MobileRead Forums - View Single Post

rhadin · 02-15-2010, 10:19 AM

The article is not the first to explore the problems of Texas and textbooks. An excellent study of the problem is Diane Ravitch's The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn (2004). It is available as an ebook.

It wouldn't be so bad if Texas simply wanted to make its own students laughingstocks, but schools in 46 other states are affected by what Texas decides is to be included and excluded. Fortunately, Texas has not yet figured out how to ban from within its borders books that tell historical and scientific truths, but I suspect that they are working on that as well.

Ultimately, the real test will come when its graduating students find that they are accepted only at fundamentalist and Texas universities because they do not meet the educational requirements to pass entrance exams elsewhere.

Texas does stand on its own in many ways these days. Consider the recent criminal prosecution of a nurse for reporting possible medical misconduct to the medical licensing board -- better to let a Texas doctor to malpractice than to permit someone to complain. Or the 3-way Republican primary for governor -- each candidate moving further and further off the right side of the radar screen. One candidate was quoted as saying that she was upset that she wasn't allowed to carry her concealed handgun inside a grocery store. Did she think the cans of pork and beans were going to attack her?

I'm waiting for one of the 3 to come out and say that the Alabama professor who shot her colleagues this weekend is an American hero because (a) she showed the value of unrestricted access to guns, (b) she killed people who were possibly un-American, and (c) the University of Alabama is a hotbed of anti-American activity. Then the candidates can proclaim that because the murders were committed while she was exercising her 2nd amendment rights, she committed no crime -- it could only be a crime if the murders had been committed using some instrument other than a gun.

I have no doubt her name will be forwarded in the Texas schoolbook debate for a place of honor in the history pages.

02-15-2010, 10:19 AM	#3
rhadin Literacy = Understanding Posts: 4,833 Karma: 59674358 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: The World of Books Device: Nook, Nook Tablet	The article is not the first to explore the problems of Texas and textbooks. An excellent study of the problem is Diane Ravitch's The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn (2004). It is available as an ebook. It wouldn't be so bad if Texas simply wanted to make its own students laughingstocks, but schools in 46 other states are affected by what Texas decides is to be included and excluded. Fortunately, Texas has not yet figured out how to ban from within its borders books that tell historical and scientific truths, but I suspect that they are working on that as well. Ultimately, the real test will come when its graduating students find that they are accepted only at fundamentalist and Texas universities because they do not meet the educational requirements to pass entrance exams elsewhere. Texas does stand on its own in many ways these days. Consider the recent criminal prosecution of a nurse for reporting possible medical misconduct to the medical licensing board -- better to let a Texas doctor to malpractice than to permit someone to complain. Or the 3-way Republican primary for governor -- each candidate moving further and further off the right side of the radar screen. One candidate was quoted as saying that she was upset that she wasn't allowed to carry her concealed handgun inside a grocery store. Did she think the cans of pork and beans were going to attack her? I'm waiting for one of the 3 to come out and say that the Alabama professor who shot her colleagues this weekend is an American hero because (a) she showed the value of unrestricted access to guns, (b) she killed people who were possibly un-American, and (c) the University of Alabama is a hotbed of anti-American activity. Then the candidates can proclaim that because the murders were committed while she was exercising her 2nd amendment rights, she committed no crime -- it could only be a crime if the murders had been committed using some instrument other than a gun. I have no doubt her name will be forwarded in the Texas schoolbook debate for a place of honor in the history pages.