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NAACP president: Texas curriculum will turn world ‘upside down’ for kids

By Sahil Kapur
Wednesday, May 19, 2010 10:36 EST
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Previewing the tone of his testimony in Austin on Wednesday ahead of a crucial vote, NAACP president Ben Jealous forcefully condemned the influential Texas State Board of Education’s slew of pending revisions to history and social studies curriculum.

The modified curriculum – approved in March on a party line vote and facing a final motion this Friday – diminishes Thomas Jefferson’s significance and commitment to secularism, tempers criticism of McCarthyism, downplays Darwin’s theory of evolution, and emphasizes the “conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s.”

“It’s outrageous,” Jealous said Tuesday on a conference call with reporters. “It’s going to lock kids into the dark ages, where the whole world’s been turned upside down – where Thomas Jefferson is not a founding father, there’s no good reason to talk about [the first black Justice] Thurgood Marshall, and Joe McCarthy is a hero.”

The alterations by the Board stand to have major national implications. Texas, as one of the largest purchasers of textbooks, wields momentous influence in what children across the country will learn because textbook companies generally sell the same books across the country.

Jealous will testify against the revisions alongside former education secretary Rod Paige today. The NAACP chief accused the 15-member Texas education board of “changing the record on slavery, celebrating the Confederacy and shedding a positive light on Jim Crow laws.”

With Republicans outnumbering Democrats by two-to-one, and seven of its 15 members comprising a Christian conservative bloc, the NAACP and other opponents of the new curriculum face an uphill battle in preventing its ratification Friday.

“We really need each person who cares to pick up the phone and to call the State Board of Education,” Jealous said. “It’s a critical vote that’s going to impact school books for ten years.”

“If the proposed textbook changes take place, children will not learn about civil rights icons like Malcolm X and George Jackson. [And] Sam McCollough, who gave his life for Texas independence,” he added. “In addition, they will not learn that Texas seceded from the Union to fight for the Confederacy in the Civil War.”

Board member Don McElroy, who leads the seven-member social conservative bloc, called the effort an attempt at “adding balance” in the classroom. “Academia is skewed too far to the left,” he said, according to Yahoo News.

Sahil Kapur
Sahil Kapur
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  • dennycrane

    Hurry up tar balls and wash up into texas. It's about time these racists meet a “black” object that actually will cause them harm.

  • Gorgeous George Orwell

    God is a Conservative, you know – his Son is one o' them g*dd*mned Liberals…

  • dennycrane
  • starvapor

    What else could you expect from a state that both wants and needs to secede from the U.S.

  • Scott550

    Along with Arizona, American's should allow Mexico to annex Texas. We'd be finished with these idiots once and for all.

    Ignorant idiots. God damns them.

  • http://nobrain.dk Gorgo

    Perhaps this will make other states' school official break the stranglehold on textbooks by flipping anyone publisher who meets these “standards” the bird

  • Gorgeous George Orwell

    I have long believed that a 20 ft border fence should be constructed entirely around the State of Texas – then those on EITHER side could feel they were keeping out Undesirables…

  • Bullsmith

    Parents need to make sure their kids aren't being fed this propaganda in place of history. It's clearly time to end Texas' influence on textbooks in other States.

  • Budzilla

    I don't think Mexico wants them. Maybe a fence should be built around both Arizona and Texas so none of them escape. Then they can do whatever they want to do. I be that'd be wild…..

  • dennycrane

    Add florida, arizona etc.

  • tjfxh

    These folks want to refight the Civil War. They are going to an ass-whupping again.

  • http://gothlaw.blogspot.com Sarcasmlost

    I wonder if Mexico regrets inviting Anglo settlers to move into Texas in the 1820s? I sure as hell know that the rest of America regrets the 1846 expansionist war that kept them in the Union

  • strangely_enough

    I think California is in the process…

  • Dr. Matt

    Be sure to build a tunnel into Austin to allow those pro-Americans to come-and-go as needed.

  • Dr. Matt

    I would put Oklahoma and Kansas next on that list.

  • Dr. Matt

    God was conservative, Jesus was Liberal….what was the Holy Ghost?

  • handbagsonlinesale

    In sending foreign day-to-day management of commercial, business mbt shoes clearance footwear team should according to the actual situation and target marketing, design for “a daily management system followed remote”

  • http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_meyer_math_curriculum_makeover.htmlhttp://www.ted.com/talks/dan_meyer_math_curriculum_makeover.html clone_wars

    Textbooks have sucked for a long time, and this latest twist is making things worse. Schools have to stop being test-prep courses and start teaching real-world mental skills and habits.

    Patient problem-solving is one example: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_meyer_math_curricu…

  • KWillow

    Let Texas sit in a corner hitting themselves witha hammer. Other states don't HAVE to order Texas books.

  • Gorgeous George Orwell

    Umm, Socialist?…

  • Gorgeous George Orwell

    An airlift may be in order…

  • Anonymous

    a Zionist?…

  • Anonymous

    a Zionist?…

  • jmpotratz

    No decent teacher sticks to the textbook anyway. Who really cares if Texas requires to be put in them when there are thousands of other sources available to anyone who cares to look, on any subject from American Democracy, to DNA, and evolution?

  • enorceht

    the holy ghost is scary

  • damixaustex

    Well, if intellect is on the left and ignorance on the right, then yeah, Mr McElroy is correct, academia is skewed to the left. So they decide to balance with ignorance?

    Within five years, kids will be carrying iPad type devices for textbooks. Posters who think their state is immune to this type of effort shouldn't be so quick to dismiss it as redneck. Each state will be able to create it's own text and fight about it every single year. This fight is headed to your town.
    The reason it happens in Texas? Because it's an effective battleground, influencing the whole country. The battle will be moving to your own state soon.

  • BrainRagYell

    Then national standards need to be implemented because this is ridiculous.

  • damixaustex

    “Schools have to stop being test-prep courses and start teaching real-world mental skills and habits.”

    Here, here. Right on.

    No Child Left Behind leaves them all behind, unless they're wealthy and can afford private school.

    Here in Texas, sane people are hoping Bill White takes the governorship. Check out his views on education.Accountability in education, imagine that.

  • davewtf

    Damn straight. After serving at Ft Hood, I moved to Austin to attend UT. Austin is a fantastic city, one of my favorites.

  • damixaustex

    As long as the standard you suggest is openness, allowing students to take in whatever they like on their reader devices, I'm for it. But what of national testing standards? They aren't working very well now…..

  • daddygreenjeans

    I have lived in Texas before and I cannot tell you how truly sad the way these people think. They really do live in their own world where George Bush is their savior and Obama is the one responsible for the world going to shit. I can only hope someone can talk some sense into these people.

  • GorgeousGeorgeX

    We don't want you here in Austin. Stay out.

  • My3Cats

    Texass Taliban

  • guest

    It all plays into the dumbing of america, which by the way has been going on for years… The technological society we a majoirty of the people live in is a good example…

    Hey babe while you're out could you stop by Sears on your way back? Sure honney, do you know the address so I can type it into my GPS?

    or

    Have you ever messed with a cashier by giving one a $10.00 bill and the correct change ($.35) for say a $9.35 tab? It really messes some of them up if the register doesn't tell them how much to give you back…

    Wake up people and smell the coffee…

  • http://historyindeed.com HIStory Indeed

    And you wonder why I post under the guise HIStory Indeed… That's all it is folks. What someone though was important they kept, what someone of lesser power thought was important they left out.

    From the Bible to Encyclopedia Britannica, everywhere two or more letters are placed together to convey a thought, that thought has been censored.

    Instead of paying tuition to learn crap, we should use our intuition and know truth.

  • yvonneo

    From another article (posted here at Raw), this is what they want to do:

    “Among the recommendations facing a final vote: adding language saying the country's Founding Fathers were guided by Christian principles and including positive references to the Moral Majority, the National Rifle Association and the GOP’s Contract with America.

    Other amendments to the state's curriculum standards for kindergarten through 12th grade would minimize Thomas Jefferson's role in world and U.S. history because he advocated the separation of church and state; require that students learn about “the unintended consequences” of affirmative action; assert that “the right to keep and bear arms” is an important element of a democratic society; and rename the slave trade to the “Atlantic triangular trade.”

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37220562/ns/us_news…

    Talk about rewriting history to suit one's own religious and political agenda–these texans really take the cake! And these mofos consider these changes to be “promoting patriotism?!?” Oh,yeah, right–let's just rewrite the constitution to conform to our own political and religious dictates and then call it promoting patriotism–these people are not patriots in any sense of the word IMO. Think about it–they're actually considering minimizing Thomas Jefferson's importance to the founding of our country because he advocated the separation of church and state–which is one of the cornerstones of our constitution!!

    And these ignorant assholes are on a school board??? With people like this deciding what will and will not be taught in schools, no wonder so many people in this country are so fucking ignorant.

  • bickle2

    The lawsuits are obviously ready to be filed, but more imporantly anyone who votes yes should be arrested on the spot for subversion and lying to the American people. At the very least they should be tested to see if they have the ability to process the real world, and their votes dismissed accordingly

  • Dr. Matt

    Please come and remove me.

  • markusgarvey

    a z-i-0-n-i-$-t?…

  • kwertie

    The entire Confederacy.

  • trevinla

    The world is upside down!!!!

    The Texas school books will turn it into a corkscrew to the bottom and lock them in down there

  • BuckJohnson

    This school board is not even hiding it's intentions. They are doing everything they can to carve out a white only history and F everybody else. The republicans are going to find out that there party may never get back in power if they keep praising the lowest denominator of their party as being “true americans”. These are school officials, school officials. Now how can you ever trust sending your child to their schools if they are designing the teaching. These teachers and officials who believe in this only care about THEIR KIDS and not other peoples kids. This is the fault of all the religious and political and social leaders on all sides. They have over the decades given hate and intolerance the right but the problem is that the hate and intolerance has become so entrenched that these people actually believe they can fool people by saying it's not intolerance or hate it's just freedom of the state or local govt. to decide. But if it happens to look that way well it's the problem of the people who do the violence or hatred. The US is turning into the ancient Sejm of the Republic of Poland. It got so bad that govt. was paralyzed to do anything because of the will of a few members or a block of members or all of them.

  • Tom of Maryland

    Texas, – don't mess with the world.

    (-They ve been at this dumbification of America for sometime of course have the Bush crime family involved doesnt hurt)

  • bigboo

    Yeah buddy, those yee haws over in Texas do tend to mess things up.

    Oou
    http://www.web-anonymity.cz.tc

  • EnderW

    fuck texastan.

    myself and my wife will never let a child of ours live in texas.

    not all texans are nuts… just the vast vast majority of them.

  • EnderW

    most of my side of the family is there, and all of hers…

  • EnderW

    we are talking about texastan… crazy is normal there.

  • DFW

    As long as these Taliban with crosses instead of crescents have any say in what the children of Texas are taught, our state will remain an embarrassment to the nation, not to mention those of us in Texas who consider the school board's action an utter abomination. I am normally against the death penalty, but when it comes to dumbing down the minds of a generation of Texas children for narrow political and religious views, this is a crime of unspeakable proportion. And this comes from a party that time and time again sees its most “conservative” members caught in money or sex scandals. The 60s song “Harper Valley PTA” predicted the Texas School Board over 40 years ago. Very sad.

  • EnderW

    most people think king of the hill is fiction…

    heh…

    that show is so true it hurts…

    and no offense, but people have been trying to talk sense to texastan since 1837… they learned the fist lesson of their craziness in 1845 when they totally ran their economy into the ground so far that they had to absolve and be absorbed by the united states…

    one has to wonder of santianna was right, and the whole thing was just a united states operation to take it anyway. let's see… who was involved???

    anyone else attend 7th grade in texas??? remember history?

  • oswald

    Texas school books have a long story of evil doing..

    http://www.jfk.org/go/about/history-of-the-texa…

  • loveolderman

    Who cares!!! My boyfriend thinks the same with me. He is eight years older than me, lol. We met online at Agelessmatch.com, a nice and free place for Younger Women and Older Men, or Older Women and Younger Men, to interact with each other. Maybe you wanna check out or tell your friends.

  • Wildeye

    Because not all teachers are decent.

  • Anonymous

    the “holy ghost?” Jesus’ mother of course, before women were de facto excommunicated, excised and excluded from the “holy trinity” of father/mother/child.

  • Johnny U. S. Marine

    The holy ghost became the holy spirit in 1968, so children wouldn’t be afriad of it. To bad priests didn’t stop giving children nightmares.

  • Atilla

    I wouldn’t piss on Texass if it were on fire.

  • proudliberal1947

    So were was the outrage when those in the know were discussing this.

    Look it is NOT to late have yet another EMERGENCY meeting and trash the curriculum they put out, ii it expensive yes, is it WORTH IT or are you just Talk.

    Some blog writers and Blog readers have been commenting on thois for months and NO ONE responded except the Racially inept and the Brn Dead Inorant and the Fear and hate Mongering NAZI who attacked and ctiisized anyone of Intelligence for voicing any objection to the Horse Shit they were approving.

  • w00t

    No offense, but: why are you surprised? Where have you been for the past eight years of fascist decline? Why do you expect academic integrity in a country that tortures people?

  • crackbaby

    Sure there are more liberals in education. Why? Because we're smarter than the cons.

  • Bostonian_Queer_in_Dallas

    Well well well….it's officially now the State of DUMBFUCKISTAN. With a closet faggotnwith pretty hair as Gobernador….DUMBFUCKISTAN!!!!

  • marblex

    Can't we PLEASE give Texas back to Mexico?

  • PL

    This is such total nonsense, and reminiscent of the behavior of the Soviet Union in its historical revisionism. But I doubt a few things 1) that they care 2) that they will recognize the lies they are forcing on our children and 3) that they ever studied Stalinist revisionism in their religious right approved home school curriculum.

    All other states should tell the publishers, and Texas, to take their books and shove them.

  • tex

    Yeah, that is why Texas is one of the most economically sound states at this time…yeehaw! Obviously, they must have it all wrong……8-)

  • HarmonikaSavingsbonds

    This is no big deal. Texas kids are already a stupid lot.

  • rinsac

    Texas is one of the most racist places I've ever been. We inherited land there and sold it rather than move there.

  • Mitchell

    Bush is from New Haven, Connecticut. NOT TEXAS.
    Not everyone in TX is an idiot.

  • HarmonikaSavingsbonds

    Bush may be from New Haven, but being “Texan” is a choice.

  • HarmonikaSavingsbonds

    Bush may be from New Haven, but being “Texan” is a choice.

  • jrambo

    Haven't these idiots seceded from the union yet? We are facing massive global competition. India and China are coming on strong and kicking our butts. Texas's response… Dumb down American kids. What is next? Make Christianity mandatory in public schools in place of science? Make teaching creationism a higher priority than evolution? Get rid of all logical thinking based on empirical evidence?

    I'm glad I'll NEVER live in the south. Knowing our school board in the midwest, they'll burn that kind of crap before they teach it to my kids. I guess that is why our kids can compete in the world, where as the Bible thumpers kids will be lucky to be serving cheese burgers and McDonalds.

  • Brother Joe

    Don McLeroy and his SBOE (State Board of Evangelism, not Education) are attempting to rewrite history to put the white and to the right in a better, altough undeserved, light. It's incredible that the content nation's school books are determined by five myopic Republicans with no teaching experience. Write your congressman, tell your friends. Log onto TFN.org for the scoop.

  • PinkeyT

    The sad thing is that there are not enough people who actually see some of these blogs to know that this is even going on. I ended up here quite by accident, but am glad I'm here so I can call the Dept of Ed and voice my opinion. It's a sad day when people can't stand up and face history for what it truly was instead of trying to make it “more palatable”.

    Yes, there are things our country has done that we shouldn't be too proud of, but there are also things we should be proud of. And just for the record … Separation of Church and State is simply saying that the Federal Government cannot tell you what religion you MUST be as in a State Religion. The vast majority of people in this country just don't get that.

    Also, All 11th graders should be made to read Thomas Payne's works as well as the works of the rest of the founding fathers to get a clearer idea of what the mindset of the founding fathers really was.

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    0ther states should just boycott the textbook makers, and just not buy new texts. It seems I learned from texts that were older than I was, in sch00l.

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