Texas Board of Ed: History books are pro Islam anti Christian

[CptStern]

Texas' State Board of Education - following a long history of throwing itself into "culture war" issues - is set to vote Friday on a resolution calling on textbook publishers to limit what they print about Islam in world history books.

The resolution cites world history books no longer used in Texas schools that it says devoted more lines of text to Islamic beliefs and practices than Christian beliefs and practices.

"Diverse reviewers have repeatedly documented gross pro-Islamic, anti-Christian distortions in social studies texts,"

what bizarro world do they live in?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/09/23/national/main6893460.shtml

McLeroy is one of the most outspoken of a group of board members who have pushed several conservative requirements for social study textbooks used in Texas, including that teachers cover the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation's Founding Fathers.

"It’s that great idea. That radical idea of Judeo-Christianity, that man is created in the image of God. So if you have world history books that downplay Christianity - Judeo-Christianity - and it doesn’t even make it in the table of contents, I think there’s a great concern," McLeroy said.

Some educators fear the debate might lead to a revision of history. "I was a social studies teacher, and, I’m sorry. History is what it is. It happened," Gayle Fallon of the Houston Federation of Teachers told CBS affiliate KHOU

Kathy Miller, spokeswoman for the Texas Freedom Network, a religious freedom group, called the resolution "another example of board members putting politics ahead of just educating our kids."

"Once again, without consulting any real experts, the board's politicians are manufacturing a bogus controversy," Miller said. No textbooks cited in the resolution are still being used in Texas schools, she told The Dallas Morning news for a Wednesday story.

less politics more educating children

 

[Krynn72]

We really need to work on getting Textbook manufacturing out of the deep south. I mean, all this huge crazy shit we hear about them trying to do to our textbooks probably just hides all the smaller crazy shit that they actually managed to get in them.

 

[Kaptain H]

I can't even imagine what it's like to be an ethical, normal history teacher here. My boyfriend has a master's in history education and was originally going to teach when we moved down here, but switch to level design. He said if he had ended up teaching, he'd have the kids compare a textbook from New Jersey with the ones from Texas and have them point out the differences to learn how history is subjective.

I didn't even have that much God stuff when I went to Catholic school, ugh.

 

[CptStern]

chances are good both textbooks would be the same

As a giant in the textbook market, Texas and its education officials have left fingerprints on the classroom readers used far beyond the Red River.

The long reach of the State Board of Education has attracted outsized national attention for years as board members engaged in pitched battles over textbook content from evolution to the Founding Fathers.

 

[Llama]

Only in Texas.

 

[flamingdts]

This is Amurka