I attended high school in Texas for two years, 15 years ago. So I can attest to the fact that Texas has about the worst public school system in the country.
It's about to get worse.
The Texas Board of Education is suggesting the following changes to state curricula:
revamping the K-12 curriculum to emphasize the roles of the Bible, the Christian faith and the civic virtue of religion in the study of American history. Two of them want to remove or de-emphasize references to several historical figures who have become liberal icons, such as César Chávez and Thurgood Marshall.
Mind you, this is in Texas public schools. If they want to teach this crap in private schools, fine. If you send your kid to Baptist Elementary, you expect them to learn about the Bible and Jesus. In fact, you pay for that privilege. Now, the Texas BOE wants to emphasize the roles of the Bible and Christianity in schools attended and paid for by atheists, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, etc. In other words, the Texas BOE seeks to turn every school in Texas into a Christian school.
Seriously, wtf?
A few other choice teachings for Texas' public schools:
The conservative reviewers say they believe that children must learn that America's founding principles are biblical. For instance, they say the separation of powers set forth in the Constitution stems from a scriptural understanding of man's fall and inherent sinfulness, or "radical depravity," which means he can be governed only by an intricate system of checks and balances.
The curriculum, they say, should clearly present Christianity as an overall force for good -- and a key reason for American exceptionalism, the notion that the country stands above and apart.
Why this should scare you:
Nearly every state has its own curriculum standards, and there are scores of social studies texts to choose from at most grade levels, so what happens in Texas won't necessarily affect other states. But the Texas market is huge, so most big publishers aggressively seek approval from the board, in some cases adopting the majority's editing suggestions nearly verbatim.
In other words, textbook publishers aren't going to make different textbooks for each state. They're going to please their largest customers (Texas) and the rest of us will suffer for it. I hope everyone enjoys explaining "radical depravity" to their children.
That's sick. And what with the people in the Texas administration, it's probable enough that it'll get approved. Do you think anyone will challenge it in court?
ReplyDeleteI support teaching about the religious history of this nation in public school. We can learn about how protestants beat and set fire to Quakers, we can learn about how many public schools read passages from the bible before class that called the pope the anti-Christ. We can learn about how the bible was used to support slavery and segregation, and how today the bible is used to support environmental destruction. We can learn about the bloody religious riots that have broken out throughout the nations history, and we can learn about how god was not added to the currency and pledge until the 1950s specifically to try and scare people (ie discriminate) against communists, who were seen to be atheists (some communists are atheists, but not all communists are atheist). And that is just the start of what we could learn!
ReplyDeletei would have no problem with christian things being taught in public school if the school spent an equal amount of time and money teaching the other major religions of the world.
ReplyDeletebut since that isn't what this is about... this came up on Pandagon recently, too - if this passes, freaking New England will be teaching this shit - and 7-2 odds, it will also include homophobic shit, and anti-liberal shit...
why the hell can't these people read the *First Amendment*? you know, the one that says that the government itself is non-religious, and that government *can NOT* be used to endorse a religion?! i hate people.