Lots of stuff is available on the internet. And I'm sure by the time they graduate college they (some of them atleast) will be deprogrammed by more liberal professors. But this is discomforting stuff. Curriculum is reviewed every ten years, thats an entire generation of school being taught one way. It doesn't matter what the truth is, if you tell someone something long enough (10 years is plenty) it becomes the truth.
One very large state has decided there is no seperation between church and state, Thomas Jefferson wasn't an important component in the design of this country, and democracy is something practiced in North Korea.
On the one hand, in the Internet age, I'm not as concerned about what's in a textbook, since students are likely to just Google what they need to get their homework done.
Yet, the apparent lack of consultation that went into these decisions is alarming. These people can't possibly be experts in all subjects, but they made changes as if they were. This means they were being righteous instead of responsible.
Personally, I suspect the new material will be misleading, and even wrong, in some important ways. But even if you agree with the changes, can you really be comfortable with the approach used to achieve them?
It's not like the current history books are any more accurate. The old books were also designed and voted on by some committee just as ideological as this one. History is a fascinating subject but I sure as hell didn't learn any of the fascinating stuff in my middle school or high school history classes.
California is a big buyer of textbooks (2nd largest?) and so couldn't they specify their own criteria? Couldn't they specify textbooks that counter each of those Texas amendments?
That would be textbook publishers in a very tough spot, but hey, it's the business of politics, and this constraint might just foster a creative solution from someone.
Please don't hold it against us Texans generally: One of the conservative Republicans on the board (the former chairman) was up for reelection but was defeated by a moderate in the primary election two weeks ago, so he'll be off the board in due course (yay).
One very large state has decided there is no seperation between church and state, Thomas Jefferson wasn't an important component in the design of this country, and democracy is something practiced in North Korea.