Texas' State Board of Education - following a long history of throwing itself into "culture war" issues - is set to vote Friday on a resolution calling on textbook publishers to limit what they print about Islam in world history books.
The resolution cites world history books no longer used in Texas schools that it says devoted more lines of text to Islamic beliefs and practices than Christian beliefs and practices.
"Diverse reviewers have repeatedly documented gross pro-Islamic, anti-Christian distortions in social studies texts," reads a draft of the resolution, which would not be binding on future boards that will choose the state's next generation of social studies texts.
The measure was first suggested to the board this summer by Odessa businessman Randy Rives, who lost his Republican primary bid for a seat on the panel earlier this year. The conservative-leaning and heavily evangelical Christian board pushed the item to a vote.
Board member Pat Hardy, R-Fort Worth, suggested the issue may be moot because none of the books cited by Rives still are being used in Texas, having been replaced in 2003, and said Rives "might want to go back and get newer copies of the books."
Pat Hardy
The resolution concludes by warning publishers the "State Board of Education will look to reject future prejudicial social studies submissions that continue to offend Texas law with respect to treatment of the world's major religious groups by significant inequalities of coverage space-wise and by demonizing or lionizing one or more of them over others."
It obviously takes more lines to explain a religion that most students are unfamiliar with vs. one most of them probably already practice.. What a stupid argument. That's even assuming that "line-counting" would be a valid measurement of subject equality.
You'd think they'd be more excited to learn that the Qur'an states that "Allah created the heavens and the earth, and all that is between them, in six days" (7:54). A Christian/Islamic Biology textbook in Texas wouldn't need much editing.
I cannot fathom how the members of the Texas State Board of Education can continue to surprise me with their complete and utter disregard for reality, yet here we are: they’re complaining about a pro-Islam bias in textbooks.
Yes, the same people who try to wedge the Bible into science textbooks, want to teach creationism, want to downplay evolution, want to eradicate the Big Bang, and want to downplay the Constitutional clause establishing separation of Church and State, are worried about someone trying to force their religion into the textbooks.
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I suppose I should point out that even if this is true, and pro-Islam statements are being put into textbooks, the answer is not to replace them with pro-Christianity statements. I would think this would be obvious, but when it comes to human behavior I think lots of stuff that turns out not to be correct.
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I would love nothing more than to be able to write that Texas voters actually elected reasonable, qualified people to the Board, instead of continually having to write about how the antireality, antiscience, antiConstitutional members keep attacking the very basis of our country’s educational foundation.
"Diverse reviewers have repeatedly documented gross pro-Islamic, anti-Christian distortions in social studies texts," reads a draft of the resolution, which would not be binding on future boards that will choose the state's next generation of social studies texts.
I would really, really love to see a list of pro-Islamic, anti-Christian distortions in the textbooks.
AUSTIN, Texas – The Texas State Board of Education has adopted a resolution seeking to curtail references to Islam in textbooks.
Social conservatives on the board had asked that the resolution be put on Friday's agenda. It was approved by a 7-6 vote.
The one-page resolution calls on textbook publishers to limit what they print about Islam in world history books and says the board "will look to reject future prejudicial social studies submissions."
" Hey OP, listen to my advice alright." -Tha General "No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer." -Stigler's Law of Eponymy, discovered by Robert K. Merton MYT
The Texas State Board of Education meets this week for the first time under its conservative new chairwoman appointed by Gov. Rick Perry and is expected to rekindle the debate over teaching evolution and the origin of life in public schools.
Perry, who is considering a run for president and has embraced social conservatives in Texas, named Barbara Cargill chairwoman earlier this month. Cargill, a biology teacher considered to be one of the more conservative board members, disputes the theory of evolution and voted to require that the theory's weaknesses be taught in classrooms.
In September, a group of educators chosen by the Texas Education Agency to streamline the state’s science curriculum standards removed portions of four passages that contained creationist language. The new standards must still be approved by the Texas State Board of Education where creationists are fighting to reverse the changes. The board members, unlike the education agency staff, are elected officials. That means the fate of creationism in Texas could be determined on Election Day.
If the decision stands, it would be a major blow to political creationism and the first time in a decade for any state’s creationism policy to be overturned.
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“Evidence does not have sides,” it declared as it voted 6-2 to remove the creationist passages.
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Since the attempt to keep creationism in the standards by putting creationists on the review panel was unsuccessful, retaining creationism comes down to state board members like Cargill. They may have the votes to do it.
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Another board member, Ken Mercer, has compared today’s treatment of critics of evolution to Nazism. “Did professors who found weaknesses in the Nazi theories receive research grants, funding, and foundation awards?” Mercer asked in 2008. “History is not kind to Darwinian evolutionists.”
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The final vote on the new standards will take place next spring and control of the 15 member board is narrowly split 6-6 between moderates and religious conservatives, with 3 more Republican board members acting as swing voters. If the vote were held today, it’s probable the new standards would be approved. But after the election, the vote becomes less clear.
Most seats in this election are not competitive, but one race could change the composition of the board. Keven Ellis, a Republican from Lufkin is running against Amanda Rudolph, a Democrat. As the Republican, Ellis is the overwhelming favorite to win. He will replace Thomas Ratliff, a Republican who helped lead efforts to moderate the board and bring it out of the culture wars. Ratliff is stepping down at the end of the year.
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Ellis is far less extreme than Mary Lou Bruner, the primary opponent he defeated. Bruner called President Obama a gay prostitute and blamed evolution for school shootings. But Ellis, who doesn’t believe schools should teach about man-made climate change, hasn’t made his position on evolution clear, but he’ll have to soon. The decision on whether Texas’s education has finally evolved rests with him.
Donna Bahorich is the chair of the Texas State Board of Education.
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Teachers have chafed about the extensive requirements, worried about the risk of shortchanging certain topics, and thus shortchanging students, in the rush to cover everything. In terms of sheer numbers, eighth-grade social studies includes 110 standards, compared with 64 in reading and language arts, 52 in mathematics and 37 in science. More than a year ago, my colleagues and I on the Texas State Board of Education, obligated to conduct a regular review of curriculum standards, took to heart the feedback and set up work groups — composed mostly of educators — and asked them to consider how standards could be streamlined to make the teaching burden more reasonable while still providing the rigorous education that would help set up students for success in life.
After a thorough review of every grade level, the work groups recently presented their recommendations, which were approved after some amendments in an initial vote by the board. The suggested streamlining, which by definition would necessitate omitting some important figures from the curriculum, has drawn national attention and much misguided criticism. Two sections in particular drew critics’ attention.
The recommendations for U.S. history in high school regarding the contributions of significant political and social leaders would drop Hillary Clinton and Barry Goldwater from a list that included Andrew Carnegie, Thurgood Marshall, Billy Graham and Sandra Day O’Connor. For third-grade social studies, the recommendations regarding figures who exemplify good citizenship suggested leaving Helen Keller off a list that included Clara Barton and Ruby Bridges.
It is difficult to see partisanship, as critics alleged, in the recommended removal of Hillary Clinton if another target was the conservative icon and 1964 Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, notable as the first candidate of ethnically Jewish heritage to be nominated by a major American party. Removing American Red Cross founder Clara Barton or civil rights stalwart Ruby Bridges instead of the deaf and blind author and activist Helen Keller would have prompted the sort of complaints stirred by that suggestion.
The debate about the work groups’ recommendations has also focused on the retaining of Moses, in a standard for U.S. government classes, as an influence during the era of America’s founding. Yet Moses is honored as one of 18 great lawgivers adorning the frieze of the U.S. Supreme Court building, and in Congress a marble relief of Moses is located directly across from the dais where the speaker of the House sits. As for those laws that Moses gave the world, the Ten Commandments are acknowledged with an engraving in the floor of the National Archives, in front of the display of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. No wonder Time magazine in 2009 published “How Moses Shaped America.”
It should be noted that curriculum standards are merely a floor for instruction, not a ceiling. Allowing time for teacher flexibility encourages the inclusion of topics and figures relevant to students. The result is engaged learning, not a race against time spent memorizing figures and dates. The Texas State Board of Education will not be ordering textbooks based on streamlining revisions; all historic figures “cut” will remain unchanged in textbooks.
