A number of government and world history textbooks exaggerate Judeo-Christian influence on the nation’s founding and Western political tradition.
Two government textbooks include misleading information that undermines the Constitutional concept of the separation of church and state.
Several world history and world geography textbooks include biased statements that inappropriately portray Islam and Muslims negatively.
All of the world geography textbooks inaccurately downplay the role that conquest played in the spread of Christianity.
Several world geography and history textbooks suffer from an incomplete – and often inaccurate – account of religions other than Christianity.
Coverage of key Christian concepts and historical events are lacking in a few textbooks, often due to the assumption that all students are Christians and already familiar with Christian events and doctrine.
A few government and U.S. history textbooks suffer from an uncritical celebration of the free enterprise system, both by ignoring legitimate problems that exist in capitalism and failing to include coverage of government’s role in the U.S. economic system.
One government textbook flirts with contemporary Tea Party ideology, particularly regarding the inclusion of anti-taxation and anti-regulation arguments.
One world history textbook includes outdated – and possibly offensive – anthropological categories and racial terminology in describing African civilization.
A number of U.S. history textbooks evidence a general lack of attention to Native American peoples and culture and occasionally include biased or misleading information.
One government textbook … includes a biased – verging on offensive – treatment of affirmative action.
Most U.S. history textbooks do a poor job of covering the history of LGBT citizens in discussions of efforts to achieve civil rights in this country.
Elements of the Texas curriculum standards give undue legitimacy to neo-Confederate arguments about “states’ rights” and the legacy of slavery in the South. While most publishers avoid problems with these issues, passages in a few U.S. history and government textbooks give a nod to these misleading arguments.
The Players.
Out of more than 140 individuals appointed to the panels, only three are current faculty members at Texas colleges and universities. TFN has identified more than a dozen other Texas academics — including the chair of the History Department at Southern Methodist University as well as faculty at the University of Texas at Austin — who applied to serve but did not get appointments to the panels.
But the TFN analysis found that political activists and individuals without social studies degrees or teaching experience got places on the panels. One reviewer, Mark Keough, a Republican nominee for the Texas House District 15 seat, got an appointment to a U.S. History panel after being nominated by SBOE chair Barbara Cargill. Keough, a pastor with degrees in theology, has no teaching experience listed on his application form. Keough recently retired from a career in car sales to run a ministry in Cargill’s hometown of The Woodlands and to run for office.
In an interview conducted prior to this year’s primary elections, Keough told the Montgomery County Tea Party that he does not “believe that there is a separation of church and state in the Constitution.”
The Reviewers, i.e. the Scholars vs. the ideological crackpots.
The 10 scholars who conducted the reviews are:
Dr. Edward Countryman, University Distinguished Professor in the William B. Clements Department of History at SMU.
Dr. David R. Brockman, adjunct instructor in Religious Studies, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, at SMU as well as at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth.
Dr. Emile Lester, associate professor in the Department of Political Science and International Affairs at the University of Mary Washington.
Seven doctoral students in the Department of History at UT-Austin
Overcoming the stupid, the greedy and the evil.
Meanwhile Texas Democrats and Battleground Texas are highly engaged in turning out a massive voter turnout. In Houston my area's team registered voters at an elementary school open house in the Third Ward on Thursday. On Monday and Wednesday I did volunteer shifts at the Harris County Democratic Party Headquarters. We are encouraging seniors to apply to vote by mail since so many do not possess official TX photo IDs that include concealed weapons permits.
This weekend we are knocking on doors all over the state. Next week my team will register voters in a minority assisted living facility in south Houston on Wednesday. We'll do a phone bank in my neighborhood on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Monday afternoon is my usual volunteer gig at the Harris Co. Democratic Party. We will continue to push the adopt a senior program.
The party isn't over until the last vote is counted. We ignore the polls. We blow off the pundits. We don't complain about the heat, the humidity, the voracious mosquitos or the mean, stinging fire ants.
We work to elect Democrats.
Update: 3:20 p.m. CDT. I just learned from a regional director for BGTX that we will be calling 100,000 seniors all over the state who have not been contacted so far about the mail in ballot applications. It will be a very busy week!
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