Memo to the Texas State Board of Education: America isn’t a theocracy

[marmar]

from the Houston Chronicle:



Textbook failure
Memo to the Texas State Board of Education: America isn’t a theocracy

HOUSTON CHRONCLE
March 20, 2010, 4:09PM


For years the Texas State Board of Education has fallen somewhere between “embarrassment” and “disgrace.” But lately it's reached a new low: hijacking our kids' textbooks to teach a mindset that's downright un-American.

In its revamp of the state's social studies curriculum, a majority of the board has consistently voted to reshape our history. Instead of the messy, complicated past, the extremist members prefer a simple story of triumphant Christian soldiers.

Last week the board voted to remove Thomas Jefferson — Thomas Jefferson! — from a list of Enlightenment thinkers who changed the world. The Enlightenment, with its emphasis on reason over tradition, doesn't sit well with the board.

Equally inconvenient is the Constitution's First Amendment, which begins: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The idea — one of those brave young Enlightenment ideas — was that the United States doesn't officially embrace any single religion.

We are a democracy, not a theocracy; a live-and-let-live country where we're all free to worship as we choose. It's a crucial idea, and one that separates Texas from the Taliban. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/6922748.html

[Walk away]

1. Yes, but Texas is! nt

[Beartracks]

2. Here's a crucial point right here:

"How did we get into this mess? Unfortunately, we elect our board officials in partisan elections that few Texans notice. And since democracy works only when people pay attention, it's easy for extremists to slide into office."

This goes for all elections anywhere -- local, State, and Federal.

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[MisterP]

3. self-congratulatory narratives are the bane of historians (except the Kagans): that's what's meant

in historical discussions of the stereotypical "high-school textbook." American history is portrayed as an Expanding/Expansionist March of Progress, or the triumphant Christian soldiers. "taking Texas back to the 16th century" and the vaunted "emphasis on reason over tradition" are fables of Modernity, as wrong as Onward Christian Soldiers, since they don't hold up to histories of the 17th-20th centuries

[tanyev]

4. Ahhh...I just went into the comments and gave a few thumbs up and thumbs down.

Cathartic. :)