Saturday, March 13, 2010

Conservatives put stamp on Texas textbooks - Education- msnbc.com

World War II, images of different aspects of t...Image via Wikipedia

Conservatives put stamp on Texas textbooks - Education- msnbc.com
Adds references to "laws of nature and nature's God" to a section in U.S. history that requires students to explain major political ideas.
Replaces "democratic" in references to the form of U.S. government with "constitutional republic."
In addition to learning the Bill of Rights, the board specifies a reference to the Second Amendment right to bear arms in a section about citizenship in a U.S. government class.
Requires economics students to "analyze the decline of the U.S. dollar including abandonment of the gold standard."
Ensures 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."
In teaching about the civil rights movement, students must learn about the violent philosophy of the Black Panthers in addition to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s nonviolent approach.
Specifies that Germans and Italians were interned in the United States as well as the Japanese during World War II, to counter the idea that the internment of Japanese was motivated by racism.
Requires 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 sociology, requires the teaching of "the importance of personal responsibility for life choices" in a section on teen suicide, dating violence, sexuality, drug use and eating disorders.
In economics, the curriculum revisions add Milton Friedman and Friedrich von Hayek, two champions of free-market economic theory, to the usual list of economists to be studied, like Adam Smith, Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes. The board also replaced the word “capitalism” throughout the texts with the “free-enterprise system.”
Board members argued about the classification of historic periods (still B.C. and A.D., rather than B.C.E. and C.E.); whether students should be required to explain the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its impact on global politics (they will); and whether former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir should be required learning (she will).
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2 comments:

Valy said...

WW II is over, free enterprise is is the future!

Valy said...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/13/texas-textbook-massacre-u_n_498003.html

1) The Board removed Thomas Jefferson from the Texas curriculum's world history standards on Enlightenment thinking, “replacing him with religious right icon John Calvin.”
2) "Teachers in Texas will be required to cover the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation's Founding Fathers, but not highlight the philosophical rationale for the separation of church and state." “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.
3)US not democratic, constitutional.
4) Hip hop not culturally significant.
5) All religions equal under constitution ?
6) Preserving Mc Charthy legacy
7} the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s,
8) difference between sex and gender
9) Capitalism...(Marx out)
10)Regan yes (sen) Kennedy not
11) Hispanics died at the Alamo ?
12 )