Evangelists rewrite Texan curriculum (2 Viewers)

Garygaz

Active Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2007
Messages
1,827
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
Evangelists rewrite Texan curriculum


HOUSTON: In a coup likely to shift what millions of American children learn at school, a clutch of Christian evangelists and social conservatives who have grasped control of the Texas Board of Education are expected to force through a new state curriculum this week.

The board is to vote on a purge of alleged liberal bias in Texas school books in favour of what board member Cynthia Dunbar says really matters: a belief in America as a nation chosen by God as a beacon to the world.

''We are fighting for our children's education and our nation's future,'' Ms Dunbar said. ''In Texas we have certain statutory obligations to promote patriotism and to promote the free enterprise system.

''There seems to have been a move away from a patriotic ideology. There seems to be a denial that this was a nation founded under God. We had to go back and make some corrections.''

Those corrections prompted a blizzard of accusations of rewriting history and indoctrinating children by promoting right-wing views on religion, economics and guns while diminishing the science of evolution, the civil rights movement and the horrors of slavery.

Several changes include sidelining Thomas Jefferson, who favoured separation of church and state, while introducing a new focus on the ''significant contributions'' of pro-slavery Confederate leaders during the civil war. Study of Sir Isaac Newton is dropped in favour of examining scientific advances through military technology.

The education board has dropped references to the slave trade in favour of calling it the ''Atlantic triangular trade'', and recasts the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as driven by Islamic fundamentalism.

''There is a battle for the soul of education,'' Mavis Knight, a liberal member of the Texas education board, said. ''They're trying to indoctrinate with American exceptionalism, the Christian founding of this country, the free-enterprise system.''

The curriculum has alarmed liberals across the country in part because Texas buys millions of textbooks every year, giving it sway over what publishers print. By some estimates, all but a handful of American states rely on textbooks written to meet the Texas curriculum. California is considering a bill that would bar them from being used in the state's schools.

Underpinning the changes is a particular view of religion.

Ms Dunbar was elected to the state education board on the back of a campaign in which she argued to allow the teaching of creationism - euphemistically known as intelligent design - in science classes.

Two years ago, she published a book, One Nation under God, in which she argued that the United States was ultimately governed by the scriptures.

''The only accurate method of ascertaining the intent of the founding fathers at the time of our government's inception comes from a biblical world view,'' she wrote.

''We as a nation were intended by God to be a light set on a hill to serve as a beacon of hope and Christian charity to a lost and dying world.''

The blizzard of amendments has produced the odd farce. Some figures have been sidelined because they are deemed to be socialist or un-American.

One of them is a children's author, Bill Martin, who wrote a popular tale, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what Do You See? Martin was cut from the curriculum when he was confused with an author with a similar name who wrote a different book, Ethical Marxism.
America, drafting sanctions to deter the creation of nuclear weapons one day, invading Iraq another and letting creationist christians draft education curriculums the next.

AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!
 

Jazuzi

Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2010
Messages
99
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
no dude muslims are worse
the textbooks don't mean much it's not the only thing teachers teach from
 

Tangent

Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2009
Messages
523
Location
My World
Gender
Male
HSC
2010
no dude muslims are worse
the textbooks don't mean much it's not the only thing teachers teach from
they hold sway over what most future americans learn about.
and textbooks are the only thing teachers use. well, it depends what subjects, but things like history and other humanities definitely
 

Garygaz

Active Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2007
Messages
1,827
Gender
Male
HSC
2008
the thing that makes me the most angry is teaching creationism in science classes.
 

Jazuzi

Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2010
Messages
99
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
they hold sway over what most future americans learn about.
and textbooks are the only thing teachers use. well, it depends what subjects, but things like history and other humanities definitely
when i said that textbooks aren't the only resources teachers use i meant that the texas textbooks aren't the only textbooks that teachers use. apparently schools get different or custom ones, and the whole thing about only texas deciding what gets taught is a bit of a a myth.

Why You Shouldn't Worry About Texas's Textbook Changes - The Gaggle Blog - Newsweek.com
 

SashatheMan

StudyforEver
Joined
Apr 25, 2004
Messages
5,656
Location
Queensland
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
the thing that makes me the most angry is teaching creationism in science classes.
They can't teach creationism in public classrooms. There was a court order for that.
Intelligent design lost recently as well. They are now concentrating on new tactics though to push the agenda.
 

Chemical Ali

지금은 소녀시대
Joined
Feb 22, 2006
Messages
1,728
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
every christian on bos is basically complicit in this, whether they admit it or not

discuss
 

cosmo kramer

Banned
Joined
Apr 29, 2010
Messages
2,582
Location
Forever UNSW
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2006
liberal creationism is even stupider than creationism though

even under a creationist framework one can still reasonably propose the possibility of human biological differences; you can just say that god created them and in practice the effect is the same as suggesting they came about via the random process of mutation and natural selection (which lets face it is almost all that matters when it comes to the science of evolution)

libreal creationism is the prevaling take on darwinism and its absolutely retarded



don't get me wrong creationism is a loathesome denial of reality but in effect it can still be more useful than what is typically taught for darwinism these days
 
Last edited:

Chemical Ali

지금은 소녀시대
Joined
Feb 22, 2006
Messages
1,728
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
(which lets face it is almost all that matters when it comes to the science of evolution)
except genetic drift is just as important hey

helps if you know the first thing about what you want to dismiss
 

cosmo kramer

Banned
Joined
Apr 29, 2010
Messages
2,582
Location
Forever UNSW
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2006
no no

i meant HBD is the significant application of evolutionary theory, i didn't mean to say that natural selection/mutation etc. were "all that mattered" from it

but even before evolutionary thought HBD was universally accepted as true

the creationist model allows for it as well, the liberal creationist model explicitly denies it and makes it central to its dogma

darwin didn't even care about HBD he just dismissed it as trivially obvious and moved on from it
 
Last edited:

Chemical Ali

지금은 소녀시대
Joined
Feb 22, 2006
Messages
1,728
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
or, maybe the fact that HBD aren't so accepted today is because the current evidence suggests they aren't important?
 

cosmo kramer

Banned
Joined
Apr 29, 2010
Messages
2,582
Location
Forever UNSW
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2006
hbd are accepted today and are still thoroughly studied; study of individualsand population groups has just assumed different terms and names to stop wackos from sabotaging the research

the interwining of philosophy and politics ala franz boas et al. with the physical sciences and the prevailing political ethos has created the current situation today regarding HBD

which is why they are so taboo obviously
 
Last edited:

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 2)

Top