Posted on 09/07/2001 10:25:05 PM PDT by kattracks
(CNSNews.com) - Are the nation''s top publishing companies inserting a liberal agenda and misinformation into junior high science textbooks?
According to a report by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, top publishers like Glencoe McGraw-Hill, Prentice Hall and RonJon Publishing are doing just that.
The report reveals that most of the books being considered by the Texas State Board of Education for science classes in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades contain factual errors about science, and in many cases, the report claims, a liberal agenda is pushed.
According to the report, the textbooks focus mainly on social and political issues, are fuzzy on distinguishing fact from theory, citations are left out, and lack objectivity.
"By omitting important facts and by distorting others, these textbooks do not prepare students to think critically about important environmental issues," said Chris Patterson, TPPF Director of Education Research.
Among the issues most disputed are acid rain, pollution, species and rain forests, Human population growth, and climate change.
In one instance, Patterson said each textbook gave different numbers for the remaining size of South America''s rain forest.
"Glencoe says that 75 million acres of rain forest has been destroyed, Holt says 32, Prentice Hall says 15," Patterson said.
"None of them cite where they got the information, but in fact, according to a NASA study, 7.5 million has been destroyed."
Patterson said in another instance, one textbook says all farming hurts the earth except organic farming, and goes on to encourages kids to buy organic goods only.
"We are seeing textbooks that are following a pattern that has been identified over the last year as increasing junk science in the classroom, along with philosophizing and fantasy," Patterson said.
Peggy Venable, director of the Texas Citizens for a Sound Economy, said her group found the liberal agenda unmistakable.
"Frankly, it amazed us that the textbooks were so proactive and that the rhetoric was so intermingled throughout the text to lead students using incomplete science and no opposing view to lead students to a certain perspective, and then a call to action, like \lquote use a word processor to make a pamphlet,'" Venable said. "I cannot believe that someone could have gone into writing any of these without having had an agenda.
"All I can say is that it was cleverly done. It most assuredly is a radial environmental activist agenda to allow the documents," she said.
Venable said she told the state board they had the choice of "three r''s" in the situation: revise, re-write, or reject.
"I really don''t see any way to edit these textbooks, because their slant is so one-sided," she said.
Representatives from the three targeted publishing houses and the state board of education were unavailable for comment.
However, in a Friday article in the Dallas Morning News, Robert Cox, senior vice president for Glencoe McGraw-Hill, stood by the books, admitting that mistakes are often made, but can be corrected.
"We stand by the information that we have put in theses textbooks, but there is not a publisher here that will say they have error-free books," Cox said. "If we see there are errors, we will correct them."
Grace Shore, president of the Texas State Board of Education, said the state can do something to correct factual errors, but in instances of bias, not much can be done.
"Factual errors can be most easily corrected. Bias errors are much more difficult to address," said Shore. "Actually, the board has no jurisdiction over bias. About all we can do is express moral indignation when we see it."
Patterson insisted that the TPPF and other critics of the textbooks are not calling for all issues of environment to be tossed out of the lesson plans, but instead, there should efforts made to ensure fairness when presenting the material.
"We think these are important environmental issues and we believe they should be addressed," she said. "It is not that these issues should be omitted, but they should be dealt with factually."
The board is waiting to hear from the publishers, who have two weeks to respond to the concerns. Additionally, an evaluation of the textbooks by a committee of educators and a review by Texas A&M University are under consideration.
Their textbook review is not only opened to parents but parents are encouraged to go review the textbooks and make comments before they are chosen. I remember the history book publisher who said they had the book down to only 300 errors and that was as far as they could go -- that textbook never made it the shelves of our school district.
I fear for all of us because of the astounding level of non-education indoctrinating millions of kids "graduating" or dropping out each year.
Over three years I tried teaching physical science, chemistry, physics, and economics to Dallas kids. Most students DID NOT CARE even as the standards to pass were lowered to pathetic levels. Most kids were Jay-Walking candidates (Leno-Tonight Show).
Our next inflationary recession will prove tens of millions of young people's relative economic worthlessness in a high unemployment job market.
Willful ignorance is stupidity at its worst.
Once the applause from the OTHER parents had subsided, he told us that they were aware of the problem. And the problem, he candidly admitted, was that most of those books were then written by folks from Yale, Harvard, Princeton and other liberal (HIS term) East Coast institutions of alleged “higher learning.”
(Parenthetically, I frequently joked with my doctor brother-in-law that it was a shame he was busting his hump just so he could send his kids off to socialist institutions and have them emerge good little Marxists. He just groaned.)
Our county has since switched to textbooks produced by other institutions. (I understand there’s a history text now being used in some systems which devotes several PAGES to Marilyn Monroe – and a paragraph to George Washington. Now THAT takes Blumenfeld’s whole dumbing down thing to new levels.)
BTW, after that meeting where I shot my mouth off, I was swarmed by the other parents who wanted to find out where they could learn more. As you might imagine, I was more than happy to tell them. How many followed through is another matter.
I honestly believe that if enough of us started raising hell at such meetings, we could have some impact on these sorts of BS situations.
And for you purists who have YOUR kids in private or home school environments, I say good for you.
But I also say that until the MAJORITY of the kids in this country are OUT of the GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS, YOUR kids may one day face THOSE brainwashed myrmidons on juries or in high elected office and they will NOT think YOUR kids’ ideas about faith, liberty and America’s failing promise are “normal” and will NOT be disposed to treat them or those ideas too kindly – so you’d BETTER pay attention to what’s going on at that GOVERNMENT SCHOOL up the road.
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