The Texas State Board of Education voted on March 12 to alter the history books. Why? They claim “adding balance” to curriculum, because “academia is skewed too far to the left,” according to former chairman Don McLeroy. I claim stereotypical right-wing pompousness, bigotry, and… well, outright idiocy.
How does this affect your kids if you’re not in Texas? Texas is such a large textbook publishing leader that many states adopt the same course materials, which means that Texas essentially sets requirements for 80% of the textbook market. So states from Oregon to Vermont could very well end up downplaying Ted Kennedy while extolling the virtues of conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for changing history books. I’ve felt that way since I was in high school myself. I’ve always wanted to see more balance. For instance, Andrew Jackson is hailed as a great American president – he made it possible for the people to elect the electoral college instead of the representatives and did away with the national debt. He’s also responsible for the Trail of Tears because of a personal vendetta against the Cherokees. Sure, we learned about the Trail of Tears, but Andrew Jackson’s instigation of it and purpose behind it are downplayed, if not right out deleted.
My issue is that we’re going from one extreme to the other here. We’re not just talking about adding conservative influences and people throughout history – we’re talking about replacing “left” components with “right” components. I’m conservative; I’m Texan; I’m in favor of changing history books. I’m not in favor of the Good Ol’ Boys club having an educational cross-burning. I mean, haven’t we progressed passed that kind of crap already? I find it embarrassing and shameful that highly educated people would admit to such archaic thinking and tactics, let alone have the audacity to actually try to promote them.
Hey, McLeroy and posse – take off your 10-gallon dunce caps and come to the 21st century.
Comments
Pwll
March 18th, 2010 - 9:04:58 PM
You are absolutely right -- and thanks for using the Andrew Jackson example! Have you read The People's History of the United States (Howard Zim) or Lies My Teacher Told Me: Every thing your American History textbook got wrong (Loewen)?
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