There’s a fantastic article at the Washington Monthly, detailing the struggle for the heart and “soul” of science education in Texas. As you can probably guess, the fight isn’t going too well.
The article focuses on Don McLeroy, a pudgy creationist moron who sits on the Texas State Board of Education, and who’s been a major player in obliterating science education in the state. He’s one of the main reason why Texas science books no longer list the age of the Universe as being 14 billion years old, since this conflicts with their childish belief that God created the Cosmos a few thousand years ago (roughly at the time the Sumerians invented glue).
Of course, the scariest thing about all of this is the concentrated effort of conservatives to change history as well as science. McLeroy appointed a man by the name of Bill Ames in January of last year, a wackjob who believes that illegal immigrants spread disease, and that environmentalism will destroy America. Bill’s work was to change the social science standards by adding his own brand of American history to the mix.
Here are some of the choice quotes from the article that I urge you to read now:
“This critical-thinking stuff is gobbledygook,” grumbled David Bradley, an insurance salesman with no college degree, who often acts as the faction’s enforcer.
…his agenda does not stop there. He and the other conservative experts also want to scrub U.S. history of its inconvenient blemishes—if they get their way, textbooks will paint slavery as a relic of British colonialism that America struggled to cast off from day one and refer to our economic system as “ethical capitalism.”
…the group aims to give history a pro-Republican slant—the most obvious example being their push to swap the term “democratic” for “republican” when describing our system of government.
Have I mentioned how much you suck, Texas?
January 7th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
Just the sentence “This critical-thinking stuff is gobbledygook,” says it all! Maybe that should have been the title.
January 8th, 2010 at 12:07 am
We aren’t all crazy, there are still a handful of normals residing in the cities
I read about this on the Wall Street Journal website back in July of 2009, and my colleagues and I were quite livid. Just the idea of my tax dollars going to fund these idiotic changes makes me sick. If you want your kids to learn your ideology and all that other hooey, HOME SCHOOL! It’s a big punch in the face to education, just for more political gain.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124753078523935615.html#articleTabs=article
January 8th, 2010 at 7:11 am
Laura, the only reason they are messing with the public education is revenge for not getting vouchers passed the last 15 years. Try living here, where the people you’re surrounded by actually agree with the idiots on this school board. They are going to make the whole of public education in TX Christian Home School. Don’t forget the abstinence only education! Try googling Texas Freedom Network to find out more.
January 8th, 2010 at 8:56 am
You missed something that just makes me massively sick:
“Barton and Peter Marshall initially tried to purge the standards of key figures of the civil rights era, such as César Chávez and Thurgood Marshall, though they were forced to back down amid a deafening public uproar. They have since resorted to a more subtle tack; while they concede that people like Martin Luther King Jr. deserve a place in history, they argue that they shouldn’t be given credit for advancing the rights of minorities. As Barton put it, “Only majorities can expand political rights in America’s constitutional society.” Ergo, any rights people of color have were handed to them by whites—in his view, mostly white Republican men. “
January 8th, 2010 at 11:56 am
Thanks Yankee! I didn’t know the TFN existed. It has given me a greater knowledge on a subject that I’m trying to understand. I live here in Houston, and I know the feeling of being surrounded by idiots. There isn’t a work day that goes by I can here someone spouting right wing nonsense. And a best friend saying Glenn Beck is right. And having a majority of my family deep in the teachings of southern baptist doctrine. At times it’s quite overwhelming.
January 9th, 2010 at 11:30 pm
Ok, I just read this today and it stirred up some mixed feelings. On one hand it’s good to stay well-informed about right-wing idiocy and our good fight. On the other, it feels odd sometimes to pay $20/year to be outraged. Simply reading this was infuriating.
I can only imagine a world where German history textbooks went from “We’re really sorry about the Holocaust. Seriously.” to “It was probably France’s fault. Yeah, definitely the French.”
Ethical captialism is an oxymoron. Capitalism is supposed to be about giving just reward proportional to work input. Instead we reward the ones who are more inclined to stomp on everyone else. Yes, ethical indeed. Capitalism works as a stable structure of economy, but realize that those who are not white and privileged do not respect your “ethics” while you tread on them for financial gain.
I think the most aggravating thing is that they have no concept of politics…as public officials. Awesome. Republican pertains to a system of government that is ruled without a monarch. Democracy is simply voting with a set majority winning. This is not hard, people.
And although the U.S. has redefined the original, ancient concept of a republic to meet with its ideals (as it usually does; see: melting pot), the concept of a representative democracy is still a different concept and cannot be used synonymously. In fact, Conservatives would be a more appropriate moniker and even Canada knows that.
Fuck you, Conservatives.
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