The Trouble With Textbooks

Fox News ^ | 9-3-09 | Tucker Carlson

[smokingfrog]

Hard-edged propaganda now suffuses America's history textbooks. A thorough cover-to-cover reading of almost any high school history text leaves you with the impression that the United States is at best embarrassing, and at worst a menace to world peace.

I think I was in fifth grade when I began to suspect that textbooks weren't entirely on the level. The first tip-off came from the word problems in math class. They typically began with scenarios that, even to a 10-year-old, seemed a little unlikely: "Julio's mom is a welder. His father is a pediatric nurse. If his mom welds for 9 hours a day, then..."

Or: "If Maria wins her first three prizefights by knockout, and her next three by TKO, how long before she can leave her job as a lumberjack and fight full time?"

The characters in my textbooks didn't sound like anyone I had ever met. Years later I realized, that was exactly the point. The educators who wrote them weren't interested in describing the world as it was, or had been, but rather as they wanted it to be. They were ideologues, and my math and history books were their pamphlets, disguised as academic texts.

Thirty years later, few textbooks bother with the disguise. Entire chunks of the English language have been banned from the classroom, liquidated in a P.C. purge. First to go were words containing the dreaded term "man," the three letters most offensive to professional feminists. Mailman, chairman, snowman, fisherman, manhole cover--every one now extinct, disdained relics of a bygone age.

[smokingfrog]

Link to video of words banned from textbooks.

http://www.thefoxnation.com/culture/2009/07/29/guess-which-words-are-banned-your-kids-textbooks

[prayerfullywaiting]

It’s bad enough we have to correct our kids about behavior and moral issues now we have to correct them on what they learn in school. All part of a bigger picture..

[stephenjohnbanker]

Thanks

[smokingfrog]

ping

[Jo Nuvark]

As I watched Tucker Carlsons EXCELLENT report I began
to weep and thank God for Fox News. I have known about
revisionist textbooks since the 70’s. What struck me was
that I was seeing this on a network news program other
than “Pray TV”.

I believe we are too late. At least three generations have
been indoctrinated by the status quo.

Cruschev was right... they have buried us from within.

[Anti-Bubba182]

The left is winning the propaganda war because they successfully took over public education. It does not matter what happened in history, they will rewrite it to suit their agenda.

[wintertime]

The educators who wrote them weren't interested in describing the world as it was, or had been
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

My oldest daughter is 24 and she and 2 of her 3 siblings were homeschooled.

Once when she was about 7 we were reading books from the library and she said, “Why doesn't anyone in these books look like me?”

My daughter has fair skin, very light blond hair, and bright blue eyes.

[Freddd]

It was stunning to watch this documentary. The forces are heavily at work in taking the Americanism out of America and inserting the ‘gay’, ‘green’, ‘diversity’ hype on the citizens. And rewriting history and our National holidays....hmmm wasn’t it michele obama who also said that would be done?

[umgud]

Revisionism is a powerfull and effective tool over time.

[wintertime]

The left is winning the propaganda war because they successfully took over public education.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The socialist left has ****always***** been in control of government K-12 education. Please read about the philosophies of the earliest proponents of modern government education. The goal of these mid-1800 century activists ( and later, early 1900’s educational leaders) has **always** been the creation of a compliant, uniform, and bland citizen-worker for the fascist state.

Government schools **ARE** socialism in action. They have always (from their beginnings in the mid-1800s until finally nationwide in the early 1900s) been a socialist experiment to force citizens to pay for a service that parents want for free! How is it possible to fix SOCIALISM?

Socialism can't be fixed!

Children, just by attending, learn by daily example that government has the power to take money from his neighbor to pay for his educational needs. Even worse, for 13 or more years, his teachers tell him it is his **right** to expect this! It is an easy step from believing one has a right to expect government to force his neighbor to pay for his schooling to expect government to pay for all of his other needs.

I believe that FDR was elected and was able to push through his highly radical socialist schemes precisely because one to two generations of voters had lived the daily experience of socialist schools paid for by their neighbor's taxes.

It's been downhill since then.

[wintertime]

The forces are heavily at work in taking the Americanism out of America and inserting the ‘gay’, ‘green’, ‘diversity’ hype on the citizens.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Marxism ( mixed with fascism) is our nation's most urgent and serious threat! Government K-12 schools are the Marxist-fascist's **most** important and powerful weapon.

Yet...Few conservatives recognize that Marxism is our nation's most serious threat. Instead, they are focused on the minutia such as Obama’s speech on Tuesday, or the health care bill. And...Few conservatives understand that their child's school is killing freedom.

[karatemom]

Teaching Math in 1950: - (traditional math)
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?

Teaching Math in 1960:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?

Teaching Math in 1970: - (new math)
A logger exchanges a set “L” of lumber for a set “M” of money. The cardinality of set “M” is 100. Each element is worth one dollar. Make 100 dots representing the elements of the set “M.” The set “C”, the cost of production contains 20 fewer points than set “M.” Represent the set “C” as a subset of set “M” and answer the following question: What is the cardinality of the set “P” of profits?

Teaching Math in 1980:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.

Teaching Math in 1990: - (Outcome-Based education)
By cutting down beautiful forest trees, the logger makes $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the forest birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down the trees? There are no wrong answers.

Teaching Math in 1996:
By laying off 40% of its loggers, a company improves its stock price from $80 to $100. How much capital gain per share does the CEO make by exercising his stock options at $80. Assume capital gains are no longer taxed, because this encourages investment.

Teaching Math in 1997:
A company outsources all of its loggers. They save on benefits and when demand for their product is down the logging work force can easily be cut back. The average logger employed by the company earned $50,000, had 3 weeks vacation, received a nice retirement plan and medical insurance. The contracted logger charges $50 an hour. Was outsourcing a good move?

Teaching Math in 1998:
A logging company exports its wood-finishing jobs to its Indonesian subsidiary and lays off the corresponding half of its US workers (the higher-paid half). It clear-cuts 95% of the forest, leaving the rest for the spotted owl, and lays off all its remaining US workers. It tells the workers that the spotted owl is responsible for the absence of fellable trees and lobbies Congress for exemption from the Endangered Species Act. Congress instead exempts the company from all federal regulation. What is the return on investment of the lobbying costs?

Teaching Math in 2000:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $120. How does Arthur Andersen determine that his profit margin is $60?

Teaching Math in 2010:
El hachero vende un camion de carga por $100. El costo de production es........

[smokingfrog]

For the most part, I think I got the 1970's (new) math.
No wonder I never liked math.

[karatemom]

I would just like to know what sick wonderful mind came up with that. It cracks me up every time-and I teach algebra 1.

[Kackikat]

Khruschev said “we will take America without firing a shot.”

[metmom]

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[goldi]

http://www.textbookleague.org/124ravbk.htm

My favorite was on a reading selection from an English exam (I belive it was the NY Regents exam), “The Elderly Man and the Sea” by Hemingway.

How do they get away with changing the title of a very well-known book?

[Jo Nuvark]

Nope. Khruschev said, “We will bury you from within!”
I remember his speech. He drove by our home in a huge
motorcade on a visit to California around 1960.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Did_Nikita_Khrushchev_say_we_will_bury_you_from_within

‘November 1956
During a diplomatic reception... Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev told
Western diplomats:
“About the capitalist states, it doesn’t depend on you whether we
(Soviet Union) exist. If you don’t like us, don’t accept our
invitations, and don’t invite us to come to see you. Whether you like
it our not, history is on our side. We will bury you.”’
source: U.S. Department of Energy Timeline
http://www.dpi.anl.gov/dpi2/timelines/1950s.htm#October 1956

Additional sources:
‘Nikita Khrushchev told Western diplomats in November 1956, “History
is on our side. We will bury you.”’
source: Foreign Affairs, 1990
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19900901faessay6035/flora-lewis/bringing-in-the-east.html

“He said “we will bury you” at a reception for Wladyslaw Gomulka at
the Polish embassy in Moscow on November 18, 1956”
source: Nevadalabor.com
http://www.nevadalabor.com/barbwire/barb97/barb3-30-97.html

[norraad]

The more they screw up K-12 the more the quote from the movie Yellowbeard makes sense..

"Learnin' never taught me nothing, and books is the worst!"

[Thank You Rush]

“”As I watched Tucker Carlsons EXCELLENT report I began
to weep and thank God for Fox News.””

In spite of a note to myself, I forgot to watch this last night. I think I heard that it will be on again tonight at 10 - sure hope that’s right as my note now is on the TV screen....