Posted on 04/18/2008 1:27:51 PM PDT by Sopater
An advanced textbook on American government is drawing criticism from scholars for alleged errors concerning climate change and separation of church and state.
The advanced textbook in question is called American Government (Houghton Mifflin) and was authored by James Q. Wilson and John J. Dilulio, Jr. Associated Press reports that a New Jersey high school student pointed out apparent errors in the textbook to the Center for Inquiry, which then released a "scathing report."
Under criticism are statements that cause students to question whether the debate over "global warming" is really over, and whether the issue of "separation of church and state" is being correctly interpreted. Critics also accuse the textbook of having a conservative bias on a number of other issues.
The executive director of Christian Educators Association International (CEAI) disagrees with the critics. "I don't think it's the job of our public schools to indoctrinate children to tell them what they should believe about global warming," says Finn Laursen, "but let's educate them; let's let them [think] like great minds of the past did, and let's let them openly discuss the issues. And if we don't let them know that there are two sides, that discussion won't happen," he contends.
The CEAI leader fears that the advanced students are no longer being as academically challenged as they have been in the past and are also being taught one-sided arguments.
"I think that most would agree that we [as a nation] are not as competitive as we once were, and I personally believe that one of the reasons is that our advanced students are not being challenged to higher levels of thinking," the Christian educator argues. "They're being given one side of topics, told to memorize that and to believe that -- and that does not create great minds, and great thinkers, and problem solvers," he points out.
In Arizona, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne has said he will not remove the textbook from schools. Horne is quoted by KTAR.com as saying, "the claims made for conservative bias are very mild compared to the liberal bias that I see in most textbooks."
"F"
Voted. F.
“I personally believe that one of the reasons is that our advanced students are not being challenged to higher levels of thinking,” the Christian educator argues.”
He’s too nice. Our kids are being lied to.
Hell forbid that children should actually know that there are more than one view for ceratin issues that are core to the liberal belief system these days.
String those authors up.
Out of 791 votes, 43% (including mine) are “F”.
Would have liked some detail as to what the actual offending passages are.
what is really needed is a “pre-course” for high school students that teaches them how to recognize when a piece of writing sounds conservative or liberal.
I volunteer to debate any of these book critic knobs any time, any place. And please, oh please, let’s get into global warming.
I agree public schools are not what they should be but parents are the biggest problem. Many don’t send their kids to school to learn.
I went to 10 different schools growing up, most of which were not very good. My parents did not allow me to use that excuse.
A very good friend of mine teaches across town in a beautiful middle school. The kids have laptops, new everything. She says the kids don’t give a crap. When the school has Open House, 3 or 4 sets of parents show up at her classroom.
yep
“Under criticism are statements that cause students to question whether the debate over “global warming” is really over.”
Well I sure as hell hope that students ARE questioning whether the debate is really over!
The author sounds like he thinks it’s a bad thing to question something. That’s what science is all about.
I specifically ordered this text for my students in their American Government course; I found it to be exceedingly fair minded.
‘Would have liked some detail as to what the actual offending passages are.”
If you read them yourself, then your mind would be poisoned too. We judge for you so you don’t need to, the passages questioned the established global warming consensus, and suggested a false misleading alternative to the agreed upon ACLU version of the constitutionally required separation of church and state. That’s all you need to know, bad words were found and are being taken out so you’ll be safe now. /s
“Under criticism are statements that cause students to question whether the debate over “global warming” is really over,”
IF people are allowed to debate it, it’s not over. If people are fobidden from debating it, it’s all over.
What “he ws trying to say” is as plain as the words he used. Unenlightened people in small towns only turn to God and guns and bigotry when they feel oppressed. The implication is that is part of their stupidity and foolishness and that religion and race hatred are the same sort of thing.
We have lost the Global Warming fight. Bush is on board. McCain is enthusiastically on board.
We have lost the Global Warming fight. Bush is on board. McCain is enthusiastically on board.
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