Texas Board of Education at it again Banning textbooks

[terrazoids]

Originally Posted by GraceKrispy

Teaching moral and spiritual values? Parents' job.

Teaching diverse beliefs and alternate world views? School's job.

Knowledge is power.

Unfortunately, it is all too common these days to have people pointing the finger at schools for not doing the job of the parents. Pretty soon we'll be taking care of them from sunrise to sundown, teaching them morals and. character, bathing them, feeding all three meals, teach them right from wrong... Oh wait, we already do. And schools are also expected to teach students everything they possibly need to pass state tests and prepare them for rigorous higher education and life in general. Kind of hard when they are also expected to play parent and perform all the roles attached to that.

No thanks. I want my kids parented at home and taught at school. Don't rewrite/edit history to fit a confined set of beliefs.

Yeah but what happens when some kids don't have parents, or parents that are negligent? We need a failsafe to catch the lost ones. Were everybody grounded on solid scriptural values, we can pave the way for a better society, and a better world. Thats what Jesus was talking about when he stated that the Kingdom of God can be here.... right now on Earth.

[TGS]

Originally Posted by terrazoids

Oh so now I'm a troll... just cause you don't agree with what your hearing. I mean do you live in a really sheltered world or what? Can't you even consider ideas you don't like?

What do you want terrazoids? You gave full rein to your particular take on Christianity on another thread that got closed. I personally find your views both offensive and outrageous. I'm not saying you shouldn't hold them or have the right to express them, but do you have to keep banging on in the same way in response to any thread the topic of which can be manipulated so as to fit with your dumbass proselytizing? If you were really interested in saving souls you would reflect on your approach because currently I suspect it alienates far more people that it engages.

[mrscoach]

I'm posting without reading all the comments, but I live in Texas and feel I know a bit more about this. The proposal put forth is for the textbooks to give equal footing to Christian references, since they found Islam references far outweighed them. The person who put forth the proposal feels that limiting how often Christianity is mentioned is no more fair than limiting how much any other religion is mentioned. Why should Christianity be banished from the history books? It was a part of much history, both for good and bad.

[HarryT]

Surely a history book should give as much or as little mention to a religion as the topic under discussion merits, rather than having some sort of "quota" system, don't you think? Or is there a suggestion that these books are specifically suppressing material that should be there?

[mrscoach]

Rives is saying they are deliberately omiting references to Christianity. Here is a link to a local story from July. http://www.oaoa.com/news/bias-50499-...esolution.html

Personally I have always thought Rives was an idiot, but that has nothing to do with this proposal. He was on board while we were in the school district. 'nuff said.

[dsvick]

Originally Posted by terrazoids

Oh so now I'm a troll... just cause you don't agree with what your hearing. I mean do you live in a really sheltered world or what? Can't you even consider ideas you don't like?

Ok, maybe you aren't a troll, but the way you put forth your posts comes across as generally combative and closed-minded. I am more than willing to sit and have an open dialog with anyone on almost any subject, however as soon as that person stops having a dialog and begins being, what seems to be deliberately, antagonistic I'll just excuse myself from the conversation and leave it to others to carry on.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Surely a history book should give as much or as little mention to a religion as the topic under discussion merits, rather than having some sort of "quota" system, don't you think? Or is there a suggestion that these books are specifically suppressing material that should be there?

I'm got to agree with this. We should not be counting and "equalizing" but reporting history as best it is know, presenting social issues as they are to the best objective standards possible.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by mrscoach

Rives is saying they are deliberately omiting references to Christianity. Here is a link to a local story from July. http://www.oaoa.com/news/bias-50499-...esolution.html

Personally I have always thought Rives was an idiot, but that has nothing to do with this proposal. He was on board while we were in the school district. 'nuff said.

Thanks for that.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by mrscoach

Rives is saying they are deliberately omiting references to Christianity. Here is a link to a local story from July. http://www.oaoa.com/news/bias-50499-...esolution.html

Personally I have always thought Rives was an idiot, but that has nothing to do with this proposal. He was on board while we were in the school district. 'nuff said.

Yes thanks for that and thanks for the local perspective. I know we've got a number of Texas members on the forum. (and a few ex-Texans )

[GlennD]

Originally Posted by mrscoach

Rives is saying they are deliberately omiting references to Christianity. Here is a link to a local story from July. http://www.oaoa.com/news/bias-50499-...esolution.html

Personally I have always thought Rives was an idiot, but that has nothing to do with this proposal. He was on board while we were in the school district. 'nuff said.

Thank you, this clarifies the issue a lot. There's another document linked in the article with very specific citations to instances of bias in the textbook. Taking that doc at face value, Rives does appear to have some basis for his complaint.

[Elfwreck]

Terrazoids is suspended? Gah. I had a reply to his PM all worked out, clicked send, and it can't go through now. (I may post it later in my blog.)

I'm hoping that California gets moving with its "open source textbook" plan, so it can stop warring with Texas over whose ideology gets to control the majority of the country's textbooks.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Terrazoids is suspended? Gah. I had a reply to his PM all worked out, clicked send, and it can't go through now. (I may post it later in my blog.)

I'm hoping that California gets moving with its "open source textbook" plan, so it can stop warring with Texas over whose ideology gets to control the majority of the country's textbooks.

Certainly California and Texas are the "heavy hitters" in the school textbook arena. I wasn't aware of the "Open Source Textbook" plan. Do you have links?

Thanks!

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

I'm hoping that California gets moving with its "open source textbook" plan, so it can stop warring with Texas over whose ideology gets to control the majority of the country's textbooks.

Except for the ideology of the open source proponents. Which tends to be distinctly liberal/libertarian. Not judging that, just sayin'. Real objectivity ain't easy.

On a tangential note, A couple of years back a new self-published "textbook" series came out called The Quest For Right. Enjoy.

http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/sh...d.php?t=111739

http://www.questforright.com/

Edit: I searched through some of my e-mail looking for a specific review of TQfR and this is the link I was looking for. Turns out it was one I ran across earlier, but the background image threw me.

http://www.noanswersingenesis.org.au...ght_review.htm

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

Except for the ideology of the open source proponents. Which tends to be distinctly liberal/libertarian. Not judging that, just sayin'. Real objectivity ain't easy.

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.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Certainly California and Texas are the "heavy hitters" in the school textbook arena. I wasn't aware of the "Open Source Textbook" plan. Do you have links?

Thanks!

A few links:
CA Open Source Textbook Project (began in 2002; not actually successful in producing textbooks yet); Wikipedia listing, describing the project w/o the marketing hype.

Problems with COSTP "Schwarzenegger has tasked California Secretary of Education Glen Thomas with making sure that the new textbooks are ready for deployment in fall 2009." (AFIAK, they weren't. Or at least, not on any scale I noticed.)

California free digital textbooks PDFs, of course. But the flexbooks approach lets you assemble customized books; teachers can update a chapter on their own and still use the rest of the main book, or they could assemble a book with pieces from several other books. (I think. Haven't fully explored the site yet.)