Texas schools are making curriculum changes!
Yes, time for a new change, and time to see where the textbooks are leading the kids down a path of Liberal idiocy.
In all seriousness, some of the changes that Texas is slated to make to their curriculum are downright disturbing.
– For starters, they are removing Thomas Jefferson from textbooks and replacing him with… JOHN CALVIN. The influential right-wing religious leader is being chosen over the writer of our Declaration of Independence. You may as well just omit everything about the Declaration – kids don’t need to know that garbage! They’d much rather know about Calvinism, the foundation of the beliefs you shove down their throat!
– The notion of the separation of church and state will also be ignored, because one board member inquires “I have $1,000 for the charity of your choice if you can find [separation of church and state] in the Constitution.”
How about this from the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Or this, located in Article Six and the First Amendment: “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
Please direct your check to the Reasoning With Radicals Foundation on my behalf.
– Hip-hop music was refused to be included as a part of cultural studies. No surprise, given the amount of racists that make up the Texas landscape. Country music, however, will be gratuitously discussed as a wholesome alternative to the horrors of hip-hop.
– The mind-boggling omissions continue: the board refused to make the requirement that “students learn that the Constitution prevents the U.S. government from promoting one religion over all others.” This isn’t so shocking either, given the prevalence of religious intolerance in the South.
– This change is my all-time favorite: McCarthyism will be promoted as, well, sensible. They will now discuss how the prevarication-laden Verona papers CONFIRMED suspicions of communist infiltration of the U.S. Yes, because all 3,000 cases of alleged communism were found to be true. Then again, McCarthy is the perfect role model for Conservatives if you think about it: intolerant, deceptive, and radical.
– Another amendment says that Texas students will spend more time learning 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.” Liberal and minority rights groups will be omitted.
– The difference between sex and gender in sociology? Gone. One board member states that delving into that realm would lead students into the world of “transvestites, transsexuals and who knows what else.” I know what else – it would lead students into the realm of everything that differs from what YOU think is right… which seems to be a common theme here.
– The sickening bias continues: Members pushed to remove the “negative connotation” from the word “capitalism” by replacing it with “free enterprise.” The things that give capitalism the negative connotation it receives, however, will not be discussed.
– Of course, expanding on the late Senator Ted Kennedy and new justice Sotomayor was voted against. Who takes their place? RONALD REAGAN. On a side note, Texas politicians have started a petition to remove Thomas Jefferson from Mount Rushmore, in favor of Ronald Reagan. Yeah, that last part was a joke, but I wouldn’t spit my drink everywhere if I read that one day.
– Tejanos are also being screwed: The board, dominated by conservatives, voted 10-5 (the 5 NO voted being liberals) to refuse mention of Tejanos being among the fallen heroes at the Alamo.
All of these proposed changes pretty much confirm my distaste for the South. This may just be Texas now, but pretty soon the entire South could take on this form of biased teaching. Isn’t education supposed to be about teaching students the whole truth? Enlightening them with facts about things that DID happen? Teaching history as it had been recorded?
And since when does some biased panel get to choose what the students learn? What’s the real harm in teaching everything as it happened? Do you think the kids in your state are so dense that they just can’t handle the truth? You can’t deprive the youth of the real truth just because you hold a grudge against some of the things that happened to shape this nation. You know, the nation you call “the greatest in the world?” If this nation is so great, why is Texas trying to hide so much of its history?
I feel very sorry for Texas students. They don’t even know they’re being deprived of a quality education. They have to suffer essentially because of politics. Whiny conservatives just can’t handle the way some things have been reported on over the years. You know, that whole “truth” thing. So they cut, rewrite, and omit all they can from these textbooks for one common goal: to make these kids think exactly like them. That’s all it is. The Texas Education system just can’t handle dissenting opinion, and I experienced that firsthand in my three years there. The fact that any state has a board that decides what should and shouldn’t be in textbooks sickens me, and only further confirms that the textbooks of today are essentially becoming opinion columns.
Here’s just one last fact to chew on: 23 percent of Texans think that Barack Obama is a Muslim.
So, if none of the aforementioned textbook changes were enough to convince you that Texans are just a little bit crazy, I have no idea what will.
I have a proposed change for these textbooks: just throw them all away. Throw them all away, and from now own, teach your classes directly from Wikipedia.