(05/17/10) "What Would History Look Like If It Were Written By Texas and Arizona?" (by Chauncey DeVega, AlterNet)

[Spang]

History is one part truth. History is also one part fable. It is a site of political contestation and struggle. As the state of Arizona (with its rules banning “Ethnic Studies”) and the state of Texas (reimaging its U.S. history curriculum to conform with the Tea Party and Christian Nationalist perspective) have both embraced a more “conservative” view of history, it only seems fair and reasonable to take their efforts at face value. Theirs is not an assault on academic freedom. No, it is an effort to diversify and make more inclusive and “American” the curriculum taught to our children.

Many, on both sides of the political divide, have treated these new guidelines with much derision and complaint. I suggest that the best way to understand the teaching of history as imagined by this brave new world is to work through the reality it offers. To that end, I present U.S. history as outlined in the politically correct guidelines offered by Arizona and Texas. Sometimes the old is indeed the new…welcome my friends to Tea Party USA.

The Essential Dates and Events of U.S. History as Approved by the States of Arizona and Texas

1607– Jamestown founded. Capitalism, which can trace its roots to the Bible, is now firmly rooted in the New World.

1660-1800–Triangular Atlantic trade continues to bring wealth and prosperity to America while giving opportunities to new immigrants.

1776–War for Independence against the tyrannical, evil British empire. Colonists suffer oppression that is unprecedented in human history. Minutemen singlehandedly defeat the evil British Empire in 1783.

1788–The United States Constitution is signed as a document to stand for all time, inspired by God, and never to be changed.

1803-1848–America continues to expand westward into empty territories. American settlers make the land bloom with the help of friendly Indian tribes.

1823–America guarantees the freedom of all countries and people in the Western Hemisphere with the adoption of the Monroe Doctrine.

1848–Mexico, in an act of friendship following their humiliation at the Alamo by the great Republic of Texas, gives their territories to the United States.

1860s-1900s–The Gilded Age of prosperity. American capitalism provides opportunities for all people to grow wealthy, secure, and happy. Liberals and Progressives begin working against American freedom and capitalism by forming unions, demanding unfair compensation from their employers, limiting the rights of children to work in factories, and imposing restrictive regulations for the “safety” of employees. Many brave men die fighting Communist influenced unions as they riot in America’s cities.

1861-1865–Civil War fought over the overreach of a tyrannical federal government and its desire to limit the freedoms of all Americans. 600,000 people die including many brave and noble black Americans who fought on the side of the Confederacy. Northerners and Southerners eventually find common ground through Redemption and move forward as brothers and sisters in the USA.

1865-1870s–Democratic terrorists called the Ku Klux Klan begin a reign of terror in the South until brave Republicans defeat them.

1906–Using the Antiquities Act, Theodore Roosevelt establishes the National Park System. In one bold stroke Roosevelt establishes Socialist policies that steal land from the American people.

1913–More Socialism and class warfare ushered into the U.S. with the federal income tax system.

1917–America enters and wins World War I singlehandedly because the French are cowards.

1929–Great Depression begins. Tens of millions unemployed because of FDR’s failed economic policies. His New Deal introduces the nanny state, prolongs America’s economic collapse, and weakens the economy until Ronald Reagan renews America.

1941–Patriotic Japanese Americans volunteer to place themselves in gated communities so that America will be safe from Imperial Japan.

1941-1945–America enters and wins World War 2 singlehandedly because the French are cowards. Out of necessity, the United States drops atomic bombs on Japan.

1945-1965–A high point in U.S. history, as freedom and prosperity reign over all Americans.

1950–Senator Joseph McCarthy fearlessly highlights how America is infiltrated by communists from Russia and China. Big Hollywood and the liberal establishment are brought to their knees by his brave efforts.

1954–Brown v. Board of Education removes the parental right to send children to the schools of their choice and with the company they desire. A dangerous and unconstitutional era of activist Supreme Court decisions begins.

1955-1968–George Wallace and Martin Luther King Jr. lead a Civil Rights Movement to ensure that all Americans are judged by “the content of their character and not the color of their skin.”

1968–The cinematic classic The Green Berets starring John Wayne, America’s greatest actor, debuts.

1971–America largely withdraws from Vietnam on the cusp of victory because it was weakened by The Gays, The Women’s Movement, and “The Counter-culture.” The French are cowards whose failure forced the U.S. to intervene in Indochina.

1973–Roe vs. Wade, the worst legal decision in United States history is decided.

1974–Nixon forced to resign by liberal conspiracy.

1980–Ronald Reagan, America’s greatest president, restores American providence by ushering in a new era of economic prosperity, cutting the federal budget, and corrects the unfair federal tax code in order that the hard work of the richest Americans is justly rewarded.

1989–The Berlin Wall falls. Ronald Reagan wins the Cold War singlehandedly.

1992-2000–Democrat president Bill Clinton in office. His reckless personal behavior and irresponsible foreign policy choices weaken America internationally. The U.S. economy is almost destroyed by his tax policies. His wife Hillary Clinton furthers the march towards Socialism by advocating for free public health care and to destroy the insurance companies that drive us economic growth.

2000–George Bush elected in a landslide.

2001–Terrorists attack America on September 11th. Because of Bill Clinton’s policies, a weakened border, a lax immigration policy, rampant multiculturalism, and the Democrats’ weakening of the military, America is left open to attack.

2003–Dr. King’s vision is finally made real. In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court strikes down the reverse discrimination policies of the University of Michigan. Freedom rings across the land.

2003–The country of Iraq, a rogue state, part of the Axis of Evil, and led by the dictator Saddam Hussein–a co-conspirator in the 9-11 attacks–is liberated by President George Bush.

2008–Barack Obama is elected. America is in a Constitutional crisis as Obama is unable to prove that he is a U.S. citizen.

2008-the present. Brave Americans begin joining Tea Parties and 9-12 freedom groups. Millions of their members march on Washington D.C. Freedom fighter, James David Manning, places Obama on trial in absentia for treason and sedition.

2008–Sarah Palin, mother, governor, author, actress, comedienne and role-model begins her meteoric rise to political stardom. She ushers in an era of robust, common sense approaches to political problems tempered by real American values.

2010–Barack Obama remains President although his rule is illegitimate. Brave patriots such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh continue to lead the people’s resistance against his tyrannical rule.

The Source (http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/05/17/a-u-s-history-timeline-in-keeping-with-the-new-educational-rules-passed-by-texas-and-arizona/)

[Spang]

Texas school board rewrites US history with lessons promoting God and guns

US Christian conservatives drop references to slave trade and sideline Thomas Jefferson who backed church-state separation

Cynthia Dunbar does not have a high regard for her local schools. She has called them unconstitutional, tyrannical and tools of perversion. The conservative Texas lawyer has even likened sending children to her state's schools to "throwing them in to the enemy's flames". Her hostility runs so deep that she educated her own offspring at home and at private Christian establishments.

Now Dunbar is on the brink of fulfilling a promise to change all that, or at least point Texas schools toward salvation. She is one of a clutch of Christian evangelists and social conservatives who have grasped control of the state's education board. This week they are expected to force through a new curriculum that is likely to shift what millions of American schoolchildren far beyond Texas learn about their history.

The board is to vote on a sweeping purge of alleged liberal bias in Texas school textbooks in favour of what Dunbar says really matters: a belief in America as a nation chosen by God as a beacon to the world, and free enterprise as the cornerstone of liberty and democracy.

"We are fighting for our children's education and our nation's future," 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 have prompted a blizzard of accusations of rewriting history and indoctrinating children by promoting rightwing 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.

The new curriculum asserts that "the right to keep and bear arms" is an important element of a democratic society. Study of Sir Isaac Newton is dropped in favour of examining scientific advances through military technology.

There is also a suggestion that the anti-communist witch-hunt by Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s may have been justified.

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

"There is a battle for the soul of education," said Mavis Knight, a liberal member of the Texas education board. "They're trying to indoctrinate with American exceptionalism, the Christian founding of this country, the free enterprise system. There are strands where the free enterprise system fits appropriately but they have stretched the concept of the free enterprise system back to medieval times. The president of the Texas historical association could not find any documentation to support the stretching of the free enterprise system to ancient times but it made no difference."

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

In the past four years, Christian conservatives have won almost half the seats on the Texas education board and can rely on other Republicans for support on most issues. They previously tried to require science teachers to address the "strengths and weaknesses" in the theory of evolution – a move critics regard as a back door to teaching creationism – but failed. They have had more success in tackling history and social studies.

Dunbar backed amendments to the curriculum that portray the free enterprise system (there is no mention of capitalism, deemed to be a tainted word) as a cornerstone of liberty and argue that the government should have a minimal role in the economy.

One amendment requires that students be taught that economic prosperity requires "minimal government intrusion and taxation".

Underpinning the changes is a particular view of religion.

Dunbar was elected to the state education board on the back of a campaign in which she argued for 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 worldview," 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."

On the education board, Dunbar backed changes that include teaching the role the "Jewish Ten Commandments" played in "political and legal ideas", and the study of the influence of Moses on the US constitution. Dunbar says these are important steps to overturning what she believes is the myth of a separation between church and state in the US.

"There's been this amorphous changing of how we look at religion and how we define religion within American history. One concern I have is that the viewpoint of the founding fathers is very clear. They were not against the promotion of religion. I think it is important to present a historically accurate viewpoint to students," she said.

On the face of it some of the changes are innocuous but critics say that closer scrutiny reveals a not-so-hidden agenda. History students are now to be required to study documents, such as the Mayflower Compact, which instil the idea of America being founded as a Christian fundamentalist nation.

Knight and others do not question that religion was an important force in American history but they fear that it is being used as a Trojan horse by evangelists to insert religious indoctrination into the school curriculum. They point to the wording of amendments such as that requiring students to "describe how religion and virtue contributed to the growth of representative government in the American colonies".

Among the advisers the board brought in to help rewrite the curriculum is David Barton, the leader of WallBuilders which seeks to promote religion in history. Barton has campaigned against the separation of church and state. He argues that income tax should be abolished because it contradicts the bible. Among his recommendations was that pupils should be taught that the declaration of independence establishes that the creator is at the heart of law, government and individual rights.

Conservatives have been accused of an assault on the history of civil rights. One curriculum amendment describes the civil rights movement as creating "unrealistic expectations of equal outcomes" among minorities. Another seeks to place Martin Luther King and the violent Black Panther movement as opposite sides of the same coin.

"We had a big discussion around that," said Knight, a former teacher. "It was an attempt to taint the civil rights movement. They did the same by almost equating George Wallace [the segregationist governor of Alabama in the mid-1960s] with the civil rights movement and the things Martin Luther King Jr was trying to accomplish, as if Wallace was standing up for white civil rights. That's how slick they are.

"They're very smooth at excluding the contributions of minorities into the curriculum. It is as if they want to render minority groups totally invisible. I think it's racist. I really do."

The blizzard of amendments has produced the occasional 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 purged from the curriculum when he was confused with an author with a similar name but a different book, Ethical Marxism.

The Source (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/16/texas-schools-rewrites-us-history)

[Spang]

CA lawmaker proposes bill to keep away TX’s textbooks (which call slavery the ‘Atlantic triangular trade’).

Earlier this year, Texas faced national scrutiny for the efforts of a determined bloc of far-right ideologues on the Texas State Board of Education to rewrite history in the state’s social studies textbooks and curriculum. They succeeded in making students learn about the “conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s,” “documents that supported Cold War-era Sen. Joseph McCarthy,” and the difference “between legal and illegal immigration.” Because of the state’s size, Texas has significant pull in shaping what the nation’s social studies books will say. However, California state Sen. Leland Yee (D) has introduced a bill to keep Texas at bay:

Under Yee’s bill, SB1451, the California Board of Education would be required to look out for any of the Texas content as part of its standard practice of reviewing public school textbooks. The board must then report any findings to both the Legislature and the secretary of education.

The bill describes the Texas curriculum changes as “a sharp departure from widely accepted historical teachings” and “a threat to the apolitical nature of public school governance and academic content standards in California.”

Tom Adams, director of the state Department of Education’s standards and curriculum division, said the Texas standards could make their way into national editions of textbooks, but those aren’t used in California. “Our main concern is whether materials meet California’s standards,” he said. “There’s nothing in our review process that says we should be following Texas or anything like that.”

A new report in the Guardian reveals that the Texas State Board of Education also “dropped references to the slave trade in favour of calling it the more innocuous ‘Atlantic triangular trade,’ and recasts the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as driven by Islamic fundamentalism.” The board will be meeting again this week and conservatives have promised to “keep working to the last moment to correct years of liberal bias in history classes.”

The Source (http://thinkprogress.org/2010/05/17/california-texas-textbooks/)

[cinnamongirl]

The Source (http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/05/17/a-u-s-history-timeline-in-keeping-with-the-new-educational-rules-passed-by-texas-and-arizona/)

That timeline is pretty funny. I bet that's the cheat sheet Glenn Beck uses to review before he goes on-air.

[WASTRIC]

the difference “between legal and illegal immigration.”
since a great deal of people fail to understand that there is a difference, teaching about it sounds like a wise choice. It all depends on how the subject matter is covered.

[samurai007]

“a threat to the apolitical nature of public school governance and academic content standards in California.”

As someone who grew up going to California schools...

Bwahahahahahaha! WHAT "apolitical nature" are they talking about? They are highly political and biased! Oh, and the slave trade was a triangular trade route, and radical Islamists are behind the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

[observer21]

Exaggeration may serve as a temporary tool to stoke the flames of misplaced righteous anger in those against a certain action or motion which are too lazy to check the in-depth facts for themselves, but in the end it is not a very intellectually honest argument.

I do not agree with much of what is being done, especially what was referred to in Texas, if the articles are to be believed. However, I do also agree with the supporters of the notion in the sense that in doing nothing to curb or counter-act the rare cases of blatant spreading of non-harmonious and potentially damaging philosophy, we could face a lot of trouble down the road. Not that I think it is necessarily wise to bar or ban any kind of education or speech, but I can also see their reasoning.

[foxyladi]

no bias no bull....wait..:D

[Spang]

Politicized Curriculum in Texas

The social conservatives who dominate the Texas State Board of Education backed down last week from a few of their most outrageous efforts to tilt the state’s social studies curriculum. They dropped a proposal that President Obama be referred to as “Barack Hussein Obama” and lost in their efforts to rename the “slave trade” the “Atlantic triangular trade,” a clear attempt to downplay slavery’s horror and spread the blame.

The changes they did force into the standards for such subjects as history, government and economics were bad enough and bear no relationship to neutral pedagogy. The original curriculum standards were drawn up by teams of teachers and scholars who spent nearly a year on the huge undertaking. The board eagerly exercised its power to amend those requirements.

In what looks like an effort to justify injecting more religion into government, it voted to require students to examine why the founding fathers protected religious freedom — and how that approach contrasts with “separation of church and state.” The board also required third graders to “explain how government regulations and taxes impact consumer cost,” presumably to get them off to an early start in fearing government. Older students will have to “evaluate efforts by global organizations to undermine U.S. sovereignty” and, under an earlier change, analyze the “unintended consequences” of such programs as the Great Society and affirmative action.

These new requirements are more than symbolic. They can determine what is taught in the classroom, included on standardized tests, and written about in textbooks, many of which are sold in multiple states. We can only hope that sensible teachers will find a way to teach their subjects as understood by mainstream scholars. Students in Texas deserve an education free of ideology.

The Source (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/opinion/26wed4.html?src=tptw)

[hillary4change]

O.M.Gosh!! What a bunch of tripe!!

since a great deal of people fail to understand that there is a difference, teaching about it sounds like a wise choice. It all depends on how the subject matter is covered.
Thank God you are here!! Someone that makes sense!!

“a threat to the apolitical nature of public school governance and academic content standards in California.”

As someone who grew up going to California schools...

Bwahahahahahaha! WHAT "apolitical nature" are they talking about? They are highly political and biased! Oh, and the slave trade was a triangular trade route, and radical Islamists are behind the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Thank God you are here too!!
BTW, I went to California schools too! They are very political & biased!

[samurai007]

The Source (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/opinion/26wed4.html?src=tptw)In what looks like an effort to justify injecting more religion into government, it voted to require students to examine why the founding fathers protected religious freedom — and how that approach contrasts with “separation of church and state.” The board also required third graders to “explain how government regulations and taxes impact consumer cost,” presumably to get them off to an early start in fearing government. Older students will have to “evaluate efforts by global organizations to undermine U.S. sovereignty” and, under an earlier change, analyze the “unintended consequences” of such programs as the Great Society and affirmative action.

These new requirements are more than symbolic. They can determine what is taught in the classroom, included on standardized tests, and written about in textbooks, many of which are sold in multiple states.

Well thank goodness for Texas at least getting the important things through! Good for them! Every one of those changes is very much needed and vital, and it's just a shame that so many thousands of students made it through school without knowing them. I'd like to shake the hand of the school board members and thank them.

[Spang]

The board also required third graders to “explain how government regulations and taxes impact consumer cost,” presumably to get them off to an early start in fearing government.

If it weren't for government regulations, our automobiles wouldn't have seat belts, or tyranny belts as I've heard them called; most of our meat would be tainted, and many of our buildings wouldn't be able to withstand hurricanes and earthquakes. And that's just a small sampling of what government regulations have done for this country. Half of the country, if not more, would probably be dead if it weren't for government regulations.

[samurai007]

If it weren't for government regulations, our automobiles wouldn't have seat belts, or tyranny belts as I've heard them called; most of our meat would be tainted, and many of our buildings wouldn't be able to withstand hurricanes and earthquakes. And that's just a small sampling of what government regulations have done for this country. Half of the country, if not more, would probably be dead if it weren't for government regulations.

Not true at all, of course... if a butcher sells tainted meat, he'll lose his customers very quickly and go out of business, for instance. And if people express a concern for safety in their cars, auto manufacturers will add safety features to get people to buy them.

Besides, nowhere does it say ONLY the negative impacts of regulation and taxes must be taught. Most teachers, I would think, would and have been presenting the positive side already, they just ignored the negative side until now. (And yes, there is a negative side).

[hillary4change]

Not true at all, of course... if a butcher sells tainted meat, he'll lose his customers very quickly and go out of business, for instance. And if people express a concern for safety in their cars, auto manufacturers will add safety features to get people to buy them.

Besides, nowhere does it say ONLY the negative impacts of regulation and taxes must be taught. Most teachers, I would think, would and have been presenting the positive side already, they just ignored the negative side until now. (And yes, there is a negative side).
hillarystamp!
I like to think for myself and I taught my children the same thing.

Some people are addicted to the taste of the Government teet. I on the other hand, are not!

Anti Capitalism, the new black! (P.S, I am speaking of the color, not the people.)

"What Would History Look Like If It Were Written By Texas and Arizona?" Answer: More believable!

[foxyladi]

hillarystamp!
I like to think for myself and I taught my children the same thing.

Some people are addicted to the taste of the Government teet. I on the other hand, are not!

Anti Capitalism, the new black! (P.S, I am speaking of the color, not the people.)

Answer: More believable!

more like i was taught lo those many years ago:thinking:

[Spang]

The Fight Continues Against Texas' Textbook Standards

Last week was a fascinating week to watch the power of the religious right in Texas. Although we launched an enormous effort to convince the “moderates” on the Texas State Board of Education to vote down ideologically tainted standards for students’ textbooks, they were ultimately approved on a 9-5 party line vote. Don McLeroy, the former board president and now lame-duck board member and chief proponent of the most outrageous changes in the curriculum standards, spent most of his time outside the meeting room frequently huddled with Liberty Legal and Texas Eagle Forum folks, who, it became obvious, were the authors of all of his amendments. In the end, though, the more moderate board members caved into the fringe right.

Despite this loss, Texas heard our message loud and clear. Thanks to you, the State Board of Ed received more than 40,000 comments on the proposed social studies curriculum standards; of which at least 12,000 came from ACLU supporters. (As a point of comparison, the board received just 3,000 comments during the last big text book controversy when they wanted all students to learn about the “strengths and weaknesses” of evolution as part of the science curriculum standards.)

The fight continues. With a number of state legislators outraged and criticism mounting from historians, and even the Bush administration’s Secretary of Education Rod Paige, there is steam for pushing the engines of change. Next? We will work with the legislature to rein in this out-of-control bunch, limiting its role to its constitutional mandate or requiring true experts to write the standards and ensuring legislative approval of the nominees. Check out the recommendations we included in our report, “The Texas State Board of Education: A Case of Abuse of Power.”

And there’s more you can do to make sure that the Texas State Board of Education doesn’t have the final say as to what’s taught in social studies classrooms in your state: Demand that textbook publishers keep Texas’s biased curriculum out of schools around the country.

And thank you again for taking action; with your help, we will keep this kind of extremism in check.

The Source (http://www.aclu.org/blog/racial-justice-religion-belief/fight-continues-against-texas-textbook-standards)

[samurai007]

The Source (http://www.aclu.org/blog/racial-justice-religion-belief/fight-continues-against-texas-textbook-standards)

To borrow a line from Spang, **** the ACLU.

[Spang]

To borrow a line from Spang, **** the ACLU.

I've never said **** the ACLU. I have said **** the FCC, though.