Although Texas Board of Education's Don McLeroy, theocrat and Reaganophile, was recently defeated by a more moderate Republican candidate for the top spot on the Board of Ed, he still has 10 months left on his term. Vowing to "put their mark on the guidelines for social studies texts", he and seven other conservative board members (R - Wingnutistan) seek to, among many other things, require publishers...
"to include a section on "the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly[!], the Contract with America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association." NY Times
If you can stomach it, see how else they'd like to revise the history of the United States (below the fold).
The history of the Civil Rights movement has, apparently, a liberal bias and needs to be addressed:
One amendment states that the movement created "unrealistic expectations of equal outcomes" among minorities. Another proposed change removes any reference to race, sex or religion in talking about how different groups have contributed to the national identity.
Using my American Taliban:English dictionary, that bit in bold roughly translates to, "Minorities must accept that they always have been and always will be inferior to those of us who were born wealthy and white". Another translation could be, "know your place - which is right over there across the tracks". Don't even get me started on the Urban dictionary translations.
But wait, there's more!
The amendments are also intended to emphasize the unalloyed superiority of the "free-enterprise system" over others and the desirability of limited government.
There's no mention of the board including language discussing how the unfettered and unregulated "free-enterprise system" created the biggest financial catastrophe since the Great Depression.
Oh, and this is a nice bit that, I think we can all agree, all kids should be learning:
...the conservatives have pushed to drop references to American "imperialism," preferring to call it expansionism.
just wowfuckingwowfuckingwowfuckingwow
And for the musically inclined:
"Country and western music" has been added to the list of cultural movements to be studied.
The revisionism continues...
References to Ralph Nader and Ross Perot are proposed to be removed, while Stonewall Jackson, the Confederate general, is to be listed as a role model for effective leadership, and the ideas in Jefferson Davis’s inaugural address are to be laid side by side with Abraham Lincoln’s speeches.
I could go on but I'm probably already flirting with Fair Use issues. I'd encourage everyone to read the whole article - it's great for a laugh...until you realize it's not funny at all.