Texas has just officially doomed generations of their children to ignorance and being oddities in their grasp of history and reality…because neither of those items supported the political views of conservatives and Republicans.
I normally keep my quotes to a minimum but there is so much outrageousness here, I couldn’t pare it down:
From the NY Times:
Texas Conservatives Win Curriculum Change
By James C. Mckinley Jr.
March 12, 2010After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday approved a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers’ commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light.
Efforts by Hispanic board members to include more Latino figures as role models for the state’s large Hispanic population were consistently defeated, prompting one member, Mary Helen Berlanga, to storm out of a meeting late Thursday night, saying, “They can just pretend this is a white America and Hispanics don’t exist.”
“They are going overboard, they are not experts, they are not historians,” she said. “They are rewriting history, not only of Texas but of the United States and the world.”
There are seven members of the conservative bloc on the board, but they are often joined by one of the other three Republicans on crucial votes. There were no historians, sociologists or economists consulted at the meetings, though some members of the conservative bloc held themselves out as experts on certain topics.
“I reject the notion by the left of a constitutional separation of church and state,” said David Bradley, a conservative from Beaumont who works in real estate. “I have $1,000 for the charity of your choice if you can find it in the Constitution.”
They also included a plank to ensure that students learn about “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.”
Dr. McLeroy, a dentist by training, pushed through a change to the teaching of the civil rights movement to ensure that students study the violent philosophy of the Black Panthers in addition to the nonviolent approach of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He also made sure that textbooks would mention the votes in Congress on civil rights legislation, which Republicans supported.
“Republicans need a little credit for that,” he said. “I think it’s going to surprise some students.”
Mr. Bradley won approval for an amendment saying students should study “the unintended consequences” of the Great Society legislation, affirmative action and Title IX legislation. He also won approval for an amendment stressing that Germans and Italians as well as Japanese were interned in the United States during World War II, to counter the idea that the internment of Japanese was motivated by racism.
Other changes seem aimed at tamping down criticism of the right. Conservatives passed one amendment, for instance, requiring that the history of McCarthyism include “how the later release of the Venona papers confirmed suspicions of communist infiltration in U.S. government.” The Venona papers were transcripts of some 3,000 communications between the Soviet Union and its agents in the United States.
In economics, the revisions add Milton Friedman and Friedrich von Hayek, two champions of free-market economic theory, among the usual list of economists to be studied, like Adam Smith, Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes. They also replaced the word “capitalism” throughout their texts with the “free-enterprise system.”
“Let’s face it, capitalism does have a negative connotation,” said one conservative member, Terri Leo. “You know, ‘capitalist pig!’ ”
In the field of sociology, another conservative member, Barbara Cargill, won passage of an amendment requiring the teaching of “the importance of personal responsibility for life choices” in a section on teenage suicide, dating violence, sexuality, drug use and eating disorders.
“The topic of sociology tends to blame society for everything,” Ms. Cargill said.
Even the course on world history did not escape the board’s scalpel.
Cynthia Dunbar, a lawyer from Richmond who is a strict constitutionalist and thinks the nation was founded on Christian beliefs, managed to cut Thomas Jefferson from a list of figures whose writings inspired revolutions in the late 18th century and 19th century, replacing him with St. Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and William Blackstone. (Jefferson is not well liked among conservatives on the board because he coined the term “separation between church and state.”)
“The Enlightenment was not the only philosophy on which these revolutions were based,” Ms. Dunbar said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/education/13texas.html?scp=1&sq=texas%20education&st=cse
Related posts:
- Texas’ gay marriage ban may have banned all marriages
- The Failed History of Conservatism in America
- Hate in America, Part 1: A History of Hate
- Campaign Finance Reform Revisited
- The Failed History of Conservatism in America
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Morning Blog-9-9-10
Oh someone PLEASE tell me this picture is photo shopped!!!!
PLEASE!
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Photoshop or some kind of setup I hope as well.
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Well has anyone brought this up ? -
Time for the Churches to pay TAXES !
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Hang on – they are simply NON profits guided by the same rules as the Red Cross or Common Cause. There are strict guidelines, and when churches cross that line, they should indeed pay taxes. But they get their exempt status for doing the things YOU want them to do – feed the hungry, provide a myriad of services (health ministries are often the ONLY health care communities of color have), offer money to those in need, sometimes provide shelter, counseling, clothing, whatever. If you make churches pay taxes, what about all the other non-profits? United Way got in hot water for paying its national CEO nearly $500,000. Should they NOT be tax exempt?
Churches DO pay taxes on any activities such as renting space to other groups, etc.
They are forbidden from partisan politics, but ALL churches, progressives, too, can and do get involved in NON partisan action. Perfectly legal and if you tax conservative churches. you have to tax the progressive ones as well.
So think this over – it’s such a thoughtless reflexive response. No it is NOT the time for churches to pay taxes as a blanket statement. It IS time to make sure churches obey the existing laws and that they are neither partisan nor exceeding the advocacy guidelines of 5% of total income for advocacy.
My organization exists as a c-3 (education that is tax deductible) and a c-4 (that DOES pay some taxes and that does advocacy but without donations being tax deductible for the donors.) If churches exceed their allotted limits, fine. But do this on a case by case basis.
Churches overall help their communities, and you really would NOT like to do without them. You especially would not like to do without the churches in our organization that are not only fighting for economic and social justice, against racism and for equity, fighting to abolish the death penalty and have criminal justice reform, fighting against poverty and hunger, against torture and governmental abuses of power, fighting FOR civil rights, etc. We are the “Social Gospel” churches Glenn Beck hates – so you REALLY want to end our tax-exempt status?????
Don’t make me worry about my allies along with Beck, please!
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I agree with you choice lady. Churches who follow proper non profit charters should remain tax exempt. They just need to be monitored more closely to make sure they are not partisan politically speaking. Under Bush I’ve seen instances were some churches have become partisan but they are the exceptions. Of course it’s a fine line because we know how the far right has tried to blur the lines between church and state but it would be just as wrong to penalize all churches for the acts of a few.
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We monitored this closely after 2004 because one of our member congregations came under IRS fire since the vicar emeritus had given a sermon saying people of faith should review ALL candidates’ positions on war. He excoriated both Bush AND Kerry for supporting the Iraq war and took NO sides. Well, some turkey who wasn’t there told the IRS about it, claiming “peace” was partisan, and they got investigated. Now, mind you, the churches that told their members they HAD to vote for Bush or die, were NOT investigated.
We are non-partisan, and we are careful to tell our congregations that they may do non-partisan advocacy only up to 5% of their budgets (as if they could spend that much!) so we do it FOR them. Our c-4 is NOT tax exempt nor are donations deductible.
We believe utterly in the separation of church and state though not the right of people to speak from a faith point of view. BIG difference. But man oh man do we opposed this Texas style infusion of religion INTO curriculum!!! That is just plain wrong.
And whose religion, by the way? I’d like to see how these bozos would do if it were CATHOLICS doing this!!!
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Yeah, I came to the same conclusion about a year ago during some moronic debate on HP. If the Church want’s to screw with our kids minds, our laws and rights, then they need to be treated as corporations and taxed. Nothing would terrify them more than having to pay taxes.
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In both our local papers, The Arizona Republic and the East Valley Tribune, there are articles about improving education in this country and listing the US behind other countries in math and science.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/151771
The New York Times has an article about President Obama calling for major changes in education, specifically No Child Left Behind -
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/education/14child.html?pagewanted=2&sq=governors%20meet%20on%20education%20reform&st=cse&scp=1
I am hoping with all the talks about improving education that it will render this ignorant, idiotic revisionist history in Texas useless and that it will never happen.
Changing history will not allow our children to compete globally.
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Has anybody here read “A People’s History” by Howard Zinn? I am reading it online now. I had never heard of it until I saw the story on Link TV about Zinn’s history.
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Links Bill Moyers PBS with Zinn
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/archives/zinn_now_flash.html
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/12112009/profile.html
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If I still had children in school and I found out this is what they were teaching, my children would not return until things change. If another parent does it, then another, then another. Pretty soon only the right is in school and there would be maybe 10 or 12 students per class not enough to qualify for federal funding. They would change their minds pretty fast.
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Sue, here in New England parents are very involved with the school system and all it takes is a group of well informed parents in each district to stop this travesty.
There are two ways to stop this, 1.) Your way, which will really get the attention of School Board and 2.) The parents demand that the School Board buy correct text books.
Parents here are already demanding to get rid of No Child Left Behind because it has already lowered the level of education in some districts in order to comply, SAT and PSAT scores have been suffering. Teachers now test instead of Teach. Private Tutoring schools are making a mint in this area, (NY,CT, MA, NJ), because of this, a lot of good Teachers are leaving and going in to the private sector.
Everyone here reads the NYT’s, since we are so close to NY and most residents commute into the city, and I am sure that this will be brought up at the next PTA and School Board meeting in my area….all we need is some pinko/commie/liberal/progress parent to get the ball rolling!!
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Then tell them to get the lead out. I am sure they will prevail there. I just hope parents all over are outraged at this.
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Sue,
My daughter who has taught for 7+ years and has $26k in student loans is incredibly burned out and considering working in the private sector.
And, I agree with you. If these folks want such a stringent curriculum, then it should be funded privately, like any other Christian, Parochial, Hebrew, Muslim, Hindi school. No Federal Subsidies of any kind — folks you’re on your own.
I think it’s called separation of Church and State?
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boomer, separation of church and state? What the hell are you talking about?
From the meeting:
http://tfninsider.org/2010/03/11/sboe-rejects-religious-freedom-in-standards/
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bito,
I hope you’re being sarcastic.
We’re talking Fundamentalism here. RW, Christian, Bible-thumping, TBN believers. Trust me, I used to be one of them thar critters (‘cept I was a Democrat). How scary is that?
Both my kids attended Parochial school (1-12), one even through 4.5 years of Catholic university. Their father and I paid for it, and one had $26k in student loans. She is the 7 year veteran Kindergarten educator and the one who graduated from Xavier University, Cincinnati, OH. She is also the warmer and fuzzier of our two. However…and
regardless of what was presented to either of them in the classroom, we tempered the information they received with what we believed. In doing so, we gave each of them the right to choose what path to take. We have a 37 year old daughter who is a staunch Catholic, yet left of center, and a 30 year old Catholic-Methodist convert (the teacher btw) who couldn’t swallow the hippo-critters in the RCC.
As I stated before, it remains a separation of church and state.
If the majority of the Texas State Board of Education wants their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren raised in a particular environment, with specific book larnin’ content, then it is their responsibility, not the State’s, to foot the bill.
Moreover, the decision of the State Board should have a permanent impact on any monetary income the state receives from the Federal Government. I certainly don’t want my taxes paying for biased, RW textbooks.
If I were living in Texas, with kids in public school, I’d either pull them out to home school, attend Parochial school, or move out of the state altogether.
Somewhere deep, this is a Civil Rights issue and it makes me want to throw up.
I used to be in this place(see link below), and sometimes I watch just to remind myself I’m not as crazy as I think I am. Spend an hour or so and listen to the message — people actually believe this stuff — literally — and the Texas State Board of Education is no exception:
http://www.tbn.org/
boomer
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boomer I was just saying that that was what the board decided. If you read through that blog, it gets pretty crazy.
Replace T. Jefferson with Calvin! They didn’t just change history texts they did sociology, psychology, economics…..texts.
Take a glance at the ideology replacing knowledge.
http://tfninsider.org/2010/03/10/blogging-the-social-studies-debate-ii/
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bito,
Apologies for going off on a tangent. The circumstances and entire story put a bee in my bonnet this afternoon (no offense AdLib).
Having witnessed what my daughter has experienced during her professional career has made me extremely sensitive to the way the teaching profession is valued in this country. And, to have a State Board of Education “preach” what should/should not be in textbooks (especially when none of them are educators)totally frosts my behind.
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Boomer
When my brother graduated and started teaching, CA had a program that for every year you taught in a rural district, a certain amount of your student loan would be written off.
It is a huge burden to teach on their salaries and pay off such substantial loans.
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Sue,
The kid has been in a low income district long enough to have a portion of her student loans forgiven. That said, the loan thing had absolutely nothing to do with her decision to teach in the district.
Five yos and literacy have always been at the top of her agenda.
boomer
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Here is a running account of the Texas Bored of Misinformation including the amendments,debates and votes on the various subjects.Oddly most of the votes I saw were either 10-5 or 5-10.
(Hint: there are 10 R’s on the board.)
The blog was done by: Texas Freedom Network–The Mainstream Voce to Counter the Religious Right”
Some quotes I liked:
Oh , too many to choose from pick your own! Reading this thing is unbelievable. If it weren’t so serious it would be a very funny skit.
http://tfninsider.org/2010/03/11/sboe-rejects-religious-freedom-in-standards/
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bito,
You made my Sunday afternoon!
boomer
PS — Happy Daylight Saving Time Y’all Who Must Participate — pretty much sucks, eh?
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Adlib, you could take just the quotes in this and have an instant parody.
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Oh there are some jewels in here:
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Patsy Cline said it best…………..CRAZY
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That’s quite the account of the meetings, eh ,Sue?
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Yeah, there are way too many of these feaks running around this country
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/opinion/14pubed.html
This is a very interesting article from the NYT’s Public Editor about how to label the Christian Right in the Texas school board story and other stories.
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Christianists, I like that word
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Thanks, Adlib—this story is HUGE! I did a quick search to see if it was being covered and it is. That at least gives me some hope that there will be some outrage and pushback. I also learned that these school board fascists are lame ducks, and that the university students in Texas are protesting the decision.
BTW, the capital of Texas? It’s “T”
From CBS News:
More Jesus, less Darwin? In Texas, Yes
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504365_162-20000413-504365.html?tag=mncol;lst;1
Texas Ed Board Vote Reflects Far-right Influences
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/12/ap/national/main6293113.shtml?tag=mncol;lst;2
Texas Ed Board Set To Take 1st Vote Since Primary
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/10/ap/national/main6284331.shtml?tag=mncol;lst;3
FROM ABC NEWS:
Texas Conservatives Want to Emphasize the Role of Christianity in the State’s Public School Curriculum. What Do You Think?
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/conservatives-texas-school-curriculum-world-news-question-day/story?id=10072000
Are America’s Textbooks Too Liberal? (Nightline)
Tonight, we introduced you to Don McLeroy, pictured above, a Texas dentist, self-described “Christian fundamentalist” and elected Board of Education member.
From NBC News:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#35798555
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I’m glad they are spotlighting this true outrage. You know me I don’t fall into the constant outrage trap but this really is nuts. They are effectively directing schools to lie to kids about our history.
I actually live in the county in GA that put those bloody “evolution is just one theory” stickers on HS Biology text books.
http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/textbookdisclaimers/CobbDisclaimer.jpg
This is much much worse
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I know I’m just being paranoid…but it almost seems as if Texas is building a standing army. What better way to garner followers than to dumb down an entire generation.
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This is exactly the root of our problems in this country. Too many young people’s minds are etched with a history of America that was not true. Marion and I talked about about our different educational experiences before because I had a very liberal NJ education and Marion had a very misleading education in history like my wife. My wife and Marion describe a history book they had in junior high where they described slaves in pictures and descriptions as being well fed and pampered which we all know was complete bullshit. Not to mention how a Southern education in history blames the Civil War on the North.
So when some people who don’t bother to realize the true American history they believe in bullshit like American Exceptionalism. Obviously based on the description of this history curriculum this school district is even worse. So some of these children will grow up believing the delusional interpretation of America conservative politicians will feed them.
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Actually, the same thing happened to me when I was in elementary school. The “hippies” had rewritten the account of the war on Japan to make it look like dropping the warheads was not at all necessary. All part of the post 3 mile island incident that freaked everyone out. That and the ongoing cold war of course.
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You know we did not cover WWI or WWII much at all. We covered the Americans Revolution, slavery, the Civil War (but very little about the battles), reconstruction, western expansion and native Americans the most. We also studied the industrial revolution and the Great Depression a little. In fact we weren’t taught much about the 20th century and very little about the conduct of wars, probably because I went to HS just after the Vietnam War ended.
The biggest insight we learned about war was from a teacher who was a Vietnam vet who shared some of his personal experiences. Since he was educated he was the one assigned to write letters home for soldiers that had died in action. I still remember some experiences he shared. One soldier he had to write home about was on point and because the point man was usual so close to the enemy he used a shotgun. This soldier ended up waiving the butt end of his shotgun at roosters that got in their way. One rooster while defending himself reached up and pulled the trigger. What a way to go huh?
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When you can’t argue successfully against reason, history and truth, the only recourse is to brainwash the young against accepting it as input. Pour corruption into their minds when they’re young and lock the door tight.
Some have mentioned “A Handmaid’s Tale” and “1984″ as appropiate cautionary tales of the RW attempts to take over this nation. In this case I’d add “Fahrenheit 451″ for the virtual bookburning and the ruling against using books that tell the truth.
Imagine how any parent would feel, having to unlearn her children from lies and propaganda poured into their minds daily at school. And imagine having to beg your child not to speak the truth at school for fear of being shunned, outcast or even attacked by those who have been successfully conditioned.
And the RW attacks Obama and Dems as trying to force HCR down their throats…but forcing lies, racism and Christian superiority down the throats of all the children in the state, that’s just altruism.
A shout out to our Texan bros and sisters down there fighting against this and to all the students protesting.
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Yup those novels are are examples of what the right wing wants America to be. I just watched “1984″ again several nights ago. The “thought police” are obviously in full force in Texas.
I read a few comments on a HCR story Yahoo posted the other day it still amazes me how ignorant people are in this country with the socialist talk bullshit. The point is like you said if you have a warped educational foundation and simply don’t know what concepts like socialism are then you are doomed to demonize not only the concepts themselves but Democratic candidates that are far from socialist when you go to the voting booth.
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In Montana, they have a program called “Indian Education for All.” It mandates that Indian history is taught from an *Indian* perspective, which means texts written by Indians, talks by Tribal members. You can imagine it drives the wingers *nuts*, but it’s a really good, progressive idea.
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My sister is a special ed teacher and this story just got to be so disheartening for her.
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I just sent this to my daughter, the Kindergarten teacher. I know it will bother her as well.
Come Experience Texas Pride — Ignorance!
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The anti-teacher trolls were out in force. It was making my blood boil the things they say about teachers.
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Yup, they like to go after the teachers’ union in particular.
I just see it as all part of the anti-education, anti-science mentality of the right wing.
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As far as I know Texas is still a part of the United States, unless of course I fell asleep and woke up in another lifetime.
I can’t fathom how a state could have so much power over things as important as education, especially the history of your country. The Fundies write their own version of the Bible and this lot of elected crackpots are allowed to rewrite history and teach their version in schools?
Something is not right in your system if this is the norm, something besides history needs to be rewritten and reformed in your laws and legislations. It’s a regular free for all, with far too many cooks spoiling the broth. My mind boggles.
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Kalima
So do our minds boggle over things like this here in the US
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Hey Kalima!
It is up for debate on both sides of its borders whether Texas is still part of the U.S..
Though some local school boards in some smaller cities have been taken over by Fundies, I am not aware of any state that has allowed such a takeover of it’s schools by the Christian Right.
Texas is a unique animal. They indoctrinate their children already with a state version of nationalism called, “Texas Pride”, which to them makes them feel superior to others in the US and the world just by being born there (considering TX is ranked last of all US states in percentage of people with health insurance, maybe it’s easier to understand why they think being born is such an enormous personal accomplishment).
What TP really is though is boastful ignorance. The geographic equivilent of believing one’s religion is superior and infallable, including the story about two of every animal including kangaroos and penguins, residing in the Middle East and climbing aboard a big boat.
Actually, I’m surprised they didn’t add the Noah story to history curriculum as naval history.
It is hard enough to penetrate RW ignorance and latent racism on it’s own but when wrapped in the Kevlar shielding of Texas Pride, it is virtually impeneterable.
TP was embodied by Bush. Facts, truth and reality bounce off of this anti-intellectual shield, it is about an unapologetic embrace of ignorance, prejudice, superority and intolerence, it is the swagger of a Bush who ignored and attacked anyone who questioned him while he was ignorantly destroying our nation and its economy.
However, especially in Austin and Dallas you’ll find many Progressive Dems who are frustratingly trapped in a state that is bound and determined to do to it’s state what Bush did to our nation.
Though it would never happen and would hurt the millions of good folks in TX, it’s not the most upsetting fantasy to imagine the RWs in the state getting their wish, seceding and then drowning in their own ignorance.
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And then stand aside with a wink and a nod as Mexico takes them back.
- That’s the other part of Texan history I love. The same people upset by Mexican undocumented immigrants illegally crossing, settling here and their subsequent delusions that they are planning on taking it back for Mexico (Aztlán reconquista, etc). What might make this seem real to them? The latent knowledge (assuming they’re conscious of it, or realize white people weren’t always just ‘there’) that that’s what the “ungrateful” mooching white seditionists of Texas did?
For Kalima, here is a map of the results of America by county in 2008. Austin (of course), Dallas, El Paso, and the Latino “chili pepper”. This gives an example of the political landscape of Texas.
Indeed, TP is summed up by their slogan: “Like a Whole Other Country”. But, I stumbled into these new ‘proposed’ slogans, as well:
5. “Sunny beaches, rolling hills, armed stand-offs.”
4. “Lien on us.”
3. “Texas: illegally acquired; universally admired.”
2. “Indulge your delusions of grandeur.”
1. “It really *is* a whole ‘nother country!”
I stole those from here.
I think in light of this new story, we should try some new ones.
BTW, AdLib, anybody. I’d read or heard somewhere about the proposed revisionism that was too radical even for them to get in here. I can’t remember them specifically, except that they were even more outrageous. More akin to the Noah suggestion.
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I wonder how Texas, without fed help, would fare against the Cartels?
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I think you’re right on about there being a recognition in the back of their minds that they stole TX from the Mexicans.
With that in mind, a couple of suggested slogans:
1.”Texas – Sorry Mexicans, no backsies.”
2. “Texas – We stole it fair and square. Texas Pride forever!”
3. “Texas – The Other White Meet.”
Then to honor this change to their schools:
1. “Texas is as Texas does.”
2. “Texass skoolz ar nombur 1!”
3. “We’re putting God back in the classroom…and taking out the teachers to make room!”
4. The official Texas chant for it’s school system: “We don’t need no education” from Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall”.
5. “Texas – If we’re so dumb, why ain’t we rich?”
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“Texas – We don’t need no stinkin’ history”
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1. “Texas — another foreign country where diplomacy don’t work!”
2. “Texas — where twenty years ago we taught our cheerleader daughters to shoot to win!”
3. “Texas — home of the home-raised ignorant.”
One could write a book about the idiocy of a STATE, heaven help us, STATE Board of Education to condemn its children to such a biased eudcation.
A. Cut off all Federal Funding.
B. If this is the way these Board Members want to raise their children, fine. All they need to do is open a Privately funded, Bigoted, Texas Pride, Racist school.
Good grief Charlie Brown.
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1. is pure genius.
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Thanks KQ,
I’m sincerely flattered.
boomer
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Boomer
The problem is students in Ohio, California, NY, NC, SC, Marland, NH, Maine are all going to get the same experience. Schools all over the US buy their textbooks from Texas. There should be countrywide anger over these stunts
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Sue,
One can only hope that there will be enough local outrage to put the publishers on notice. I pay two city income taxes, but not property tax. However, if the school district in which I live should support such nonsense? I’d be first in line to protest.
On the other hand, if the State of Texas wants to conduct its educational system this way…fine. Keep the books and the beliefs in Texas.
Publishers beware, y’all may have a huge national difference of opinion on your hands.
boom
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Bito
They can and they are obligated to review what they are teaching our kids, but school boards are overworked so many will probably accept the new version. Also the CR is famous for dsiguising their rhetoric and after the books are purchased, it is prob too costly(in these times) to send them back.
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Sue, That is something that I don’t understand. Why do not the School boards from the N.E. and California say we will not accept/allow these books in our state? I realize that it is a money thing but WTF it’s their kids!!
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Someone once told me that when their cat would hide her head under the bed, she would seem to think that everything went away.
Apparently, a lot of Texans have the mentality of a cat. By hiding truth, the Mexican people, the evils of slavery, etc. from textbooks, they cease to exist for them.
I think within a decade there could be a virtual civil war within Texas as Latinos come to outnumber white people and decide that being treated as non-persons to be purged from history books and treated with such open racism in their daily lives just isn’t working for them.
Then let’s see how strong Texas Pride is when the state isn’t dominated by fanatical, racist and beligerent white people.
Then we’ll see if White Pride and Texas Pride are synonymous.
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Yay! Priscilla Queen of the Desert!!!
I love that movie!
I never saw the original, but thought this version was hilarious:
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PS — Ignore it, pretend it doesn’t exist and voila, it don’t!
*EDIT* Ooops, and we don’t have a Black POTUS either. Ignorance is bliss…
ig·no·rance
n. The condition of being uneducated, unaware, or uninformed.
http://www.dictionary.com
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And this, my dear AdLib, is why we were cursed with the GWB administration for 8 freakin’ years. Jeeze, three fries short of a Happy Meal.
and…
why is everyone so afraid to let a kid make up his/her own mind — about anything — anything for God’s sake?
When I was looking for Stepford Wives 1975, I found this as well…
I doubt it was ever shown in Texas.
Sorry for being all over the place with this, but I just can’t wrap my head around it. Should we now consider TX a commune or what?
Oh, and as I was filling my daughter, the Midwest Kindergarten teacher in about this, she actually said she had heard of the Barbara Cargill creature. Now that’s scary. Ohio? Texas? 1300 miles? Appears Ms. Cargill has made a name for herself.
And I’m sorry to say that my superbly, dedicated, talented, 7 year veteran, Kindergarten teacher daughter (who will have her M.ED. in June) is burned out at the age of 30; tired of fighting the system; tired of fighting the parents; tired of fighting the boards of education; tired of fighting the the test scores (without the critical input and participation of parents); tired anyone believing they know better than she, albeit the butcher, baker, candlestick-maker, U.S. Department of Education, Texas State School Board, State of Ohio School Board, or any other “we know more than you do Ms. Kindergarten Teacher”; WE pay your salary Ms. Kindergarten Educator, so by God, you must do as we say. It’s extremely disheartening.
Even more disheartening is we (a collective we, myself not included) demand more from those in the weeds than those we have sent to Washington to represent us. Which by the way, in the case of Ohio, John Boehner earns more than my daughter who is probably more dedicated and cares more about the 5 year olds walking into her classroom every September than he even has a clue.
Yet, we do not demand the same performance from our elected Representatives and Senators. Yet we pat him/her on the back and say “go tell ‘em what we think” — do they? Not! Do we hold them accountable and to the same standards as those who are in the field, trying to do the best for every kid who is in his/her class?
Those who are trained to deal with a kid whose parents leave an 11 year old in charge of 5 younger siblings because the parents were up all night doing crack and playing video games, then sleep all day because they’re too zoned out? Those who are trained to deal with a 5 year old who she/he knows went to bed hungry and came to school with no breakfast? Those who are trained to recognize domestic violence/child abuse and, if it goes unreported, the educator could lose his/her license, but when Children Services shows up, every possible excuse is made for the parent(s) and the reporter is made to feel like he/she is embellishing the situation.
My kid didn’t assume $26,000+ of student loan debt JUST TO HAVE SUMMERS OFF (which really only amounts to about 4 weeks). And…4 weeks is not equivalent to 50, 60, 70 hours worth of teacher time outside a normal school day…and for the past 2 years she has been pursuing her M.ED. 3-4 nights per week for 4 freakin’ quarters. Translation? NO summer vacation.
So, to see what the “Stepford” State School Board has done is abominable and completely unacceptable to me. From what I have read, none of these individuals are professional educators; those in the majority have nothing more than personal, cultural, and/or religious differences with the system. They have voted to subject everyone to the will of a few.
As I stated before, if these folks feel so strongly about what should or should not be taught in a PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM, then they, the RW Conservative, cowboy boot, Stepford Wives, GWB supporters in Texas should open their own privately funded schools — don’t expect the public to pay for what you want taught to your, YOUR, kids.
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This is so utterly, utterly disheartening. We–or at least parts of this country–are actually going in reverse. Parents should remove their kids from these school systems. This is Republican brain washing–pure and simple. It’s time for people on the left in Texas to home school their kids, because there is no possible way they could do worse than these venal simpletons. Playing along with the subversion of one’s own child’s mind is just not on!
Granted it’s almost 3 a.m. and I’m super tired after a grueling shift but…I’m bummed. Pepe–please–go to the next scheduled Texas board of education meeting and spray to your heart’s content. You’ll only improve the atmosphere.
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I’m a-loading up the glands….
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Kes if you are still here, I don’t want you to go to bed so bummed. Big Dog Mom’s comments below were encouraging to me.
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Night all, having trouble staying awake, have no fight left in me tonight, all I can do is pray that good will triumph evil…take care everyone.
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Well it is time to say good night. I was up early this morning and I am getting sleepy. Have a good one
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Goodnight, Sue.
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Night Sue, looking forward to your second installment. Still trying to figure out why 1/3 of my Mother’s family went towards the CR and the others didn’t….sleep well.
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This is an outrage! Ronald Reagan didn’t cross the Delaware to defeat FDR’s Germany in order for our children to grow up without a proper education!!
I’m going to write an angry letter to President Limbaugh to complain!
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Some kids are going to be mighty curious about what used to be in the textbooks.
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From the standpoint of these folks though, they figured it out. And it’s not new. The religious right has been savvy to school boards and such for a while. No one really runs for them, they don’t seem important – but, they want to get to the kids. That is their battle.
And they’re the ones who threw a hissyfit about the president airing a message to kids in school?! The rank hypocrisy. They’re the ones into indoctrinating, and, I can understand it. Without this, their anachronistic, reactionary ideology fades away and dies.
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Getting involved in your local politics is going to be every bit as important, if not more, as being involved in the national scene.
I hope this this message gets across all over,
Pay Attention!
Get Involved!
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Jesus Camps….just like Hitler’s youth movement, get them when they’re young.
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It’ll be like sneaking a copy of “The Happy Hooker” when you are 13 yrs old, because your parents said no, your too young for that….
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I’m having visions of Fahrenheit 451°.
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Look on the bright side….If the conservatives keep this up, just add this one to all the bad press of late, no one is going to vote Republican in November….they’d be crazy to.
*Note: If Kalima is around, I replied to your post twice over on OT and got the message “Posting too quickly, slow down”?, both times. Neither post showed up, just thought I’d let someone know.
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Hi BDM, I had exactly the same problem from 7 to 8:09 trying to reply to Khirad and bito.
I hope everything is ok with you, but I have a feeling that you have already gone.
Good night to you anyway. Take care and be safe.
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Hi Kalima, I emailed Adlib about that.
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Thanks Kalima and Cher for the heads up on this. I don’t know which of Kalima’s comments was the one being replied to but I checked out the error and it can be caused when a comment is timestamped with a future time, until that time comes, any comment replying to it will produce that error and not post.
A hiccup in WordPress may have assigned the wrong time to it, once that time came, comments started working again.
I’m going to make a modification which should help avoid this in the future, sorry about that!
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I was trying to reply to bito and Khirad on O/T and BDM was trying to reply to me on O/T. I then tried another thread and got the same message. I think that with mine there were 10 to 15 minutes before I replied, I was cooking lunch.
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Me too, sent him a screen shot of the message I kept getting every time I tried to submit a comment. I think bito must have given up and gone to sleep. It seems to be ok now.
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I hate to bother him now, but since he posted an article, maybe he won’t mind.
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I didn’t hear back so I hope that he got some rest and won’t read it until your morning.
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But are people really paying attention? That is my biggest fear. People are having so many problems right now I am not sure they are paying attention…………we are, but that is different. To post here, you probably are involved in what goes on in this country.
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I think this will make the evening news and parents that are aware and involved, like us, will bring this up at the next school board meeting in their area, bringing it to the attention of more parents.
This will go viral, this will get out, this will be another nail in their coffin…..we are talking about America’s children, parents will get involved on this one.
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Excuse the caps, but……………………
THIS IS WHAT AMERICA WILL LOOK LIKE IF WE EVER LET THEM BACK INTO POWER AGAIN.
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This is so ridiculous. I mean how far away is this stuff from Texas from teaching kids that slaves came to America because America is the land of the free? Or that the Spaniards brought Christian salvation to the Indians of the Americans?
Cripes.
Makes me want to spray indiscriminately.
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They “let” the native peoples build their churches for free, to teach them about work ethic.
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all over America Pepe, all over America. Get to spraying
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Save it, Pepe, the cons smell bad enough as it is.
On second thought, have at it!
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