Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Surely, though, there are very few subjects in which the political inclination of the authors matters? If I were to buy a maths textbook, it would not cross my mind for a moment to consider whether its author was left or right wing. It's only really a very few subject - history and economics spring to mind - where it could be a factor in introducing bias into the material taught.
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History is the big one, with CA's "must show diversity" clashing heavily with TX's "must be pro-American" rules. (The problem isn't so much that TX has rules about what can be in its textbooks; it's that publishers want to make one textbook for all 50 states, and that means matching everyone's rules, with TX & CA being the heavy hitters that can force changes by threatening not to buy books.)
Anything that touches on history also gets affected... Economics, Civics, Sociology (if there are high schools that teach Sociology after the last couple decades of budget cuts); sometimes even foreign language textbooks.
The Christian dogmatists have managed to get a wedge into all the sciences, by insisting that evolution be labeled a "theory," meaning, in their mind "nobody should believe this until there's any proof." Biology, geology, astronomy, and chemistry textbooks all get affected by the insistence that "the earth is only 6000 years old" be given equal consideration with the science the rest of us deal with.
English Grammar classes aren't affected (except in their choices of examples & artwork), but Literature classes are, because the selection of literature is not supposed to clash with state rules about what values need to be presented in textbooks. CA's rules might require a notable percentage of minority authors; TX's might require that none of the stories be anti-government.
CA & TX don't have directly contradictory rules (erm, except for the creationist bits), but trying to match both means that publishers work to come up with the most bland and non-controversial textbooks they can manage, rather than books that will inspire thought and conversation.