Texas School board's controversial new History Curriculum

[Foxboy]

Link: Texas Schools Rewrite US History
I put this here for discussion. As I am not a Texan, I am not able to protest this sort of thing as strongly as I might were it in my Home state but... I would skip work to confront this school board if my kids were attending one of their schools.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[Sofaspud]

There aren't enough *headdesks* and *facepalms* in the world to adequately convey how I feel about this.

The sad thing?  My son attends a Catholic school, and is getting a more rational, unbiased education than this curriculum is shaping up to be.

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

[Rev Dark]

It is far worse than that as due to some strange collusion of forces, or at least publishing, the curriculum, or rather the textbooks produced in Texas travel far and wide and are used as the default by far too many other states.

[Black Aeronaut]

*Goes to check a few other news articles, comes back shaking his head.*

You know, I am undeniably a proud Texan... but right now I want to shoot somebody. Preferably a few self-righteous 'God-fearing' folks. I'd like to put the fear of God into them. They've forgotten one very important thing: free agency. God gave it to us so we can do the most critically important thing mankind can do: figure things out for ourselves. And these people are stomping on that.

Yes, I is one very pissed off Texan.

[Ebony]

There is a reason that Texas consistently does poorly on a national level when it comes to education. It's because we elect idiots who hire idiots to teach our children. About half of my immediate family are in public education. None of us are happy about this.
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

[Foxboy]

This is why teachers who MUST use crap books like that should teach Critical Thinking skills.

As in: "Go to the public library and find other books on this period of history. I'll let you open book-this *indicates current approved propaganda masquerading as history* abortion's test, but you'll learn REAL history, too."
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[Black Aeronaut]

This is why teachers who MUST use crap books like that should teach Critical Thinking skills.

As in: "Go to the public library and find other books on this period of history. I'll let you open book-this *indicates current approved propaganda masquerading as history* abortion's test, but you'll learn REAL history, too."

You need to bait that hook for it to work.  Maybe writing a small paper on information gathered from the public library so that they can open-book their test.  Best of all, the paper doesn't count as a grade - it's just a 'credit' that they can use for 'easy-outs'.  This sweetens the deal and opens the way for class discussion about their findings.