OT: What am my kids learning?

A final meeting of the Texas Textbook selection folks is scheduled for Wednesday on books to be used for social studies. So far, 206 people have signed up to speak (for three minutes each).

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What's fascinating is the tabulation of comments received. Very many of these comments came from out of state. The issues gaining the most out-of-state comments were:

  • "... concern that the social studies standards proposed...are not based on recommendations of respected academics in the field" (3297 comments).

  • "... proposed social studies standards are not in the best interests of the students" (3426 comments).

Of a total of 14,039 comments registered so far, these two concerns, from concerned citizens in Guam and Massachusetts, comprise almost half. Overall, MOST of the comments came from out-of-state busybodies, poke-noses, nit-pickers, and athletes of the tongue.

Tabulation of exceptions:

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------- The Texas textbook selection process is important to everyone because Texas is, by far, the largest single purchaser of textbooks in the nation (the state provides textbooks to all school districts in the state). That means the state has tremendous influence on textbooks used in your school.

You can imagine the Little Rabbit Independent School District of western Indiana shopping for 200 11th-grade social studies books. No publisher is going to print 200 books, but Little Rabbit can pull a couple of hundred out of the stack of 600,000 that have been printed for Texas and they won't be missed.

Fortunately, though, the kids at Little Rabbit will learn about the contributions of Sam Houston, Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, and John Bell Hood (Division Commander, Army of Northern Virginia).

Reply to
HeyBub
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Why do you think Prop 8 passed in the 2008 California election ?

Had nothing to do with the millions pumped into the "Yes on 8 committee" coffers on the part of the tax exempt Mormon Church in Utah, could it have ?

There is no such thing as a "local issue" anymore... Thanks to the internet and the ability to send money and mail from one state to another many people from far and wide seek to have a say in what parts of the government are doing in places far away from where they live and pay taxes...

I seriously have no interest in which Textbooks Texas decides to use for any subject... It just makes that one version of text in each subject area cheaper for every other district to buy because Texas orders 1,000,000 copies when it chooses which books it wants to buy every few years...

If the other states could ever decide on a universal standard they could order books in those quantities also but that will never happen because of the local idiotic/zealots/politicians who run for the school boards and committees and spend seemingly crazy amounts of money to win a seat on the elected school authority... Could it be they have an agenda or are using it as a step to springboard into some higher office ? LOL... Problem is too much local control over things like which book to use and what parts of it are more important to teach... If the school boards and committees where to butt out and let the schools under their purview use the same texts the state standardized exams where created from, they might see improvements in test scores...

But that will never happen... The smaller the pond, the bigger the fish claiming to be the biggest in it feels it is... Local officials want to appear to have more power than they really do and they unfortunately can not be removed by the state educational authority like the licensed school professional educators and administrators can be when scores are not where they are supposed to be...

If only school boards and committees could use their power properly in the actual best interests of the students rather than squabbling over which textbooks are better...

~~ Evan

Reply to
Evan

Those folks want to revise history. They want some sort of "social progressive" agenda, one sided version of what is history. I'm glad some in Texas want the truth of our past.

Politics has infiltrated. Instead of presenting both versions, some only want one side to be told.

Indoctrination of socialism....

Reply to
Oren

The most enjoyable part of this has been the Great Angst of those who dismissed the concerns of those in 80-90s who noted that California was the Big Textbook Kahuna and rewriting history to THEIR specs.

Reply to
Kurt Ullman

Texas. Producing textbooks. SHUDDER!

Reply to
tmclone

You miss the point! I'M SORRY you cannot capture the concept.

History told me that the 6th Florida Infantry, fought beside the Texas units at Gettysburg.

Documented in the National archives.

Are you "h" or "tmclone" ?

Reply to
Oren

"HeyBub" wrote in news:uKudnbIf8t3dTm_WnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com:

The problem isn't those last mentioned people. The problem is separating beliefs, theories and facts.

Believe me, Darwin rules!

Reply to
Han

There are disciplines where "truth" is empirical, reproducible, and demonstrable (math, the hard sciences, engineering).

Then there are disciplines where "truth" is a matter of majority vote (history, the soft sciences, liberal arts, cello).

In the instant case, Texas will be defining the "truth" in some textbooks. For example, what's known as the "Civil War" in northern climes now will be referred to in New England school textbooks as "The Recent Unplesantness" or "The Second War of Independence" (compromises over the other suggestion: "The War of Northern Aggression").

No big deal.

Reply to
HeyBub

"HeyBub" wrote in news:EKKdnV4GvMPjsGjWnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com:

De amerikaanse burgeroorlog.

Still the bloodiest set of battles of all times.

Reply to
Han

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