Sorry Thomas Jefferson; you have to go. Texans do
not want Deists.
An ultraconservative faction of the Texas State Board of Education has managed to incorporate radical right-wing ideals into the social studies, history and economics curricula that will be taught to Texas students for the next ten years. Apparently, the right-wing nuts were not satisfied with injecting religious bigotry into politics; they want to manipulate the public school system to foster their fundamentalist Christian propaganda. Does that remind you of some other fundamentalist schools? Like masadras in Pakistan?
Last week in Austin, Texas they required Texas teachers to teach:
The Judeo-Christian influence of the nation's Founding Fathers, BUT NOT explain the rationale for the separation of church and state.
Remove Thomas Jefferson from the Texas curriculum's world history standards on Enlightenment thinking, “replacing him with religious right icon John Calvin.”
Describe the U.S. government as a "constitutional republic' rather than a "democratic" government.
Single out the 2nd Amendment among the Bill of Rights.
Eliminate references to important Hispanics throughout history.
The vote, just as in the Supreme Court and in the halls of Congress, was a party line vote.
The unfortunate aspect of this situation is that Texas because of its size and the large number of textbooks it purchases has a a disproportionate influence on textbook publishers. The result will be that these ultraconservative changes will be incorporated in textbooks across the country.
These folks obviously have a difficult time recognizing that our Founding Fathers were Deists, and if they cannot somehow construe them to be Christians, they want to eliminate them. Bye, Bye, Thomas Jefferson! One would hope that the publishers would title the textbooks accordingly, e.g. "The Texas Version of American History"
I wonder: can we give Texas back to Mexico and apologize for stealing it? Probably not, Mexico doesn't need or want these radicals.
No comments:
Post a Comment