Posted on 05/22/2010 8:29:37 AM PDT by wolfcreek
State Board of Education members kept up their bitter, yearlong ideological tussling until the very end Friday, when they finally approved new social studies curriculum standards.
Despite two consecutive 15-hour days of discussion and changes, board members still had plenty of steam Friday to argue over issues great and small throughout the standards for history, government and economics that serve as the basis for textbooks and lessons in Texas' public schools.
They tackled Thomas Jefferson, religious freedom, communism and more before passing the high school standards on a 9-5 party-line vote, with Republicans in the majority. One Republican, Geraldine Miller of Dallas, had left the meeting before the vote.
Required high school students to examine ‘how economic freedom improved the human condition ... compared to communist command communities.'
Required students to evaluate efforts by global organizations such as the United Nations to undermine U.S. sovereignty.
Strengthened requirements on teaching the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation's founders.
Changed references to the U.S. government as a ‘constitutional republic' rather than ‘democratic.'
Required students to study the decline in the value of the U.S. dollar, including the abandonment of the gold standard.
Added language heralding ‘American exceptionalism' and the U.S. free enterprise system, suggesting it thrives best without excessive government intervention.
Added Thomas Jefferson back into a list of influential political thinkers in the high school world history standards.
Rejected language to modernize the classification of historic periods to B.C.E. and C.E. from the traditional B.C. and A.D.
Added language that would require students to discuss the solvency of ‘long-term entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare.'
Removed a suggestion that students learn about hip-hop as an example of a significant social movement.
Deleted a requirement that sociology students ‘explain how institutional racism is evident in American society.'
Just don't tell the kids to watch the History Channel. I'd left it on one evening, and when I came in, I heard some narrator blathering on and on about how the Founding Fathers were very much against Christianity and thought it evil. They need to change the name of that channel to the "History Re-Write Channel."
I watch the History Channel for entertainment to see them try to debunk the truth of God’s Word.
Awesome. In the end it appears it all came out reflecting reality vs modernistic feel good hippy liberalism.
I remember a time when the History Channel was actually about history. The show I walked in on was about some kind of “ancient aliens” presumably from outer space. Virtually any of the shopping channels are more enlightening than the History Channel these days.
Glad to see the text book wars being won in Texas, at least. The propaganda machine (liberal school curriculum, most of the media) needs some serious competition.
“Deleted a requirement that sociology students ‘explain how institutional racism is evident in American society.’”
They didn’t need to delete that one. My kid had to write this paper in sociology and choose to write the entire paper on how requiring quotas, whether for jobs or education opportunities, is a form of institutional racism against whites. The liberal teacher was none too pleased and gave my A+ student a grade of B on the paper. My kid said it was worth it.
Yeah, they did need to get rid of that one. Racism does not need to be on the front burner of every conversation as the Left would wish.
Kudos to your kid. Sounds like his/her head is on straight.
These textbooks will be utilized by a vast majority of schools across the nation. "Educators" in California are really howling about the textbooks seeing that they normally utilize textbooks selected and approved by the Texas commission.
... passing the high school standards on a 9-5 party-line vote, with Republicans in the majority.
So all Dems voted against these simple changes ???
IIRC, one Leftist walked out before they voted.
He was the same one who pitched a fit over calling Obama by his full name. Said we were insulting the President. LOL!
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