Texas textbooks...Again...

[thesummerqueen]

Just when it seemed like all the rigmarole concerning textbooks was over, I got blasted with another news story...there's too much *Islam* in them now!

This broke a few days ago, and I don't know if I'm putting this thread in the right place, or if someone else has already mentioned it, but I had to vent - especially because I'm seeing it all over other people's blogs. It seems to me (when I remember all my world history classes, which I had just about every other year, and I do have a decent long term memory) that my history textbooks contained a page for Judaism, a page for Christianity, and a page for Islam. Equal treatment. The lessons were objective, written only in a historical context. No one had a problem with it. Of course, this was all pre-9/11, but I don't think that should make much of a difference for a generalized history course for younger children.

Now, even if there is 'more' space devoted to Islam in those textbooks than to Christianity (and no one mentioned Judaism, which came before both...funny that...), wouldn't it be safe to assume that it's because in this country we get exposed to Christianity in all sorts of ways and maybe the writers wanted to (post 9/11) expose our school children to a religion we are obviously coming more and more in contact with (and conflict) and hope that with a little more knowledge...we might have a little less ignorance and a little more peace?

Is there anyone from Texas in this forum? What are your thoughts on this? I asked a very good friend who lives in Plano what it was like to live in the state that was fast becoming the most reviled/ridiculed in the nation and he said he felt he was adrift in a sea of stupid. Is there anything any of us can do outside of TX? (Because those textbook influence the rest of the country's book choices)

[Shell B]

It irks the hell out of me when people try to remove anything from history teachings. I think children need to be made aware of every aspect of history from the horrible to the great.

thesummerqueen, have you posted an introduction thread? You can post a little blurb about yourself in the introductions area http://atheistforums.org/forum-11.html . This way we can all get to know you a little bit.

By the way, I'm glad to see you here.

[TheDarkestOfAngels]

Is there anyone from Texas in this forum? What are your thoughts on this? I asked a very good friend who lives in Plano what it was like to live in the state that was fast becoming the most reviled/ridiculed in the nation and he said he felt he was adrift in a sea of stupid. Is there anything any of us can do outside of TX? (Because those textbook influence the rest of the country's book choices)

I'm not from Texas, but I'm very familiar with what has been going on in regards to the textbooks down there. This was never a matter of what treatment Islam has had or evolution, or intelligent design, or anything of those stripes.
The Texas school board of education is overrun by Christians. They don't like other religions, they don't like any science that repudiates thier christian beliefs, and they certainly don't believe that non-christian beliefs should ever be in a public school textbook.
These are the same people who honestly believe that America was founded as a Christian nation and that the founding fathers were Christian. Everything they say and do in regards to the government and/or religion is fueled from those beliefs and I think we can all agree that they're dead wrong.

Without any training as a federal lawyer, I can't say with any accuracy what can or cannot be done. My best guess is that, because this affects public schools, that the federal government could intervene on constitutional grounds. I'm even more certain that the ACLU could get involved as this is a clear church-state issue. I'm sure there are also many other institutions who could have legal recourse.
To be fair, however, even if done for all the wrong reasons, the actual changes may be far more reasonable than what the board is actually whining about pubically because there are filters between what they say they want and what they can actually do - even in Texas. So, it could be the case that the end result may be perfectly constitutional.

The only reason I imagine that this hasn't already been done is because Texas hasn't actually gotten anything they want so far in these regards for one reason or another but there's no reason nothing could be done once the Texas School Board gets to a certain point.

[thesummerqueen]

It irks the hell out of me when people try to remove anything from history teachings. I think children need to be made aware of every aspect of history from the horrible to the great.

thesummerqueen, have you posted an introduction thread? You can post a little blurb about yourself in the introductions area http://atheistforums.org/forum-11.html . This way we can all get to know you a little bit.

By the way, I'm glad to see you here.

Yeah, I'm trying... Sometimes after work and school, I load this place up and promptly pass out in front of my laptop, but...here I am! One day I'll get around to telling my "story". http://atheistforums.org/images/smilies/smile.gif

Much as I wanted to be fair to those textbooks, it's a sad fact that I was able to completely slack my way through high school history classes because they were basically just re-hashing everything I had learned from 2nd grade on, and by then I was reading outside material and knew more than the teacher did in a lot of cases. History's one area that could stand for immediate and thorough improvement in subject matter and method, but we're so PC anymore I can't see that happening.

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And apparently I suck at smileys.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100924/ap_o...tion_islam

[Minimalist]

there's too much *Islam* in them now!

Apparently what our wonderful Texans want is to report that when the Crusaders took Jerusalem there were nothing but Jews there for them to slaughter. Which they did with great gusto.

Morons.

[Paul the Human]

Once upon a time, the U.S. government prevented Texas from seceding. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

Can we make them secede... like... kick them out on the grounds that they are too stupid to remain a state?

[thesummerqueen]

Once upon a time, the U.S. government prevented Texas from seceding. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

Can we make them secede... like... kick them out on the grounds that they are too stupid remain a state?

I've asked my dear friend this question. He says he doesn't know what to do about the situation as far as the R-tards on the BOE, but "shhhh...please leave our state in the union...I like the US benefits and my mortgage here is dirt cheap."

[Paul the Human]

Oh.... alright. *pouts* I suppose not all of them are retarded. I'm not sure a cheap mortgage is enough reason to stay there, though. Ha!

[thesummerqueen]

Oh.... alright. *pouts* I suppose not all of them are retarded. I'm not sure a cheap mortgage is enough reason to stay there, though. Ha!

At the time he moved, getting out of where he and I lived (northern VA) and moving to places with rent and mortgages like what North Carolina (the rusty buckle of the bible belt) and Texas (hereby dubbed the sweaty ass panel of America's boxer shorts) had seemed like paradise. It has been noted that two "liberals" such as ourselves were idiots to move to highly conservative states, but as much as I find some aspects of NC annoying (mostly found in the western mountainous hell-fire-and-brimstone baptist areas), nothing matches the sheer fucktardation I hear about coming out of Texas every day. Maybe they just get more news coverage.

[HeyItsZeus]