I must admit to having been in Texas only a few times in my life, mostly for business. I have had several room-mates from Texas, including a bona fide beauty queen from the Rio Grande Valley, and no, it was a woman and not a beauty "queen". I've had, and still have, quite a few friends in and from the Lone Star State. But the entire place just seems to scare the bejesus out of me.
A case in point, The New York Times, in their Sunday Magazine section this week has a long and very in-depth article on the way that school books are chosen in Texas. Last year the Texas Board of Education rewrote science. This year they seem to be doing the same to history in order to show that America is and always has been a Christian nation with a God-given purpose.
Below is just an excerpt from the article, the last sentence is the scariest in the quote, but the article will have you wanting us to pay Mexico to take Texas back:
The Christian “truth” about America’s founding has long been taught in Christian schools, but not beyond. Recently, however — perhaps out of ire at what they see as an aggressive, secular, liberal agenda in Washington and perhaps also because they sense an opening in the battle, a sudden weakness in the lines of the secularists — some activists decided that the time was right to try to reshape the history that children in public schools study. Succeeding at this would help them toward their ultimate goal of reshaping American society. As Cynthia Dunbar, a Christian activist on the Texas board, put it, “The philosophy of the classroom in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next.”
And this little gem:
The board considered an amendment to require students to evaluate the contributions of significant Americans. The names proposed included Thurgood Marshall, Billy Graham, Newt Gingrich, William F. Buckley Jr., Hillary Rodham Clinton and Edward Kennedy. All passed muster except Kennedy, who was voted down.
For the full article go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/magazine/14texbooks-t.html
Be prepared to be very, very afraid for the education of this next generation.
Angels by Duccio
1 year ago
1 comment:
I think Texas is changing, and changing rapidly. The right-wing in the state knows this, and that is why they are trying so hard to control things like education and the judiciary. They don't have the votes anymore and they know it.
Texas is a mean and ornry place with a violent history, but it is heavily invested in the rest of the country. Yes, there is a secessionist movement that wants to secede and make Texas into a whites-only Orange Free State, but they are a small group of bitter old crazies who never had the votes to bring off secession, and whose influence in waning. I think it is more likely that more homogenous and isolated states like Oklahoma and Arkansas would secede than Texas.
Let's remember that Obama did very well in Texas in the last presidential election, even though he didn't win the state. He did better than Kerry did in '04. He won every major city in the state except Fort Worth.
And Houston, that formidable redoubt of corporate corruption and government subsidized oil companies, now has an openly lesbian mayor.
The battle over right wing ideological education in the state is a battle against the tide.
I doubt Texas will ever be Portland, Oregon, but it is definitely not what it used to be.
Post a Comment