Hmmm, contrary to one critic I know, I don't see any Greek-esque rioting or professional French striking.
Texas just keeps on giving to America. As if eight years of Bush and the unsavory things LBJ did weren’t enough to damage the country, my adopted home’s statewide Board of Education will go through with some partisan, slanted revisions for upcoming History and Social Studies books. It matters on a National level because textbook publishers cater toward the larger states (California, Texas, maybe New York) for economic reasons; nobody is going to write, edit and print 50-plus editions. So what passes as acceptable in Texas will be the only options for states with smaller populations. The other options are equally undesirable: spend more to get editions they can accept (not in this economy) or stick with the older, probably outdated books they do have. The latter makes me laugh because when I was in sixth or seventh grade (1979-1981), I remember my US History book having the chutzpah to project the US having a permanent Moon base in 1986. Even as a kid I thought, “What kind of moron wrote this? We haven’t been to the Moon since Nixon, it’ll take a miracle to make anything resembling the base in Kubrick’s 2001!”
Yesterday, I had the day off to kick back, do some chores I’ve put off and rest up before the OK Go concert. Then I saw the invitation from the Texas Freedom Network. I decided to go, why not, History is a subject which concerns me because one of the key points I’ve always remembered from James Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me is the flawed approach most educators take with the subject; read his book to find out, I want to stay on target here. I also wanted to see the opposition which claimed it was going to show up to support SBOE, they never appeared unless you count the two RonPaulumpas who may have been there in agreement, sometimes they’re unpredictable but they’re never trustworthy with the Paul Cult of Personality stench they emit.
The turnout was okay. Austin’s excuse for a newspaper said there were over 200 people. Sounds possible, I didn’t take the time to count. There were speakers from TFN, NAACP, a War Vet (based upon his appearance and estimated age, I would guess Korean or Vietnam, there aren’t many WWII ones remaining), professional educators and a member of the state legislature. My favorite posters had pictures of Sen. Joe McCarthy with Roy Cohn saying “Still Evil” and “Not Vindicated.” The soon-to-be ousted member Don McLeroy (he was defeated in his own party’s primary this Spring) is pushing to have the infamous Wisconsin bully’s actions whitewashed which is why there’s some emphasis about the alcoholic senator. The sound system was pretty weak. I couldn’t hear much of what the speakers were saying.
This went on for about an hour. Afterwards, the crowd dispersed. I did speak to Ray McMurrey, the President of the AFT in Texas (American Federation of Teachers, part of the AFL-CIO) and he gave me some words of solace over SBOE’s idiocy. Firstly, the State Legislature can refuse funding for the purchase of the revised books (this was something a speaker said but I couldn’t hear it). This may happen because the State Senate removed McLeroy as Chairman recently and they can step in again if the embarrassment levels rise again. (Name a high-tech company willing to set up an operation in a state full of dunces…unless they import the talent which is what they do already. Poor schools will only exacerbate it.) The Texas House and Senate may be in the Republican camp (this will probably change in the next 10-20 years as the demographics shift per Ruy Teixeira), but Money trumps Jesus with them; same for the Bluedog Democrats; they act about as pious as Buck Strickland. Secondly, the teachers don’t have to follow the textbooks to the letter. I asked about reprimands. McMurrey said the it wouldn’t matter due to the obsession over getting children to pass the crappy TAKS test, the current goalpost set up by the last governor’s drive-by consultants.
Tomorrow, the SBOE will vote and they will probably carry on with their whitewash but this doesn’t mean the fight is completely over, unless the First Amendment has been suspended. McLeroy’s actions are just his intellectual vandalism because he’s gone next year (should be sooner). Another factor which can change the tide is technology. The Kindle and iPad may be in their infancy yet publishing a book through them is much cheaper despite their upfront costs. Maybe SBOE’s naked aggression will create the so-called tipping point to finally make electronic books more common in academia.
In closing, I know some will accuse me of a Liberal bias. Sure, guilty. However, I believe in complete disclosure of all historical figures and facts. (I want accuracy not warm feelings.) MLK cheated on his wife yet this doesn’t negate his contribution to the Civil Rights movement. FDR, one of my favorite presidents, once said to staff members that America is a Protestant nation, therefore Catholics and Jews are merely indefinite guests. He still proved to be the best man for the job over those who tried beat him in four elections. The list could go on forever…these inconvenient facts are best brought out, discussed and thought about instead of sweeping them under the rug which then leads to elevating certain figures to godhood, especially with the movement to rename everything after Reagan. History is about studying the past to help us understand where we are now and/or why things are a certain way, not about memorizing dates, places and people with the expectation it will turn young people into model citizens.
Update May 22, 2010: I thank the two comments even if the first one is puzzling but I let it stand in the tradition/example of The Nation‘s web site. The SBOE went through along partisan lines as predicted with their claims about balance (more like petty revenge and entertaining their paranoid fantasies), political success (their faction’s ongoing belief they create their own reality) and the biggest lie of all, how Christianity exclusively shaped the nation’s blueprint with the Founders. Never mind the writings from Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, the Magna Carta, the Mayflower Compact, Locke, Rousseau, Hobbes, other European nations, various American Indian tribes/nations and other non-Western sources.
You’re just sore because the version they approved isn’t leftist.
From my vantage point, as a writer for an educational development house (www.sebranekinc.com), I’d suggest that Texas’ influence is disproportionately huge at the moment. The big three states for textbook publishers have been California, Florida, and Texas. Of those, California is so bankrupt that its governor has suggested teachers use online materials wherever possible, instead of buying texts. Florida had a big adoption a couple of years back, and won’t be affecting textbook content again for awhile. That leaves Texas as the big market to chase, and chase it the big publishers are. If that means diminishing the role of President Jefferson to satisfy the Texas board’s distaste with his “separation of church and state,” they’ll all push Jefferson aside.
Happily, California’s budget woes and resulting push away from print toward ebooks looks to make this sort of “chase the leviathan” publishing the last gasp of a 20th-century model, inevitably to be replaced by the sort of ongoing, factual dialog you describe, my friend.
To put it more simply, the Industrial-Age model of cramming “facts” into a student’s head are near their end. The Information Age requires that we teach students how to search and evaluate for themselves, instead. That is the one essential skill of the future, and it’s a liberating one!