. To me (who majored in Economics and American History) that sounds like a pretty perceptive point to make. I'd include Isaac Newton, too--but presumably they decided something had to give. Oh, well.
Guns
TFA breathlessly tells Brit readers that:
One can understand that this would so shock a Brit that he might drop his second or third pint of Guinness Stout that he'd swilled that day. Which is to say, what a Brit might find commonplace (down two or three pints of Guinness Stout in the U.S. and you're a de facto alcoholic) in the U.S. is seen as entirely normative. Again--given that the entire point of the Second Amendment was a direct reaction to the abuses of British occupation forces prior to American independence--this is a pretty welcome emphasis on the impact of early American history on our constitution and present-day policy. Not to mention, of course, that in Texas even self-avowed liberals emphasize their support for "Second Amendment Rights".
Think critically--read critically
I'm far less bothered by this article (it's the Guardian, for heaven's sake, what would you expect?) than I am by the fact that SlashDot's editors include
I was indoctrinated with a liberal public education full of PC bullshit. And the only effect it had on me was a contempt for those who would push their agendas onto me. I ended up being somewhere between libertarian and conservative, with a strong feeling that the state should neither support nor suppress religious beliefs. I'm an atheist myself, but realize that religion is very important to many people. And atheist conservative, I suppose I challenge the narrow view political labels has taken in the last few decades. But I suggest that perhaps it was the Christian Right that made state religion part of a "conservative" platform.
If Texas wants to eliminate liberal bias and insert some neoconservative/christian right bias then so be it. The ideals of neocons and christian right are generally incompatible and it has fractured the Republican Party for many decades. Likely students will see the contradictions and the hypocrisy and make their own choices. With the wild Internet providing easy access to information, and the culture of this new generation being very open and honest about their beliefs (even though they are often outlandishly liberal) I have little doubt in my mind that students will overcome this minor obstacle in propaganda tainted education. The kids who aren't critical thinkers and fall prey to such propaganda would have fallen anyways, to the Church or to social pressures. They are the causalities of our society, and will be integrated into society as taxpayers and ineffective voters.
It's not like Americans haven't had to face insane propaganda mixed in their education. From Commies to Political Correctness, we over came the bullshit.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
World War 3?
Really, if you look at how everything began, that led to WW2... it looks like this: The start of a reality distortion gaining power, and taking over. A mass-schizophrenia.
It may take another 10 years, but this already looks like a mind-virus of the level of the Nazis or the inquisitions.
I just hope we can quickly cure people.
(The cure to delusions is to give reality a greater appeal, and make the delusions look really bad. And I mean in the minds of the infected. They must have an excuse to keep their self-respect, and get back into a better reality. So we must first and foremost stop all the “threats”. Like the “economic crisis”, the growing poverty, and especially the easy-to-kill fake ones like the way overblown “terrorist threat”, or the whole Obama fear. I say, the primary target should be to shoot Glenn Beck and close down FOX News ASAP. BUT: Let give them a reason, so THEY do it, or it will only get worse. And then go for the “churches”. They are THE professionals since thousands of years, and the feed on it like no other. )
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Manifest Destiny ... look it up. Think of it as a democratic jihad. Not a good idea. The British had a similar notion: The White Man's Burden. Well meaning ideas that just result in a lot misfortune.
Bitter and proud of it.
You know, back when it was the US and the Republic of Texas?
like the "economic crisis"
Yep, no crisis at all right. Easy to find jobs. We didn't waste billions of taxpayer dollars "bailing out" businesses. Not sure if that was your primary point that it didn't exist, but putting "economic crisis" in quotes seem to indicate it...
or the whole Obama fear.
Because we should all be just happy that we have a president who has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars, supports a supreme court nominee vowed against true freedom of speech and supports unsustainable programs. Right?
I say, the primary target should be to shoot Glenn Beck and close down FOX News ASAP.
News flash. News sources are biased. It isn't new. Look at MSNBC, heck, look at the Guardian which TFA is taken from. The Guardian doesn't even make any claims to be balanced or fair.
Oh and is the new tactic to eliminate anyone with views who you don't agree with now?
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
I just hope we can quickly cure people.
I seriously doubt that - these people are still waving the FUCKING CONFEDERATE FLAG. They lost the war, going on 150 years ago, and they still haven't given up. They've lost every battle in their self-proclaimed "culture war", and they still believe that one day America will return to the "good ol' days", where wimmins stayed in the kitchen, faggots stayed in the closet, niggers stayed in the ghetto and "White America" was some sort of tax-free libertarian redneck version of Leave It To Beaver.
The fact that such a time never existed (look up the marginal rates during the Eisenhower era, for instance) or that 99% of the Social Security collecting teabaggers who worship it would have been dirt poor sharecroppers without shoes, electricity or running water doesn't enter into the equation.
I'm all for this. If they want to diminish science and taint history, let 'em.
That'll give my child that much bigger of an advantage in about 15 years when she's applying for jobs. She'll understand the scientific method. She'll know her history. She'll be well educated, while the children from texas will believe that there is no USSR/soviet union.
This works for me.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Those goddamned buffalo weren't going to eradicate themselves.
I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.
Why do you think the GOP is tearing itself apart? Free enterprise is an entirely different religion than Jesusitude. Seriously, read Ayn Rand.
I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.
Reasonable discussion isn't going to cut it any more. A woman who home-schooled her children because, and I'm quoting exactly here, sending them to public education would be "throwing them into the enemy's flames," i.e. damning them to Hell, has gotten some control over the Texas Board of Education. It's time to unleash the awesome power of ridicule.
Seriously. Look at the proposed changes from the article:
These are not the crackpot fringe. These are people in charge of educating the children of one of the country's largest populations, and who influence education thoughout the country.
We're beyond rational discussion here. Reasonable debate only works when both sides are intellectually honest. How about we begin with Harvard, Princeton, Caltech and MIT dropping all applications from students educated in Texas out of hand? I mean, surely no REAL American would want to send their kid to California or the bastions of the Liberal Elite to be educated?
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
It's time for the US to give Texas back to Mexico. This will solve many problems, such as: (1) lying textbooks, (2) warmongering presidents, (3) Mexicans illegally streaming across the border for jobs, and (4) country and western music.
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Mussolini
It wasn't just Jefferson that wanted to seperate Church and State, there was this guy called Jesus that said "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's".
Then again, we're dealing with merchants in the temple here.
A big clue about whether your Church is about worshipping money and power instead of anything else is their attitude to the poor and homeless. The ironic thing is such wide ranging heresy which could not exist without tolerance is incredibly intolerant.
Texas: "We must close the ignorance gap with Kansas!"
Table-ized A.I.
President John Adams, eh?
John Adams, Oct. 13, 1789
oh, this one is good too:
So while the government of the United States might not be Christian, the opinion at the time was that Christianity was necessary to preserve it. 'Why' is explained above. Atheists have not demonstrated an adequate method for instilling the necessary values on as wide a scale as Christianity. They constantly deride it, coming across as little better than the teenager who thinks his dad's a moron, only to figure out how smart he actually is when he gets to his late twenties.
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
There is not a real "left" in America. Democrats are not left, they are just slightly left of the Republicans. If you want to know what real leftist ideas look like then read about the Green Party, or the Democratic Socialist Party. If those were viable parties and were winning elections then you could say we have a real right-left divide, right now all we have is right and far right so if you have a problem with either the Democrats or the Republicans then you are saying you don't like conservative ideas - they are both conservative.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
...when the left does it.
I can show you a bunch of cases of textbooks saying outright that the 2nd Amendment is purely about the states rights to form state militias and that there's no personal civil right to arms - and some still say it even when published after the 2008 Heller decision where the US Supreme Court said otherwise in no uncertain terms.
The left has been doing a LOT more social indoctrination crap in the schools over the years than the right, largely because the teacher's unions are fairly hardcore lefties. The ONLY surprise now is that the right has been caught doing it.
Schools are not supposed to be indoctrination camps for either side. It's just as evil either way.
Since when is being pro-Germany a bad thing for Germany?
Nationalism leads to irrationality which leads to a misinformed public which leads to dictatorships. Yes, America has done some things right, however, we aren't the only country. We have made -a lot- of mistakes, if we try to hide them not only do we look bad to the world but we risk repeating them.
The problem with the curriculum for the state of Texas is that it will not inspire any thinking. We need to evaluate what we have done, was it right? Was it wrong? Are there any parallels in our world today? Could we have done better?
Those are the things that should be discussed in classrooms using primary sources.
I'm not a fan of political correctness and revisionism for either side (Myself I'd favor eliminating textbooks and letting students study primary sources themselves)
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
These creeps need to be dragged into the streets whipped into their sense, then educated and sent to work in a coal mine before they corrupt the entire nation with their ignorance and ill formed beliefs.
Gee, round up people who disagree with you and put them into re-education camps. Somehow, I think this has been tried before. It didn't work then either.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
And... the left haven't done much else.
Its time that the US has a congress controlled by a third party. Libertarian, Green, etc. Both Republican and Democrat policies have failed. Their compromises have lead to unworkable policies.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Yep, no crisis at all right. Easy to find jobs. We didn't waste billions of taxpayer dollars "bailing out" businesses. Not sure if that was your primary point that it didn't exist, but putting "economic crisis" in quotes seem to indicate it...
The bailouts have been working. Yes, we have lower job numbers than desirable, but that's arguably because the stimulus wasn't big enough.
Because we should all be just happy that we have a president who has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars, supports a supreme court nominee vowed against true freedom of speech and supports unsustainable programs. Right?
I note that the bank bailouts were accomplished under Bush.
I have no idea what you're talking about regarding Kagan or Sotomayor, and i've been following both FOX and other outlets' opinions of her. Many conservatives are supportive of Kagan.
As for unsustainable programs, I assume you are referring to Medicare and Social Security? What would you propose be done with them?
News flash. News sources are biased. It isn't new. Look at MSNBC, heck, look at the Guardian which TFA is taken from. The Guardian doesn't even make any claims to be balanced or fair.
MSNBC has some left wing opinion shows, a right wing morning show, and pretty much run of the mill NBC news otherwise.
I venture that your views above have demonstrated a number of falsehoods mixed in with truths, and some debatable points. You might want to sort out which from which.
-Stu
Warning, do not approach.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
It's time for the US to give Texas back to Mexico.
Sure. You just have to get the okay from Texans, who'd probably go independent first. For that matter, they'd probably burn their own cities and salt every farm & ranch before joining Mexico.
When it gets to the point of denying objective reality and shoving a narrow ideology onto everyone else.
Or, to put it another way, would you equate the Japanese school system's denial of the Nanjing Massacre as simply being "pro-Japanese"? What if German schools decided to ignore or even deny the Holocaust? Would you say they are just being "pro-German"?
It's important to know the history of your country, including all the ugly bits.
Similar to the upcoming US election results
You're aware it's a book, not a function to be called, right?
I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Since when is being "pro-america" a bad thing for Americans?
When it leads you to believe that everything this nation has ever done has been a positive force for good in the world. That means that kids are being taught either that the despicable things our country has done are in fact not despicable, or that they didn't happen. If we fail to learn from history, we're doomed to repeat it...
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Why can't they just use the *real* history book like Californians do?
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
The text is right there. It states the purpose in the first clause.
However, even though the second clause places no limit on why, how or what, the purpose still remains clear. The fact that an already armed populace can also use their armaments for other reasonable purposes, such as hunting for food, self defence and recreation, invalidates neither the purpose nor the restriction of government to infringe. Some people may not like it, but the reality is that people are still allowed to use/have weapons in the USA without the requirement of being for militia use only.
I highly doubt a history book of any bias would dare rewrite the text of a fundamental constitutional amendment. It is more likely that a text or two would editorialise on the validity of existing or proposed gun control laws (no matter how relaxed they may be in various jurisdictions). And I see no reason for a text book to make an easily falsifiable statement.
So, I call bullshit on your stance that the left is somehow changing text books to rewrite the constitution. An author may disagree with the current interpretation, but that doesn't mean that they are making up their own version of the law.
When you leave it up to the government to decide what to teach everybody's kids, sometimes the people who get to decide what to teach your kids are going to be wrong.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
The question is, a beacon indicating exactly what?
"Get the hell out of our way! We're not real sure where the brakes are on this thing, and we've been drinking."
Really? It was actually the liberals that toyed with them-there books first?!?! Well shoot, buckaroo, I guess fillin' the new books with crazy-ass God-fearin', patriotic rhetoric is just fine, so long as it's done in retaliation. You got me convinced!
Grasshoppa,
Where do you think your child will be living in 15 years? The problem with your "my-kid-will-be-one-eyed-in-the-land-of-the-blind" theory is that those blind people all get a vote on where to point the steering wheel. When they vote to drive the car off a cliff, your daughter and mine will be trapped in the car with them.
Sure, maybe her superior education will make her captain of the ship, but that's not gonna help her much when the crew starts setting explosives against the hull down in the hold because "metal ships are not mentioned in the Bible and are therefore an abomination before the Lord..."
You're arguing that an educated woman in Afghanistan is doing great because she's more employable than the Taliban.
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
Where's the "-1 fsking scary" mod when you need it?
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
Maybe Texas did, but they were wrong.
When Geordi LaForge is taking Advanced Warp Field Theory at Starfleet Academy, when the Narn and the Centauri are running student exchange programs, it will still be "Newton's time."
When we get the Grand Unification Theory and we're about to Ascend beyond the Stargates we've planted all over, we're still going to teach Newton as a rough-and-ready method for most mundane physics and as a precursor for what came next.
Have you heard about this newfangled math called calculus?
BTW, I'm a Christian too, and excuse me as I go repent of the anger in my heart toward this comment, and beg your forgiveness for the snark in this reply.
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
I especially like the one about ditching Isaac Newton in favor of military technology. Not only did the law of gravity give the first definitive equation for the ballistic trajectory of cannonballs, artillery shells, etc., but Newton switched from being a physicist to being a devout Christian theologian later in his life. I would've thought they'd love Newton, but nooo, they're so ignorant they're chopping out someone who falls right into their key focus areas. Either that, or maybe he was the wrong kind of Christian.
We are the 198 proof..
And how it shows.
Yeah, that's a sentence fragment. I can do that. That's how I roll.
You, on the other hand, need to quit molesting colons. Commas are not salt. You don't get to just sprinkle some on whenever the mood strikes. I've had drugs in surgery that caused fewer hallucinations and less confusion than one of your run-on sentences. I've never seen someone in such dire need of both spellcheck and a dictionary.
I want you to stop what you're doing, right now, and run to an office supply store like your life depends on it. I want you to buy boxes and boxes of red pens and pencils. I want you to fly to the nearest campus and scream, "Is there a Freshman Comp TA in the house?!" until some bespectacled grad student takes pity on you. I want you to hand them your boxes of red and beg them to beat you with them until you reach the First Enlightenment of Grammar.
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
From the "White Man's Burden" poem:
As for the British Empire
For those unfamiliar with early 20th century British English, he's saying "You cannot rely on artillery to build an empire, it's like trying to construct a building by piling dust on dust""
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
he was a scientist, right?
My grandfather and my wife's grandfather were on opposite sides of WWII. We have radically different interpretations of the events of that conflict. You should hear some of the conflicting explanations my wife and I offer our kids when we travel to some places around the Pacific Rim.
But, to borrow from Lewis Black, we "agree on what the fuck reality is." We agree that you can't talk about Truman without Hirohito, you have to include both Tojo and MacArthur, the A6M and the Corsair.
Only telling part of the truth is a famous method of deception. In fact, the Devil is famous for telling the worst lies by speaking only part of the truth.
The Texas Board of Education isn't even trying to look like they're working in good faith.
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
"a nation chosen by God as a beacon to the world, and free enterprise as the cornerstone of liberty and democracy."
That's EXACTLY the same words that my misguided Afrikaans ancestors used when they were justifying appartheid. Same shit, different country.
And before that - it was the exact same words that the Germans used to justify World War 2. I say this at risk of being Godwin'ing myself but I am by no means downplaying the holocaust as horror (in fact, I'm in the process of writing a science fiction story in which the protagonists are descendents of holocaust survivors so I have been doing significant research on the topic). I'm not saying biased schoolbooks = holocaust, I'm just saying the justification is the same they used.
Mind you, those Afrikaner's were under significant Nazi influence - that's just historical fact. In the early 50's a huge proportion of the Afrikaner voters were members of the Ossewabrandwag - a Nazi propaganda group founded during world war 2 to try and convince South Africa to switch from allies to axis.
Before that, it was the same words the British used to justify the destruction of two independent republics through the systematic killing of 27 thousand women and children in the South African concentration camps.
Right now, it's the exact same words the Chinese government is using to justify turning a sixth of the worlds population into sweatshop workers that is only one step away from slaves (a step DOWN in many cases). Well "mandate of heaven" is near as makes no difference.
Just how big a set of ideological blinders do you need to be wearing to make the same mistakes yet again, the same arguments that have consistently led to the persecution of individualism and subsequent atrocities, and somehow convince yourself that what you're doing is about individual liberty and freedom.
It's like humanity has a predisposed concept that "individual freedom" is the right to live as I please, but other people only get it if they want to use it to live the same way I do - despite the obvious logical error of such thinking. Critical thinking is a good defense against that, but apparently it's a skill more rare than rocket scientists.
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
Readin', 'Ritin', and 'Rithmetic will become God, Guns, and Gay-hatin'....
'He who has to break a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom.' -- Gandalf to Saruman
This is a joke right?
Cuz It's hard to belive people could be that retarded in this day and age.
This is almost as absurd as teaching Creationizem alongside Evolution.
Isn't this how Germans started thinking they are chosen nation, then educating their youth the right way, then establishing clear race, and you know the rest. For me, as European, I stop seeing difference compared to let's say Middle East countries with their own way of expressing religion into educational system. Hello Texas, Deja Vu? What comes next? Denying voting rights to women?
There is no light without darkness.
It seems to me that Texas is supporting a conservative bias, and that is not okay with me.
But, let's be honest, US academia has over-whelming supported a strong liberal bias for years. If Texas was re-writing history to support an agenda that was more favorable to the liberal point of view, it would hardly be news.
It seems to me that the media is up-in-arms over a local government pushing a conservative agenda, but the same media is all too happy to ignore local governments that rewrite history to favor a liberal agenda.
From the Guardian:
You really think the Guardian, one of the most liberal news organizations in the world, is going to give a non-biased opinion on this story?
Those corrections have prompted a blizzard of accusations of rewriting history and indoctrinating children by promoting rightwing views on religion, economics and guns,
As opposed to what, indoctoring them with left wing views? Didn't the summery state that they were trying to get rid of liberal bias? So, it sounds like you are replacing one form of biased history with another. I would love to see history that is truely purged of any bias, but have yet to see it. Historical accounts are generally recorded by survivors or by the victors, and so you have to take some things with a grain of salt.
As to science, stuff that is proven, that shouldn't be messed with. If Texas wants to teach religion in ADDITION to science, that's one thing, teaching it in place of science is another. Living in Texas, I can tell you that the thought is NOT to throw out science.
Lastly, they used the words "accusations" - that does not mean there is necessaraly any truth to it.
And finally (this really is lastly), it looks that while it is an ongoing newsstory, in my skiming of the article, it does not look like the Guardian is introducing any new information. It sounds like an editorial of an ongoing newsstory.
Is there a reputable group called something like "Texans for Educational Sanity"? Where do we sign up and send cash to help put a stop to this crap?
It's funny. At some point, being held to, and holding yourself to, high standards seems to have fallen out of fashion.
The reason that the stuff in Texas receives more outrage and attention is twofold: one, Slashdot is a largely, though hardly exclusively, US audience, so a fair slice of its members may be not too many steps away from being personally affected. More important though, is that nobody expects various authoritarian theocracies to act well, so when the don't, nobody is surprised. Texas, by contrast, is supposed to know better, so people are disappointed when they don't.
Seriously. When did "Oh yeah, at least we aren't like those rag-heads and commies!" come to equal "good enough"?
What do you propose? What exactly do you think we should compromise here? The planet is at stake. Should we compromise the planet?
Don't talk to me in that petulant tone. You know perfectly well I'm not suggesting that we compromise the planet.
No; I'm suggesting we compromise on the means to achieve our goals. What we want is to reduce c02 emissions; how we get there is not the important thing.
We must compromise the means, because we don't want to compromise the ends, and if we don't compromise anything, then we won't get anything. Then the planet is endangered.
What I suggest is that the environmental movement become rabidly pro-nuclear, and that they strongly favor nuclear big business. They should also suggest reducing safety requirements at nuclear reactors. Yes, I said it. The environmental movement should favor reducing safety requirements at nuclear reactors. That would make nuclear reactors cheaper than burning coal and would be politically possible, unlike the everyone-grow-your-own-food-and-stop-using-electricity scenario. If the environmental movement did as I'm suggesting, then they could conceivably have the effect of reducing c02 emissions rather than increasing them.
Because GOD says so. And Texas was the first state in the Union, so we get to call the shots, after all, we won the civil war. And I didn't get that there girl pregnant, biology got nuthin' to do with it, GOD got her pregnant. Leave me alone so I can drink my beer and shoot out windows while driving my pickup truck. God made America for us to do whatever we want, as long as we say three hail mary's after we done whatever we did. So, if the kids are smarter than the school board, they'll contest every answer they get wrong on every test, because all they need to do is say "God says so".
If the school board can change "learning" to their benefit, so can every single student in the state Texas. Go for it. Idiocracy is prophecy.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Now you're just being cheeky and provocative. It won't work; I see through it.
You know perfectly well that the environmental movement considers nuclear power to be as bad as coal burning, or worse. Therefore, they would accomplish nothing by favoring nuclear power. Granted, they would reduce c02 emissions, but that is not their primary objective. They have never really cared about c02, and they don't now. What the environmentalist movement really wants is a reduction in technology and a return to a simpler life. That is their objective. Their claims about c02 are really just means to that end, as you perfectly well know.
I cannot continue this debate with you, if you reject the most elemental degree of honesty and sincerity. You feign ignorance about the motives of the environmental movement when those motives are obvious to everyone. After all, why would the environmental movement favor biofuels so consistently, when biofuels increase c02 emissions and destroy the environment? Obviously, because biofuels promise a return to a simpler mode of life (grow things and burn wood!) and not because they help the environment. And you can't help but realize these things. Don't pretend you think otherwise.
"Actually, I'm Canadian, not American".
I'm not really Canadian, but you know, I'm thinking that could be a *really* useful phrase to remember if I'm ever traveling outside the U.S.
Yes, we need to STOP having education by the nanny state. The government should get it's nose entirely out of education/indoctrination.
Why is it so scary?
most of us believe that much of our national blessing comes from siding with Israel these last many decades
Perhaps I was unclear. I find it scary that someone would
But then I always find political statements with a religious basis pretty damn scary.
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
"after all, isn't that what this nation was founded on."
Funny, I thought our nation was founded on protest against the Governance of the British Crown?
Go read the declaration of Independence. Now, it obviously is very much informed by Christianity, and Christian values, BUT, there is a long list of grievances in the Declaration, NONE of which have anything whatsoever to do with the exercise of religion (well, it may be possible, I suppose, that some of the laws which he either refused his Assent to, or imposed on the colinies, might have had something to do with religious practice - I leave that possibility open, but the Declaration isn't very concerned with religious matters).
The Constitution likewise, is certainly informed by Christian values, but it clearly defines a secular government.
Was Christianity important in shaping the worldview and beliefs of many of the revolutionaries?
If you want to go back *earlier* than the Revolution, you can look at the first British settlement/colony in the present-day U.S. - Jamestown, VA. That had nothing whatsoever to do with religion - it was all about seeking resources in North America so that investors and colonists could get rich. Good old fashioned greed.
While I no doubt disagree with Dunbar on just about...everything...the Guardian article is somewhat of a hit piece. For instance, consider this quote:
This makes it sound as if Jefferson was removed from the U.S. History curriculum in favor of the confederates. Jefferson was, in fact, removed from the "World History" curriculum, on the basis that his contributions were minor (on the world stage) compared ot the other Enlightment philosophers on which his views were based. This, presumably, is why Calvin was added. While he wasn't the only reformer by far, he's sort of the poster boy for the protestant reformation, which was a pretty big event in "World History". What's truly bizarre about that modification is that it throws Aquinas, Calvin and Blackstone in with all the Enlightenment guys. You can read the actual word-for-word change here.
This quote:
...is also fairly disingenuous. The board essentially voted to include a discussion fo the right to bear arms in a portion of the curriculum dealing with free expression and first amendment rights.
I would probably oppose almost all of the changes that were made, and I fully agree they were made with idealogical motivations, but I'd also say the Guardian has exagerrated how "crazy" the changes really are.
the Soviet Union did in fact spend large amounts of money and influence to induce as much unrest and disruption as possible.
Yeah, the KGB was real. Yeah, the Soviet Union had a massive spy program. The stars on the wall at the CIA aren't there for decoration. Reagan didn't call them "the Evil Empire" for nothing.
I'll go you one better. I'll bet the Chinese, right now, have more than maybe one or two active assets in the US. In fact, I'll bet there's at least one Chinese spy on American soil who reads Slashdot. They probably enjoy the unfettered internet access.
But how many actual spies did McCarthy and HUAC turn up? Oh, yeah, that's right, exactly none of them. How many lives did they ruin across the Arts and Academia? A lot. I'll personally never forgive them for the Dalton Trumbo stories they cost us.
But, by all means, there is no God but Reagan and Nixon is his profit. Go forth and spread the Word that McCarthy was a patriot crucified for America. While you're at it, you should set the record straight and let everyone know Roy Cohn died of liver cancer too.
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."