After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday approved a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers' commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light.
Greg Laden's Blog
Evolution, Life Sciences, Science Education, Human Evolution, and Stuff
Learn more about Charles Darwin and his work.
Looking for stuff about birds?
Lean more about lions
An archaeological expedition to the Congo
The Skeptical Search Engine
The contents of Greg Laden's Blog are copyrighted by Greg Laden.
Recent Comments
- J.Doug Swallow on HeartlandGate: Anti-Science Institute's Insider Reveals Secrets
- Lotharsson on HeartlandGate: Anti-Science Institute's Insider Reveals Secrets
- Jonathan Eisen on HeartlandGate: Anti-Science Institute's Insider Reveals Secrets
- daedalus2u on HeartlandGate: Anti-Science Institute's Insider Reveals Secrets
- daedalus2u on HeartlandGate: Anti-Science Institute's Insider Reveals Secrets
- Greg Laden on Charles Darwin, Geologist
- Andrew C. Holmes on Charles Darwin, Geologist
- Calli Arcale on Environmentally Friendly Hard Drive Case
- Calli Arcale on The grey squirrel from a birder's point of view
- Don Parnell on The grey squirrel from a birder's point of view
Search
Profile
Click on "About" for the big picture, and "Archives" for the details.
Recent Posts
- 2011 LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice Award Winners
- HeartlandGate: Anti-Science Institute's Insider Reveals Secrets
- Charles Darwin, Geologist
- Looking for stuff about birds?
- Environmentally Friendly Hard Drive Case
- Charles Darwin February 12, 1809 - April 19, 1882
- Whitney Houston has died
- Lions!
- Changing the rep of Fungi one mushroom-based robot thingie-builder at a time
- More Mississippi Meanderings
Blogroll
If you don't see yourself on my blogroll, just drop me a line and let me know. I'll add you.*- 10,000 Birds
- Alpha Meme
- a Nadder!
- Angry by Choice
- Armchair Dissident
- (((Billy))) The Atheist
- blogfish
- blogSci
- Blond Nonbeliever
- Blue Lion Blog
- Bug Girl's Blog
- Camels with Hammers
- Catalogue of Oganisms
- Cassandra's Tears
- Class M Planet
- Climate Bites
- Cocktail Party Physics
- Counter Minds
- Cranky Linguist, The
- Crowded Head, Cozy Bed
- Dead Racist Society
- Deep Sea News
- Dispersal of Darwin
- Divine Afflatus
- Dread Tomato Addiction
- Evil is Underrated
- Evolved and Rational
- Evolving in Kansas
- Evolving Thoughts
- Fellman Studio Blog
- Flying Trilobite
- Further Thoughts
- Hoxful Monsters
- ICBS Everywhere
- Illusory Tenant
- It's Alive!!
- Jafcisa
- Letters from a Broad
- Life Before Death
- Looking For Detachment
- Matharu's Rants and Raves
- Mors dei
- Natural Reckonings
- Nature Blog Network
- Providentia
- Qeyḥ bāḥrī
- Quiche Moraine
- Religion, Sets, and Politics
- Sandwalk
- Sarah Zielinski
- Science Notes
- The Seething Primate
- Skepchick
- Spanish Inquisitor
- Splendid Elles
- Survival Machine
- Synapostasy
- TalkOrigins
- Tangled Up in Blue Guy
- Tetrapod Zoology
- The Flying Trilobite
- The Inoculated Mind
- The Intersection
- The Loom (new)
- The Scientific Activist
- The Unexamined Life..
- The Zone
- Thinking for Free
- Think Progress
- Three Toed Sloth
- Toomanytribbles
- Traumatized by Truth
- Truth Is a Woman
- udreamofjanie
- Uncommon Liberty
- View from the Pond
- Vickie Henderson Art
- When Pigs Fly Returns
- Writer's Daily Grind
Archives
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
« How Thalidomide causes birth defects | Main | Westboro Church Pwned »
Texas Approves Right Wing Curriculum Revisions
Category: Education
Posted on: March 12, 2010 9:05 PM, by Greg Laden
Find more posts in: 
Education
EducationTrackBacks
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://scienceblogs.com/mt/pings/133561
Comments
These same publishers sell college level textbooks. There are probably more textbooks sold by these publishers at a college level than at a grade and high school level. As college professors, scientists, researchers and college students, we should have a greater influence on the publishers than 11 idiots in Texas. We really need a list of all the textbook publishers who give in and rewrite history and promote anti-scientific ideas and boycott them.
Posted by: Mxh | March 12, 2010 10:50 PM
Holy shit. Revisionist history now? We *really* have to move towards electronic book made up by experts in their fields and forget about the publishers. Remember, the publishers have one thing and one thing only in mind: MONEY. Texas has a lot of it set aside for books and the cuckoos figured out over 30 years ago that they can use that to their advantage by pushing shit in Texas schools and other states will more or less be forced to use the same shitty books. Here's another clue: the other states should declare a moratorium on buying new books - the only problem with that is how do you replace the numerous damaged books ... Anyway, a broad moratorium by most other states would send the publishers an economic signal saying "we don't want your shit".
Posted by: MadScientist | March 13, 2010 2:05 AM
I kinda sympathize with Dr. Leroy motivation, though - it's a matter of adding balance. Since reality has a well-known liberal bias, we should balance that with a conservative bias in the history books - think of it as a kind of consolation prize. (Seriously, though, I'd wish they'd one day realize the reason for the lack of "great conservatives" in history books: with a century or more of hindsight, "managed to delay inevitable progress by twenty years" usually doesn't appear as that much of an achievement anymore.)
At the end of the day, I think the publishers should try to submit unchanged text books and just claim they made the required changes. I highly doubt any of the Republican members of the Texas BOE can actually read, so they'll likely never notice.
Posted by: Phillip IV | March 13, 2010 5:09 AM
That drastic and damaging changes like this are labeled with the sensible-sounding word, conservative, continues to baffle me. Wouldn't it be more conservative to not want to change the existing textbooks? Wouldn't it be more conservative to keep social studies textbooks focused more on facts and less on ideology and a mythologizing patriotism? But the US political meaning of conservative is different from the standard, non-political adjective meaning, I guess.
Posted by: deang | March 13, 2010 11:34 AM