Leadership’s Future: Look Who Dictates Your Kid’s Education
by Miki Saxon
“The philosophy of the classroom in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next.” –Cynthia Dunbar, another Christian activist on the Texas board of education.
I have nothing against Christians or Texans; as the saying goes, some of my best friends are Christian and a few are Texans.
But I have a lot against the idea that tomorrow’s K-12 textbooks will be written to conform with the desires of the Texas educational system and the 7 Christian activists who have decided that the time is right to try to reshape the history that children in public schools study—in their version Robert Kennedy is not a “significant American,” but Newt Gingrich is.
The state’s $22 billion education fund is among the largest educational endowments in the country. Texas uses some of that money to buy or distribute a staggering 48 million textbooks annually — which rather strongly inclines educational publishers to tailor their products to fit the standards dictated by the Lone Star State.
This could go a long way to homogenizing thought and reducing international respect still further, not to mention encouraging hate, bigotry and ignorance.
But what else should I expect from a place where Republican Rep. Betty Brown suggested in testimony that “Asian-descent voters should adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with,”” and Brown’s spokesman insisted that the comment had nothing to do with race.
Nuff said; rant over; thanks for listening.
March 18: I couldn’t resist adding a link to this great Mike Luckovich cartoon that sums my rant up so nicely.
Image credit: haldean on flickr
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March 5th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
All I can say is OMG! I have been a Republican my whole life and I certainly know the Kennedy family in general has contributed a lot to our society. (They’ve also done a few things I didn’t like but who can make everyone happy all the time?) Ticks me off when someone decides to re-write history to suit their own ends and it bothers me that so called experts have decided to degrade our educational system in not just history but other areas also!
March 7th, 2010 at 9:33 am
Hi Julie, when education is used to further a specific ideology and political agenda it becomes a so-called educational system. People who don’t embrace the Far Right’s ideology are in for a rude awakening. My personal upside is that, if they succeed, I’ll be dead before their brainwashed generation takes power.