A far-right faction of the Texas State Board of Education succeeded Friday in injecting conservative ideals into social studies, history and economics lessons that will be taught to millions of students for the next decade.
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. Curriculum standards also will describe the U.S. government as a "constitutional republic," rather than "democratic," and students will be required to study the decline in value of the U.S. dollar, including the abandonment of the gold standard.
Look, I'll agree the "Judeo-Christian influences" part is complete bullshit (if you disagree go read Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding and come back and report where you find Judeo-Christian influences - I'll be here holding my breath). However, we are a constitutional republic. We are not a democracy. That isn't a matter of opinion any more than the existence of gravity is a matter of opinion. If you don't understand that you probably shouldn't be writing anything for the Associated Press.
Furthermore, our moving off of the gold standard, and its effect on monetary policy is a matter of history, not ideological dogma. Since when it is considered "objective" to hide matters of history from students? In my experience, it is the desire to hide facts that most often represents an ideological agenda at work.
Really, this story is almost criminally stupid.
2 comments:
Just this red state science cartoon - http://vadlo.com/cartoons.php?id=93
You are kinda missing my point. Can you point to a time when the press reported on something in education as reflecting "far left influences"?
They have had no problem slamming anything that emerges from the Christian right (and often rightfully so), but their lack of objectivity and, frankly, knowledge of basic civics is pretty damning.
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