Tell textbook publishers to stand up to the Texas Taliban

[boutons_deux]

The Texas Taliban — also known as the right-wing majority on the Texas State Board of Education — wants to revise the state's standards for science textbooks to require the addition of religious pseudoscience when teaching subjects like biology. And this isn't just bad news for Texas schoolchildren, because the Texas standards will impact the textbooks used by millions of students nationwide.

The Texas State Board of Education recently invited a small group of people to review the biology textbooks that will be used for the next eight years, starting in 2014. But more than half of the reviewers are right-wing religious ideologues,1 some of whom are even skeptics of Darwin's theory of evolution — considered one of the most reliably established facts in science, and a central tenet of biology.2

The ultimate goal of these sham textbook reviews — and Texas State Board of Education curriculum reform — is to enshrine right-wing ideology into Texas textbooks. What's worse, because of the scale of production of these textbooks, the dictates of the Texas School Board of Education will be included in textbooks used by millions of students in other states.

We can't let them get away with replacing long-accepted scientific principles with religious pseudoscience and propaganda.3

Tell textbook publishers to stand up to the Texas Taliban and only publish books that are based on sound, peer-reviewed science scholarship.

The most recent review of biology textbooks was a particularly egregious process, considering the people who were invited to participate. Here are just a few of the reviewers who are listed in the Creation Science Hall of Fame as “Darwin Skeptics”4:

• Raymond Bohlin, a research fellow for an organization whose purpose is the promotion of “intelligent design” — a religious idea which seeks to cast doubt on evolution while circumventing the Supreme Court ruling that bars the teaching of “creation science” in public schools.5
• Walter Bradley, who helped launch the “intelligent design” movement with a book he coauthored, titled The Mystery of Life's Origin.
• Ide Trotter, a wealthy funder of anti-science organizations, who has repeatedly participated in science textbook reviews advocating for the inclusion of scientifically discredited theories about the weaknesses of evolution.

Textbook publishers can refuse to make suggested changes, or pull out of the state's business altogether, just as publisher Holt, Rinehart and Winston did in 1994, when Texas requested over 400 revisions in five health textbooks — including the removal of toll-free phone numbers for teenage suicide prevention groups.

http://act.credoaction.com/sign/texas_taliban/?akid=8592.2603534.OZP2_y&nosig=1&rd=1&t=2

Fucking "Christian" assholes trying to impose their bullshit fantasies in taxpayer funded schools, dumbing down Texas (even more).

[Bill_Brasky]

:cry indoctrinating and brainwashing kids is wrong.....unless they're brainwashed by MY beliefs! :cry

[Spurminator]

How can you expect to be taken seriously when you use phrases like "Texas Taliban?" Do these people WANT to change anything?

[boutons_deux]

How can you expect to be taken seriously when you use phrases like "Texas Taliban?" Do these people WANT to change anything?

Taliban are famous, among the informed, for imposing their religious beliefs on everybody they can, keeping girls out of school, bombing ancient Buddhist statues, etc, etc.

It's an appropriately inflammatory, derogatory label for TX "Christians", seriously.

[TeyshaBlue]

They aren't interested in change for the sake of change. It must be accompanied with a sidecar of "you're stupid/racist/dishonest" for anyone with the temerity to disagree with them.
lol parentheticals.

[TeyshaBlue]

Because, we can't induce change without a healthy dose of ridicule. That makes everything better.

[Spurminator]

Taliban are famous, among the informed, for imposing their religious beliefs on everybody they can, keeping girls out of school, bombing ancient Buddhist statues, etc, etc.

It's an appropriately inflammatory, derogatory label for TX "Christians", seriously.

Would the "informed" care to tell me when the Texas SBOE started bombing other religious symbols and keeping girls out of schools?

I'm serious. You are bad for your cause. You really should say as little as possible if you want to contribute in a meaningful way to progressive policy making any progress in Texas. Unless you're actually a red state bubba repug mole. :wow

Just shut up. Do it for Wendy Davis.

[boutons_deux]

Would the "informed" care to tell me when the Texas SBOE started bombing other religious symbols and keeping girls out of schools?

I'm serious. You are bad for your cause. You really should say as little as possible if you want to contribute in a meaningful way to progressive policy making any progress in Texas. Unless you're actually a red state bubba repug mole. :wow

Just shut up. Do it for Wendy Davis.

I gave examples of how the Taleban impose their religion on others, which are not examples of what TX "Christians" do. Your attack is spurious bullshit.

Progressive policy in TX would be stopping regressive, oppressive TX "Christian" Taleban from polluting TX education system with their bullshit fantasies, anti-rational, anti-scientific crap.

[George Gervin's Afro]

I have a suggestion, just teach science...

[scroteface]

I have a suggestion, just teach science...

it's a scientific fact that you sir are attracted to cock and mexicans are inferior low iq beings, proven by IQ testing and studies what do you have to say on that subject

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

Would the "informed" care to tell me when the Texas SBOE started bombing other religious symbols and keeping girls out of schools?

I'm serious. You are bad for your cause. You really should say as little as possible if you want to contribute in a meaningful way to progressive policy making any progress in Texas. Unless you're actually a red state bubba repug mole. :wow

Just shut up. Do it for Wendy Davis.
Teaching religion in a science class is something the Taliban would do. The fact boutons says so doesn't change the fact.

[Spurminator]

Teaching religion in a science class is something the Taliban would do. The fact boutons says so doesn't change the fact.

History is full of more apt comparisons to Texas' regressive educational policy than the Taliban.

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

History is full of more apt comparisons to Texas' regressive educational policy than the Taliban.
The point of the Taliban comparison isn't meant to be the most apt, it's meant to get the most attention.

[Th'Pusher]

The point of the Taliban comparison isn't meant to be the most apt, it's meant to get the most attention.
Seems to be working :tu

[Spurminator]

The point of the Taliban comparison isn't meant to be the most apt, it's meant to get the most attention.

Like Hitler comparisons get attention yet carry little to no weight anymore because of ridiculous overuse.

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

Like Hitler comparisons get attention yet carry little to no weight anymore because of ridiculous overuse.
I guess.

You seem really sensitive about this subject. You a bible thumper?

[Spurminator]

:lol Why, because I'm responding to you?

Look it's okay to just say you see my point and you agree. I hate the idea of Christianity being taught in school. It's very hard to make a bad argument against it. OP succeeded.

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

:lol Why, because I'm responding to you?

Look it's okay to just say you see my point and you agree. I hate the idea of Christianity being taught in school. It's very hard to make a bad argument against it. OP succeeded.
I see your point that teaching religion in school does not nearly encompass all the terrible things the Taliban does.

I also think your "point" is a total strawman since it has nothing to do with what boutons said.

[Spurminator]

That's not my point though.

[m>s]

Board of Education just wants kids spend more time learning and less time fucking, and I don't see nothing wrong in it. Kids are living in a shitty time where they're always fed with the images of violence, obscenity and many other things that their parents' generation couldn't get to see at their age. Teaching religion in school doesn't inflict no harm on children, not nearly as pernicious as Mr. Obama's brainwashing preachments at least. I'm not a fan of either party, to be quite honest, they're equally bad and shitty. So it doesn't make much sense to me when you call the right-wing "taliban" without calling the other "jihad", tbh.

[George Gervin's Afro]

it's a scientific fact that you sir are attracted to cock and mexicans are inferior low iq beings, proven by IQ testing and studies what do you have to say on that subject

mavs > spurs talking cock and Mexicans..lol

[DMX7]

:cry indoctrinating and brainwashing kids is wrong.....unless they're brainwashed by MY beliefs! :cry

LMAO, another poor hick member of the anti-intellectual crowd.

[Nbadan]

http://i41.tinypic.com/2n1algi.jpg

[That's Funked Up]

The point of the Taliban comparison isn't meant to be the most apt, it's meant to get the most attention.

I assumed it was because Taliban is alliterate to texas.

[boutons_deux]

Texas racist Repugs (oops, sorry for the redundancy) on the Christian Taliban SBOE hard at work relentlessly revising history.

=======

“I think, that [school] books have to be rewritten — the whole notion of changing what happened during slavery time to saying it’s a fantasy — Texas — is unacceptable.”

The board approved the redesignation of the slave trade as the “Transatlantic Slave Trade,” (http://blog.sfgate.com/ybenjamin/2010/05/21/texas-approves-renaming-slave-trade-as-atlantic-triangular-trade/) after flirting with the name “Atlantic Triangluar Trade” as another possible name for the industry.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/06/stevie-wonder-takes-on-texas-changing-education-on-slavery-is-unacceptable/


The board has diminished Thomas Jefferson’s role in history because of his belief in the separation of church and state.

Students also are required to learn that America’s founding documents were influenced by various intellectual traditions, “especially biblical law,” and principles laid down by Moses.

From the tenor of the changes, the board approved the foundation for a fundamentalist Christian theocracy. It would be kinda like Iran, only it would be the right Christian kind.

Social conservatives, creationists and religious fanatics who dominate the Texas State Board of Education want to redefine the Constitution as an explicitly Christian document and highlight the role of God in the establishment of the US.

The board approved dropping references to a landmark court case that barred schools from segregating Mexican American students. Joseph McCarthy’s campaign against suspected communists is now to be toned down. Like McCarthy was just a curious senator, right?

The amendments also cast the United Nations in a critical light, with students asked to evaluate whether the UN and its committees undermine US sovereignty – a tune for conservatives. Students would be required to learn about the “unintended consequences” of Title IX, affirmative action, and the Great Society, and would need to study conservative icons like Phyllis Schlafly, the Heritage Foundation, and the Moral Majority.

http://blog.sfgate.com/ybenjamin/2010/05/21/texas-approves-renaming-slave-trade-as-atlantic-triangular-trade/

[DMC]

No one takes you serious, not because you don't have a real message at the core of your hyperbole laced diatribes, but because you don't take it serious enough to be honest about it. If you have to use extreme groups who throw acid on people's faces and behead young girls for talking as an analogy to an American political group who wants their beliefs taught in school, it seems, at least, that you don't have a strong enough case against them to present the facts more clinically as opposed to the shit you spew. Everyone here has been inundated with more of this partisan bullshit than they care to remember for as long as email has been active.

You obviously think people are generally too stupid to draw rational conclusions from hard facts, so you need to proselytize just like the religious right.

Both extreme sides make me ill. You are both alike more than you care to admit; both just want to be heard, fuck the facts. If someone convinced you that the conservative right was the way to go, you'd be just as extreme in that direction as you are in this. It's like how a heroin addict becomes a Jesus addict and annoys the fuck out of the rationally minded people both ways.

[boutons_deux]

Texas Religious Conservatives Mad About Climate Change and Evolution in School Books

The Dallas Morning News reports that religious conservatives on a review panel dedicated to voting on the textbooks in Texas have criticized books that don’t challenge Charles Darwin.

The review panel is now urging the Texas State Board of education to reject the textbooks unless they add disclaimers on evolution.

“This is a theory,” said one reviewer, Texas A&M University’s Karen Beathard. “At the same time, this is a theory. As an educator, parent and grandparent, I feel very firmly that creation science based on biblical principles should be incorporated into every biology book that is up for adoption.”

Religious conservatives are also objecting to the coverage of global warming in the books, saying that questions remain about the impact of climate change.

http://www.alternet.org/belief/religious-conservatives-object-texas-school-books-dont-question-evolution (http://www.alternet.org/belief/religious-conservatives-object-texas-school-books-dont-question-evolution)

a fucking Aggie lecturer Bible-thumper! :lol I suppose her nutritional science is as credible, "true" as her biological evolution science. :lol

[boutons_deux]

No one takes you serious, not because you don't have a real message at the core of your hyperbole laced diatribes, but because you don't take it serious enough to be honest about it. If you have to use extreme groups who throw acid on people's faces and behead young girls for talking as an analogy to an American political group who wants their beliefs taught in school, it seems, at least, that you don't have a strong enough case against them to present the facts more clinically as opposed to the shit you spew. Everyone here has been inundated with more of this partisan bullshit than they care to remember for as long as email has been active.

You obviously think people are generally too stupid to draw rational conclusions from hard facts, so you need to proselytize just like the religious right.

Both extreme sides make me ill. You are both alike more than you care to admit; both just want to be heard, fuck the facts. If someone convinced you that the conservative right was the way to go, you'd be just as extreme in that direction as you are in this. It's like how a heroin addict becomes a Jesus addict and annoys the fuck out of the rationally minded people both ways.

ah, is DMC not girl enough to take my bitch slappings like a little bitch?

keep going, your delusions are amusing as your weak-assed attempted slander.

[pgardn]

This has been a persistent problem in Science education in Texas for a while now.

Alas, if presented by a different messenger it would have more impact. A fanatical zealot giving us information concerning fanatical zealots has a bad taste for some reason. It's like Hitler telling the world to be wary of Stalin.

[DMC]

ah, is DMC not girl enough to take my bitch slappings like a little bitch?

keep going, your delusions are amusing as your weak-assed attempted slander.

I haven't even read the regurgitated offerings. I just know your type.

[boutons_deux]

I haven't even read the regurgitated offerings. I just know your type.

you know shit about my "type" GFY

[DMC]

you know shit about my "type" GFY

Every forum has at least one just like you: someone who is a link hauler and basically rants uncontrollably about the government using hyperbole and buzz words instead of facts and common sense.

There's nothing unique about your shtick.

[boutons_deux]

Every forum has at least one just like you: someone who is a link hauler and basically rants uncontrollably about the government using hyperbole and buzz words instead of facts and common sense.

There's nothing unique about your shtick.

I don't rant about the govt, I bitch about the VRWC/corps/1% CORRUPTING/CONTROLLING the govt, at all levels.

unique? strawman, I never claimed to be unique

And I present plenty of facts, and direct quotes by Repugs, "Christians", etc, nothing made up.

[boutons_deux]

"Christian" Taleban teacher gets kicked in the balls

Texas Student Gains Scholarship After Recording Her Teacher Preaching Christianity and Equating Atheism To Smoking in His Economics Class(Audio+Video) (http://liberal-agenda.com/texas-student-gains-scholarship-after-recording-her-teacher-preaching-christianity-and-equating-atheism-to-smoking-in-his-economics-classaudiovideo/)

The second is a video of her speech at a Humanists of Houston meeting, where she details her experience during his classes and her experiences involving friends after the recordings went public and a letter was sent to the school’s superintendent. A friend of hers who attended the class the next semester told his new class that Sheppard took away his right to “talk about Jesus”. She also said she lost many friends who disagreed with her as time went on, but she still stands by the belief that what she did was the right thing.

http://www.alternet.org/belief/gutsy-high-school-student-exposes-teacher-who-compared-atheism-smoking-wins-scholarship?akid=10950.187590.EEpciu&rd=1&src=newsletter898329&t=5

fucking stupid, crusading teacher thinks "freedom of speech" and "freedom of religion" means he can teach Jesus in taxpayer funded economics class. This is the kind of crap that needs to be stopped, and certainly happens is charter schools.

[EVAY]

Without all the melodramatic language, I have been concerned for years about the wide-ranging impact of the Texas BOE on textbook usage nationally because there is an undeniable rejection of scientific thought and objective historical emphasis in what they have been demanding of textbook publishers for some time. I have not been willing to run for the Texas BOE, however, so I cannot say that I am willing to do something about it.

I have comforted myself with the belief that teachers across America are increasingly using readily available texts and information from web-based sources for their in-classroom teaching.

As long as Texas has the dominant position in ordering texbooks, the publishers will continue to allow it to drive the narratives. And as long as the religious right wing has the dominant positions on the BOE, they will continue to impose their religious beliefs on the students in this state.

Being a lng-term believer in supply-and-demand economics, I assume that at some point the rest of the nation will demand a different narrative and enforce that belief with the only thing that publishers will understand, i.e. dollars.

[boutons_deux]

"believer in supply-and-demand economics"

in the SBOE, the "demand"ers are the "Christian" taleban, and everybody gets stuck with the crap they "supply".

The "Christian" Taleban in TX is dramatic, and those who remaind "mellow" will get the "Christian" crap they deserve.

How do rational, non-"Christian" Texans purge the SBOE of the Taleban, who are relentless in spreading their religious crap into taxpayer funded, secular government and institutions? your supply-and-demand "free market" idea is pure myth.

[Ignignokt]

I'm confused, are we talking about creationism or global warming? Which fabrications are we trying to inject in our science textbooks?

[boutons_deux]

both

Creationist Climate-Deniers Reviewing Texas Textbooks May Help Set a National Standard

Texas educators selected by the State Board of Education (SBOE) and the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to review textbooks for adoption in November 2013 are insisting upon changes to major science and biology instructional materials that would contradict the widely established international scientific consensuses on the subjects of evolution and human-caused climate change.

If major education publishers such as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Pearson and McGraw-Hill Publishers buckle under the pressure of religious fundamentalists in Texas aiming to cast doubt on two of the most widely supported scientific concepts in history, the changes that will affect Texas public schools for the next 10 years could become part of a larger trend affecting science education across the nation. Texas could set this national precedent because major publishers typically cater their educational materials toward the large Texas market first then make small changes to those materials for smaller markets around the country.

These appointed panels have been evaluating drafts of mostly electronic classroom materials and negotiating the content with publishers since July, with much of the review process taking place in private.

The SBOE had its first public hearing Sept. 17, 2013, regarding the textbooks under consideration, in which some of the reviewers pressing for changes expressed their views regarding evolution and climate change (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/09/texas-textbooks-review-creationism-climate-denial).

That same week the watchdog group Texas Freedom Network (TFN) released documents (http://www.tfn.org/site/PageNavigator/issues_science_2013_science_review_documents.html) obtained through an open-records request that provide some transparency in the review process and confirmed that some of the appointed reviewers are pushing creationism and theories that promote skepticism about the human causes of climate change.

The documents also revealed the reviewers contested information relating to fetal development that recently has been used by anti-abortion activists in the state pushing the recent omnibus abortion overhaul expected to close the vast majority of clinics in the state (https://truth-out.org/news/item/17372-pro-choice-activists-flooded-texas-capitol-in-round-two-of-abortion-overhaul-battle).

"[The reviewers'] objections shape the content of the textbooks because the publishers have to decide how they're going to respond to those objections," said TFN Spokesman Dan Quinn. "Do they cave and include these junk science arguments against evolution or do they stand firm and take the risk that their textbook will get rejected?"

TFN believes the TEA selected largely unqualified individuals who do not have a background in biology or any kind of science and, in some cases, are themselves conservative political activists to serve on the review panels.

http://truth-out.org/news/item/19049-creationist-climate-deniers-reviewing-texas-textbooks-may-help-set-the-national-standard-for-science-education (http://truth-out.org/news/item/19049-creationist-climate-deniers-reviewing-texas-textbooks-may-help-set-the-national-standard-for-science-education)

Fucking Texas Repugs and Christians, what fucking assholes. Does RickyBobby and his Repug posse really think companies with educated, sophisticated employees are going to locate to TX and get their kids fucked up with SBOE garbage?

[Big Empty]

texas taliban lol i like that

[TDMVPDPOY]

might as well teach positive thinking every class...lol

[boutons_deux]

Dear PFAW Activist,

I wanted to share this important update from our friends at the Texas Freedom Network about the ongoing fight to keep religious creationism out of biology textbooks. Check it out and please add your name to the letter (http://site.pfaw.org/site/R?i=VnXMUM7MSZJvQaulApQH-g) thanking textbook publishers for standing strong against pressure from Radical Right members of the State Board of Education.

-- Ben Betz, Online Engagement Director

From: Val, TFN Outreach Director
To: Ben Betz
Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2013
Re: Wow!
Dear Ben,

This week we got our first look at changes publishers submitted in response to objections -- many of them thinly veiled attacks on evolution -- raised by textbook reviews commissioned by the State Board of Education.

And I’ve got some truly encouraging news:

All 14 publishers are refusing to water down or compromise instruction on evolution and climate change in their proposed new biology books.

These publishers deserve our thanks for standing up to pressure from right-wing politiciansand activists working to corrupt the science in our children’s textbooks, and we’ve made it easy for you to thank them.

http://site.pfaw.org/site/MessageViewer?dlv_id=56961&em_id=43061.0

[angrydude]

I don't rant about the govt, I bitch about the VRWC/corps/1% CORRUPTING/CONTROLLING the govt, at all levels.

unique? strawman, I never claimed to be unique

And I present plenty of facts, and direct quotes by Repugs, "Christians", etc, nothing made up.

If they control the government they are the government.

[boutons_deux]

If they control the government they are the government.

correct, but you right wing fuckers and tea baggers whine and bitch about only the govt, willfully ignoring the UCA/1% that really operates the govt. iow, small govt for the 99% BUT BIG GOVT for the 1% and corps.

[boutons_deux]

Texas Public Schools Are Teaching Creationism

hen public-school students enrolled in Texas’ largest charter program open their biology workbooks, they will read that the fossil record is “sketchy.” That evolution is “dogma” and an “unproved theory” with no experimental basis. They will be told that leading scientists dispute the mechanisms of evolution and the age of the Earth. These are all lies.

The more than 17,000 students (http://responsiveed.com/about/what-we-believe/) in the Responsive Education Solutions charter system will learn in their history classes that some residents of the Philippines were “pagans in various levels of civilization.” They’ll read in a history textbook that feminism forced women to turn to the government as a “surrogate husband.”

Responsive Ed has a secular veneer and is funded by public money, but it has been connected from its inception to the creationist movement and to far-right fundamentalists who seek to undermine the separation of church and state.

The opening line of the workbook section declares, “In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.”

Infiltrating and subverting the charter-school movement has allowed Responsive Ed to carry out its religious agenda—and it is succeeding. Operating more than 65 campuses (http://responsiveed.com/about/who-we-are/today/) in Texas, Arkansas, and Indiana, Responsive Ed receives more than $82 million (https://responsiveed.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/2013_RES_Annual_Report.pdf) in taxpayer money annually, and it is expanding, with 20 more Texas campuses opening in 2014.

Charter schools may be run independently, but they are still public schools, and through an open records request, I was able to obtain a set of Responsive Ed’s biology “Knowledge Units,” workbooks that Responsive Ed students must complete to pass biology. These workbooks both overtly and underhandedly discredit evidence-based science and allow creationism into public-school classrooms.

A favorite creationist claim is that there is “uncertainty” in the fossil record, and Responsive Ed does not disappoint. The workbook cites the “lack of a single source for all the rock layers as an argument against evolution.”

Another Responsive Ed section claims that evolution cannot be tested, something biologists have been doing for decades (http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/11/15/245168252/bacterial-competition-in-lab-shows-evolution-never-stops). It misinforms students by claiming, “How can scientists do experiments on something that takes millions of years to accomplish? It’s impossible.”

The curriculum tells students that a “lack of transitional fossils” is a “problem for evolutionists who hold a view of uninterrupted evolution over long periods of time.”

“The assertion that there are no ‘transitional fossils’ is false,” Miller responded. “We have excellent examples of transitional forms documenting the evolution of amphibians, mammals, and birds, to name some major groups. We also have well-studied transitional forms documenting the evolution of whales, elephants, horses, and humans.”

Responsive Ed’s butchering of evolution isn’t the only part of its science curriculum that deserves an F; it also misinforms students about vaccines and mauls the scientific method.

On the scientific method, Responsive Ed confuses scientific theories and laws. It argues that theories are weaker than laws and that there is a natural progression from theories into laws, all of which is incorrect.

The Responsive Ed curriculum undermines Texas schoolchildren’s future in any possible career in science.

Dan Quinn, the communications director for the Texas Freedom Network (http://www.tfn.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_mission), a watchdog organization that monitors the religious right, said, “These materials should raise a big red flag for any parent or school administrator. It's bad enough that they promote the same discredited anti-evolution arguments that scientists debunked a long time ago. But the materials also veer into teaching religious beliefs that the courts have repeatedly ruled have no place in a public school science classroom.”

When it’s not directly quoting the Bible, Responsive Ed’s curriculum showcases the current creationist strategy to compromise science education, which the National Center for Science Education (http://ncse.com/) terms “stealth creationism (http://ncse.com/creationism/general/creationism-past-present).”

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/01/creationism_in_texas_public_schools_undermining_th e_charter_movement.html

Christian Taleban scumbags and greedy, fraudulent charter school predators fucking up kids and education, all facilitated by VRWC/ALEC dictating policies to (red state) purchased legislators.

[boutons_deux]

Reponsive Ed indoctrination dumbing down center in San Antonio

http://premierhighschools.com/campuses/operating-campuses/premier-high-school-of-san-antonio/


http://www.texastribune.org/public-ed/explore/responsive-education-solutions-c/premier-high-school-of-san-antonio-c/

[RandomGuy]

Without all the melodramatic language, I have been concerned for years about the wide-ranging impact of the Texas BOE on textbook usage nationally because there is an undeniable rejection of scientific thought and objective historical emphasis in what they have been demanding of textbook publishers for some time. I have not been willing to run for the Texas BOE, however, so I cannot say that I am willing to do something about it.

I have comforted myself with the belief that teachers across America are increasingly using readily available texts and information from web-based sources for their in-classroom teaching.

As long as Texas has the dominant position in ordering texbooks, the publishers will continue to allow it to drive the narratives. And as long as the religious right wing has the dominant positions on the BOE, they will continue to impose their religious beliefs on the students in this state.

Being a lng-term believer in supply-and-demand economics, I assume that at some point the rest of the nation will demand a different narrative and enforce that belief with the only thing that publishers will understand, i.e. dollars.

Let me know if you ever do run. I will volunteer for your campaign. :)

[EVAY]

Let me know if you ever do run. I will volunteer for your campaign. :)thanks for the thought , RG, but can you seriously imagine doing something like that (running for BOE) and the impact on one's family? One of my nephews who is really serious about running for office has been told by his wife, "Don't even THINK about it...they will come after not just you and me but the children as well". And, I fear she is right. The right wing in this state (and most others, I fear) seems to think nothing of character assassination and mud slinging as the FIRST line of political attack. I mean, their thought process seems to be "Why wait about ad hominem attacks? Let's just start with those and go downhill from there."

My nephew wants (wanted) take on Joe Barton for congress (we are, embarrassingly, related to him) for the sake of the family's legacy, but we all keep telling him to let that kind of person (Rep. Barton) and his similarly minded David Barton hang themselves on the scaffold of history.

[boutons_deux]

Texas Overhauls Textbook AppTexas Overhauls Textbook Approval To Ease Tensions Over Evolution

The Texas Board of Education, which has long been an ideological battleground for the teaching of evolution, says it will limit the use of citizen review panels and instead give priority to teachers (http://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/headlines/20140131-texas-education-board-overhauls-graduation-requirements.ece)in determining science and history curricula.

Because Texas public schools represent such a large market for textbook publishers, the state has an outsized influence on what is taught in the rest of the country.

Science curricula in particular have become a source of tension over the past 30 years amid moves to downplay the teaching of evolution or to include biblically inspired creationism or "intelligent design."

Critics have been concerned that a small number of religious or political activists can dominate the process of approving texts, and the Board of Education's move appears to try to tamp that down.

Conflicts have also seeped into the approval of history textbooks in recent years, where some have sought to change the characterization of religion's role in the development of the early republic.

Among the changes approved by the state on Friday was

"a mandate for teachers and professors to be given priority for serving on textbook review panels for subjects in their areas of expertise.

They also enable the board to appoint outside experts to check objections that review panels raise,"

The Associated Press says.


Meanwhile,South Dakotabecame the fourth state so far this year to take up legislation that would allow public schools to teach intelligent design (http://legiscan.com/SD/text/SB112/2014). Similar bills have been introduced in Virginia, Missouri and Oklahoma. ( red states! :lol ignorant Bible-thumping "Christian" fucktards )

Proponents of intelligent design, which teaches that humans and animals were specially created by an unnamed entity, say it should be taught as an alternative to the scientific theory of evolution by natural selection. However, most scientists say intelligent design doesn't qualify as a theory because it cannot be falsified and has not demonstrated any predictive value.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/02/01/269962257/texas-overhauls-textbook-approval-to-ease-tensions-over-evolution?sc=17&f=1001

[boutons_deux]

Confederate NC Christian Supremacists/Taliban:

North Carolina School Allegedly Forbids Club For Secular Students Because It Would Not ‘Fit In’ (http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/02/14/3293121/school-secular-club/)

For over a year, administrators at a North Carolina high school have allegedly told students they could not form a secular student group because it would not “fit in” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/nc-high-school-faces-legal-challenge-for-refusing-secular-club/2014/02/13/90854114-94f7-11e3-9e13-770265cf4962_story.html) at the school. Now Pisgah High School in Waynesville, North Carolina may face a legal challenge from First Amendment groups for violating the students’ rights.

Two students hoped to form a chapter of the Secular Student Alliance at Pisgah High, which already has a Fellowship of Christian Athletes. According to a letter complaining of the school’s actions, Assistant Principal Connie Weeks told them the club both would not “fit in” and it could not find a faculty adviser.

The students encountered a resistance that is a frequent problem at public schools. Over the course of a year, the Secular Student Alliance says it receives one complaint about every other week.

According to a letter (https://www.secularstudents.org/sites/default/files/LetterToHaywoodCountySchools.pdf) from the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the North Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union,

the school’s actions violate a federal law expressly prohibiting religious discrimination of student groups.

Under the Equal Access Act, schools receiving federal funds cannot discriminate against groups based on religious or political beliefs. The law states: “It shall be unlawful for any public secondary school … to deny equal access or a fair opportunity to, or discriminate against, any students who wish to conduct a meeting .. on the basis of the religious, political, philosophical, or other content of the speech at such meetings.”

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/02/14/3293121/school-secular-club/

[boutons_deux]

Beware: The Christian Right's 'Religious Freedom' Wants to Elevate Religious Beliefs Above Human Rights—And It's Working


http://www.alternet.org/files/styles/story_image/public/story_images/christianright.jpg


http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/conscience-creep-how-religious-freedom-spiraled-out-control?akid=11582.187590.r6KxUY&rd=1&src=newsletter968153&t=5

the bogus "religious freedom" bullshit is only freedom for Christians, with non-Christians allowed no "freedom FROM Christian religion".

The politicized, militarized "Christians" are as oppressive as any religious extremist terrorists, including murder (of abortionists).

[boutons_deux]

7 absurd things America’s kids are learning thanks to conservatives

A Beka Book is one of the three (http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/5/25/84149/9275) most widely used Protestant fundamentalist textbook publishers in the country, along with Bob Jones University Publishing (http://www.bjupress.com/page/Home), published in Greenville South Carolina, andAccelerated Christian Education (http://www.aceministries.com/), published in Lewisville, Texas. Forty-three percent of the religous voucher schools that responded to a 2003 Palm Beach Post survey based their curricula on either A Beka or Bob Jones. A Beka Book estimates (http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/5/25/84149/9275) that 9,000 schools use its books in the classroom.

Founded by Arlin and Rebekah (Beka) Horton in 1972, A Beka Book provides “excellence in education from a Christian perspective.” Since 1977, A Beka Book has operated out of the unaccredited Arlin-founded Pensacola Christian College (PCC) in Florida. Among other rules, PCC has a zero tolerance policy for “optical intercourse (http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2008/06/25/optical-intercourse/)” or staring too intently into the eyes of a member of the opposite sex (also known as “making eye babies”).

Though the publisher won’t reveal its finances, over the years, sales from A Beka Book have paid for PCC’s construction projects ($300 million) and annual scholarships ($2 million). Though the publisher used to enjoy a tax-exempt status, that privilege was revoked in 1995 because the company was (surprise!) found to be a profit-making entity. In 1998, A Beka Book paid the IRS an estimated (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/1996/october28/6tc94c.html) $44.5 million to “remove any question as to our Christian responsibility in the matter of back taxes.”

The Hortons are as rigorous intellectually as they are ethically and fiscally. Here are seven invaluable lessons children learn from their A Beka Book texts, thanks in part to your tax dollars.

1. Mathematics: The Devil’s Playground

The publishing company boasts (http://www.abeka.com/Distinctives.aspx) that, “Unlike the ‘modern math’ theorists, who believe that mathematics is a creation of man and thus arbitrary and relative, A Beka Book texts teach that the laws of mathematics are a creation of God and thus absolute.”

The great news for people like me who don’t really enjoy math is that A Beka Book provides “traditional mathematics texts that are not burdened with modern theories such as set theory.“ It’s unclear why the branch of mathematical logic that studies sets and is considered to be a foundational system for mathematics is so anathema to God. I assume focusing on the “union of sets” encourages too much premarital coupling and promiscuity.

2. Critical Thinking: There’s a Mnemonic Device For That

A Beka Book’s Health in Christian Perspective textbook makes it extremely clear that there is one and only one “Christian World View.” In that view, abortion—defined as “the killing of babies before birth”— for example, is a sin. But A Beka Book doesn’t just tell students what to think, it empowers them to think for themselves by employing the all-important “Biblical Discernment” method.

Like so many of Beka’s critical thinking tools, this one comes in the form of a mnemonic device: “Use the DISCERN method,” Beka instructs, “to determine whether abortion is biblical.” The method allows students to make an informed godly choice around any issue, not just abortion. Once they’ve figured out whether something is biblical or not, they can engage in it and praise it, or refrain from doing it and condemn it. Here’s how DISCERN works:



Determine your choices
Inquire of God through prayer
Search the scriptures
Consider godly counsel.
Eliminate worldly thinking.
Recognize God’s leading.
Never compromise the truth.


This handy mnemonic is great for moralizing and judging on the run!

3. Science: Yahweh or the Highway

Health in Christian Perspective also explains that,

“A non-Christian world view is any one that is based on the belief that there is something more reliable than the bible. The belief may come from church traditions scientific conclusions, or various theories. The most important teachings to be found in a Christian World View are… God made the world and everything in it; The world has fallen into a tragic state because of sin; and God is working to redeem this world to Himself.”

Science that contradicts these notions, the people at A Beka Book explain, is just plain wrong. “These three teachings should influence your interpretation of any facts you study,” they note. “And if you are serious about being a Christian, they must color your view of scientific thinking.”

Also crucial is the instruction not to stray from God’s path by using science to help people. “Others may be curious about the world of nature simply because they want to improve the lives of other humans. Although Christians should also be interested in that, they should mainly be interested in loving God through the study of nature.” I wonder if the Hortons want their doctors to prioritize loving God over helping their patients?

4. Guns: Our Only Protection from Nazism and Globalism

Beka’s United States History—Heritage of Freedom In Christian Perspective reminds us that the men who founded this great nation would totally oppose background checks: “The founding fathers… understood that unarmed citizens would not be able to stand against a tyrannical government.” Gun control, according to this text, is simply a “gateway to tyranny.” The book’s exhaustive analysis of world history backs up this brilliant assertion: “A study of Hitler’s, Stalin’s and Mao’s ideas on disarming their citizens shows… they were well aware of the concept that control thrives when people are unarmed.”

As an added bonus, guns are also a way for America to fight against creeping… globalism: “Armed citizens could also play a major role in thwarting Globalism, the idea to bring the world together under ‘one global government.’ making the constitution null and void.” This really speaks to America’s youth, who are nothing if not extremely concerned about globalism.

5. The Death Penalty: The Sanctity of Life Manifested

America: Land I Love In Christian Perspective laments that the death penalty, and thus the sanctity of life, have become less hip. Back in the good old days, “because people believed in the sanctity of human life, most states practiced capital punishment.”

A Beka Book knows what God was thinking when he killed people for crimes like prostitution, bearing false witness, and not crying out while being raped (if you are betrothed): “Most people believed God instituted capital punishment to discourage murder and to teach mankind the value of human life.”

Of course, “most people” doesn’t include people who opposed the death penalty. Like Jesus Christ.

6. STDs: What Happens When you Disobey God

Beka’s Health In Christian Perspective text also teaches that sexually transmitted diseases are caused by sacrilegious behavior: “Disobedience to God’s Word in the area of sexual purity can also lead to disease.” And statistically speaking, A Beka Book tells us, it is almost impossible to contract diseases from a spouse:

“Some infections, known as… STDs, are almost always spread by direct bodily contact during illicit sexual relations (sexual relations outside God’s institution of marriage). People who live according to God’s standards of waiting until marriage to have sexual relations are very unlikely to acquire venereal diseases.”

There is no correlation, in the Beka world view, between “sex education” and preventing STDs, because such diseases aren’t caused by “a lack of scientific information or ‘sex education’ but a lack of morality and righteousness.” While A Beka Book neither believes in nor provides any “sex education,” they do offer a lifesaving “Personal Checkup” checklist, encouraging students to check boxes for things like, “I wash my hands thoroughly on a regular basis” and “I obey biblical principles regarding morality, self-control, attitude, and anxiety.”

“Unchecked boxes” the book warns, “identify conditions of risk.”

7. Homosexuality: Cultural Decay

Homosexuality is listed under United States History—Heritage of Freedom In Christian Perspective’s “Cultural Decay” section: “Traditional American family values have dramatically declined….When [the family] comes under attack, all of society suffers.”

Though it’s not clear how, the media have emboldened homosexuality by showing violence and attacking fathers and husbands: “The media has increasingly belittled fathers and husbands, portrayed blatant violence, and laughed at immorality. One result has been the increased acceptance of homosexuality.”

In other words: Every time there is violence on the screen, or a man is mocked by a feminist, or a heathen cracks up over sin, a homosexual is recruited and a family is attacked. But you already knew that.

This is but a mere sampling of A Beka’s righteous lessons. Check back soon for more.

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/04/7_absurd_things_americas_kids_are_learning_thanks_ to_conservatives_partner/

[Winehole23]

presumably parents who send their kids to religious schools do so for a reason and know what they're in for.

[boutons_deux]

The Religious Right Crusades to Deny Americans Their Constitutional Rights

there is a rabid movement in America that not only eschews the Constitution as faulty and irrelevant, they actively reject it with alarming frequency. The religious right, teabaggers, and their Republican facilitators claim they love this nation and its founding document more than any other demographic in America, and regularly claim returning to the original intent of the Constitution is their raison d’être. However, for at least a half-a-century one specific demographic has made a concerted effort to abolish the Constitution that so-called “real Americans” have adopted with a clear goal of scrapping the founding document save the 2nd and 10th Amendments.

The primary target of teabaggers (their chosen name) and the religious right is the 1st (http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/first_amendment)and 14th (http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv) Amendments, Article VI (http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articlevi), Section 2, and Article III (http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articleiii) Sections 1 and 2 that defines the Constitution as the supreme law of the land and the judicial branch as the arbiter of the constitutionality of any law.

Although the frequency of challenges to the Constitution’s validity as the law of the land have increased since the election of the first African American President, the efforts to reject the Constitution began in earnest well over 75 years ago.

The primary argument of those who hate the Constitution is that “the word of God as revealed in the Bible takes priority over all human knowledge,” and it is used today more than in 1927 when theocrats argued the bible should be taught in public schools.

Forty-one years later, the Supreme Court ruled (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epperson_v._Arkansas) in Epperson v. Arkansas that banning the teaching of evolution contravened the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment because the theocrats primary purpose in teaching the bible as science is purely religious.The purpose of this screed is not to argue that the Christian bible is not the law of the land, or that the judicial system has supreme authority to adjudicate what is, and is not constitutional, but rather, that

the religious right has rejected the Constitution and Supreme Court rulings for decades with veritable impunity and have no intention of stopping.

Recently there was an article (http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/conscience-creep-how-religious-freedom-spiraled-out-control?akid=11582.266662.3aNhAv&rd=1&src=newsletter968153&t=5) decrying the religious right’s attempt to abridge Americans’ civil and human rights according to their claim religious liberty affords them the dog-given authority to abridge other Americans’ Constitutional protections. The premise of the article is beyond dispute; the religious right, teabaggers, and Republicans are on a crusade to deny Americans their Constitutional rights,

but it failed to acknowledge the religious right’s campaign is founded on their rejection and hatred of the Constitution they are convinced is subservient to the Christian bible. It is a hatred they have harbored since the founding of this nation as evidenced by their continued attempts over 200 years to impose biblical law on Americans.


It has been forty years since the Supreme Court ruled, in Roe v. Wade, that it is a woman’s Constitutional right to decide when to give birth, and yet Republicans in states and the United States Congress have rejected the High Court’s ruling as illegitimate, and by extension deny the Constitution as law of the land as they continue passing legislation restricting women’s Constitutional rights because it is contrary to evangelical zealots’ Christian bible. Today there are as many attempts to abort the High Court’s ruling as there are evangelicals claiming god’s law supersedes the Constitution.It has been 46 years since the High Court ruled that teaching the bible creation story as science in public schools is patently unconstitutional.

The religious right attempted to re-litigate the High Court’s ruling again in 2005 when they renamed creationism “intelligent design” that was ruled unconstitutional (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitzmiller_v._Dover_Area_School_District) because it was still “teaching religion.” The religious right cannot comport the Constitutional authority of the judicial system to rule that the Establishment (http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/establishment_clause) and Separation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_church_and_state_in_the_United_State s) clauses are the law of the land.

Republicans are frantically passing unconstitutional legislation inserting creationism as science in public schools and stealing taxpayer dollars for public schools to fund private religious instruction to teach the bible as science.

It has been 52 years since the Supreme Court ruled (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engel_v._Vitale) that prayer in public schools is a violation of the Constitution and the judicial system have been vigilant in forbidding public schools and other government agencies from interfering with Americans’ constitutional right to follow their own consciences when it comes to religion. Republicans and the religious right disagree with the High Courts’ Constitutional authority to rule that official prayer had no place in public education, and with state Republican legislation are using devious means to force America’s children to be indoctrinated into the Christian religion by mandating teacher-led prayers.


The following year the High Court ruled (http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/374/203) in Abington Township School District v. Schempp, another case dealing with prayer in public schools, that school-sponsored bible reading and recitation of the lord’s prayer was unconstitutional. In fact, in the written opinion Justice Clark wrote, “Once again, we are called upon to consider the scope of the provision of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution which declares that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof’.” Even the High Court acknowledged that regardless the U.S. Constitution, and Supreme Court rulings,

the religious right cannot, and will not, accept that American law is not the purview of “the word of God as revealed in the Bible,” or that it does not “take priority over all human knowledge”

including the Constitution as law of the land.Some naïve Americans believed that last year’s Supreme Court ruling striking down the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage would put an abrupt end to Republican and the religious right’s biblical prohibition on same-sex marriage, and yet the decision only served to embolden fanatical Christians who are rabid to reject the Constitution and impose the bible as the law of the land.

It has been less than a year since the High Court ruled the Constitution affords all Americans 14th Amendment equal rights, but there has been no shortage of Republican legislation in states and Congress to subvert the Constitutional authority of the Supreme Court. Republicans and evangelicals will continue attempting to deny gay Americans’ equal protection under the law despite ruling after decision striking down bans on marriage equality in Republican-controlled states.

Any American that believes the religious right’s attack on human rights, the U.S. Constitution, and other Americans is insignificant, or on the decline and not a threat to democracy, is either incredibly naïve or has not been paying attention to what is happening in this country with increasing frequency.

The religious right has about as much respect for the Constitution as they do other Americans’ rights, and they have been engaged in a long-term effort to destroy both in the pursuit of theocracy as America’s government for decades.

Invariably, some Christians object to being lumped in with evangelical fanatics rejecting the Constitutions’ protection from religious imposition and domination. They proclaim loudly that they are opposed to forcing the Christian religion down the throats of Americans or denying other Americans their constitutionally-protected equal rights and it is certainly true. But it is difficult to take “those Christians” seriously while they clutch that bible to their bosoms and “cherry-pick” the “Jesus parts” out of the preponderance of hateful parts. Many, many Americans fail to see any difference between their cherry picking and evangelical extremists choosing passages to subvert the Constitution and Americans’ civil and human rights.Frankly, few Americans, even Secular Humanists, could not care less how or why any American chooses to follow any religion and have no desire to abridge their right to worship as they see fit.

But when they claim Christianity gives them authority to deny other Americans’ their Constitutional rights, and seek to destroy the Constitution and democracy, then maybe it is time to reconsider their right to religious freedom if for no other reason than to defend the Constitution from its greatest threat; Christians who will not accept that the bible is not the law of the land.


http://www.politicususa.com/2014/03/11/religious-crusades-deny-americans-constitutional-rights.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+politicususa%2FfJAl+%28Politi cus+USA+%29

Fuck "Christians"

[RandomGuy]

"Christian" Taleban teacher gets kicked in the balls

Texas Student Gains Scholarship After Recording Her Teacher Preaching Christianity and Equating Atheism To Smoking in His Economics Class(Audio+Video) (http://liberal-agenda.com/texas-student-gains-scholarship-after-recording-her-teacher-preaching-christianity-and-equating-atheism-to-smoking-in-his-economics-classaudiovideo/)

The second is a video of her speech at a Humanists of Houston meeting, where she details her experience during his classes and her experiences involving friends after the recordings went public and a letter was sent to the school’s superintendent. A friend of hers who attended the class the next semester told his new class that Sheppard took away his right to “talk about Jesus”. She also said she lost many friends who disagreed with her as time went on, but she still stands by the belief that what she did was the right thing.

http://www.alternet.org/belief/gutsy-high-school-student-exposes-teacher-who-compared-atheism-smoking-wins-scholarship?akid=10950.187590.EEpciu&rd=1&src=newsletter898329&t=5

fucking stupid, crusading teacher thinks "freedom of speech" and "freedom of religion" means he can teach Jesus in taxpayer funded economics class. This is the kind of crap that needs to be stopped, and certainly happens is charter schools.





Interesting article.

I will shamelessly create a thread on it, as it touches on an interesting myth among christians.

[boutons_deux]

Taxpayers fund creationism in the classroom


Taxpayers in 14 states will bankroll nearly $1 billion this year in tuition for private schools, including hundreds of religious schools that teach Earth is less than 10,000 years old, Adam and Eve strolled the garden with dinosaurs, and much of modern biology, geology and cosmology is a web of lies.

Now a major push to expand these voucher programs is under way from Alaska to New York, a development that seems certain to sharply increase the investment.

Public debate about science education tends to center on bills like one in Missouri (http://www.house.mo.gov/billsummary.aspx?bill=HB1472&year=2014&code=R), which would allow public school parents to pull their kids from science class whenever the topic of evolution comes up. But the more striking shift in public policy has flown largely under the radar, as a well-funded political campaign has pushed to open the spigot for tax dollars to flow to private schools. Among them are Bible-based schools that train students to reject and rebut the cornerstones of modern science.

Decades of litigation have established that public schools cannot teach creationism or intelligent design. But private schools receiving public subsidies can — and do. A POLITICO review of hundreds of pages of course outlines, textbooks and school websites found that many of these faith-based schools go beyond teaching the biblical story of the six days of creation as literal fact. Their course materials nurture disdain of the secular world, distrust of momentous discoveries and hostility toward mainstream scientists.

They often distort basic facts about the scientific method — teaching, for instance, that theories such as evolution are by definition highly speculative because they haven’t been elevated to the status of “scientific law.”

And this approach isn’t confined to high school biology class; it is typically threaded through all grades and all subjects.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/03/education-creationism-104934.html

[boutons_deux]

5 Even Worse Lies from Accelerated Christian Education
http://leavingfundamentalism.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/5-even-worse-lies-from-accelerated-christian-education/

[boutons_deux]

the Texas Christian Taleban assholes won't stop

How Creationists in Texas Are Pressuring Schoolbook Publishers to Bring God into Biology

It seems creationists in Texas have resorted to bullying and lying in an attempt to force evolution out of the classroom.

In November 2013 the Texas State Board of Education adopted new science standards (http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/texas-school-board-adopts-accurate-biology-books-rebuffing-last-ditch-campaign-creationists) for its textbooks that will bring evolution into the Texas public school classroom.

All eyes were on Texas as the SBOE voted on the new proposed changes to the science curriculum that would change textbooks around the US.

Texas is the largest purchaser of public school textbooks. Because publishers do not want to publish different textbooks around the US, they look toward Texas for what they will be including in the new books each year. As goes Texas, goes the nation.

This can be bad news if special interest groups such as the misleadingly named group, Educational Research Analysts (ERA), get their way. ERA is a creationist lobbying group that stood firmly against the 2013 decision to introduce evolution into Texas classrooms.

Neil Frey, acting on behalf of ERA, has been aggressively lobbying since the decision to change much of the wording in the textbooks. Frey’s complaint, filed with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) alleges that Pearson Education’s high school biology textbook is wrong in explaining the close similarities between chimpanzee and human DNA. The textbook states that scientific evidence shows that chimpanzees are the closest living genetic relatives of humans.

Chimpanzees are in fact the closest living relative to humans, but creationists do not like that, so they file complaints. Pearson responded (http://tfninsider.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Pearson_Response_HumansChimps.pdf) to these claims, disputing Frey’s complaints, stating that making these changes would be misleading to students' education.

Now Frey has convinced an SBOE board member, Barbara Cargill, that his claims are valid. This comes as no real surprise as Cargill was a board member who opposed the standards change from the beginning.

In an email between Cargill and a TEA staff member, obtained under the state's open records law by the Texas Freedom Network (http://tfninsider.org/2014/07/09/still-bullying-science-textbook-publishers/), Cargill tries to pressure TEA into siding with Frey and forcing all the publishers to update their texts or risk massive fines.

Cargill writes in her email:

“Pearson has been very hard-nosed during this adoption, so I hope staff at least agrees that these 3 items must be changed, especially knowing that 3 other publishers agreed to the changes. ( LIE! )

If the science experts at McGraw, Houghton, and STEMscopes agreed with Neal, that says a lot. Neal does his homework, and I looked into it too, just to be sure. The research is solid, accurate and current.”


But did three other publishers agree to make these changes, as Cargill states? It does not appear so. None of the publishers have shown any signs that they are agreeing to the changes and STEM scopes have said outright that they are not. ( "scopes" ? :lol )

Cargill also doesn’t seem to have gotten board approval or worked with any other SBOE board members before emailing TEA and attempting to pressure them into making Frey’s changes. Her colleagues voted in favor of the changes and it would seem odd they would then back up her mission to undo them.

To claim that both Frey and Cargill have “done their homework” on these claims is blatantly dishonest as the claims made in the textbooks are fully in line with scientific evidence and consensus on human and chimpanzee DNA.

This action seems to be a new low, even for creationists in an effort to undermine scientific education. Groups like ERA know that if they can change textbooks in Texas, it is a nationwide victory. They will stop at nothing to perpetrate their myth at the expense of American students.

http://www.alternet.org/belief/how-creationists-texas-are-pressuring-schoolbook-publishers-bring-god-biology?akid=12036.187590.DQD-tG&rd=1&src=newsletter1012131&t=19&paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

Thanks, Repugs and all y'all redneck/Christian voters who elect TX Repugs who permit, encourage this kind of shit from REPUG appointees.

[boutons_deux]

Nation Apparently Believed in Science at Some Point

http://www.newyorker.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/aldrin-moon-landing-690x564-1405945724.jpg

Historians studying archival photographs from four decades ago have come to the conclusion that the U.S. must have believed in science at some point.

According to the historian Davis Logsdon, who has been sifting through mounds of photographic evidence at the University of Minnesota, the nation apparently once held the view that investing in science and even math could yield accomplishments that would be a source of national pride.


While Logsdon has not developed a complete theory to explain the United States’ pro-science stance during that era, he attributes some of it to the liberal views of the President at that time, Richard M. Nixon.

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/nation-apparently-believed-science-point?utm_source=tny&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=borowitz&mbid=nl_Borowitz%20(106)

[boutons_deux]

Creationist Ken Ham calls to end space program because aliens are going to hell anyway
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Ken-Ham-screenshot.jpg

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/21/creationist-ken-ham-calls-to-end-space-program-because-aliens-are-going-to-hell-anyway/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

Hey, Bible-thumpers, y'all got some real all-stars on your team! :lol

[boutons_deux]

Air Force academy seems thoroughly polluted with Christian Taleban

The Air Force Won’t Allow An Atheist Airman To Reenlist Unless He Swears A Religious Oath (http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/09/05/3563944/the-air-force-wont-allow-an-atheist-airman-to-reenlist-unless-he-swears-a-religious-oath/)

An unnamed airman in the United States Air Force wants to continue to serve his country. Yet, the Air Force reportedly told him that his service is unwanted unless he swears an oath that concludes with the religious affirmation “so help me God.” (http://www.airforcetimes.com/article/20140904/NEWS05/309040066/) According to the Air Force Times, the airman crossed out the words “so help me God” when he signed his reenlistment contract.

He was subsequently told that he must either swear this religious oath or leave the service.

In justifying this decision, an Air Force spokesperson pointed to a federal law, which requires “[e]ach person enlisting in an armed force” to take an oath that concludes with the four words this airman finds objectionable (http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/502). He did agree to the other portions of the oath, which includes a promise to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” and to “obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me.”

Although this Air Force spokesperson is correct that Congress did pass a law stating that members of the armed forces should swear an oath that includes the words “So help me God,” the Constitution trumps an act of Congress, and requiring servicemembers to comply with this portion of the law is almost certainly unconstitutional. In the 1961 case Torcaso v. Watkins, the Supreme Court held that “neither a State nor the Federal Government can constitutionally force a person ‘to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion.’”

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/09/05/3563944/the-air-force-wont-allow-an-atheist-airman-to-reenlist-unless-he-swears-a-religious-oath/

[boutons_deux]

An Air Force Academy "Christian" grad:

Colorado GOP: Demon-obsessed ex-Navy chaplain has ‘no business in public office’

On Thursday, the Colorado Springs Independent newspaper published (http://www.csindy.com/coloradosprings/being-more-than-extreme-may-not-derail-klingenschmitt-in-district-15/Content?oid=2934614) an article on the state House candidacy of former Navy Chaplain Gordon “Dr. Chaps” Klingenschmitt, a far-right evangelical Christian who is so radical that even state Republicans are disavowing his candidacy.

Right Wing Watch reported (http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/klingenschmitt-has-no-business-public-office) that 46-year-old Klingenschmitt’s recent (http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/26/gop-candidate-colorado-gay-congressman-will-behead-christians-who-dont-worship-sodomy/)statement (http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/26/gop-candidate-colorado-gay-congressman-will-behead-christians-who-dont-worship-sodomy/) that openly gay Rep. Jared Polis (D) is going to join ISIS and start beheading Christians in the U.S. has sent GOP officials scrambling (http://kdvr.com/2014/08/25/gop-chair-klingenschmitt-comments-on-polis-isis-dont-reflect-republicans-as-a-whole/) to create some distance between themselves and the pastor, who has a long history of outlandish comments (http://www.csindy.com/coloradosprings/some-of-state-house-candidate-klingenschmitts-beliefs/Content?oid=2934616).

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/09/05/colorado-gop-demon-obsessed-ex-navy-chaplain-has-no-business-in-public-office/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

MRRF covers it well:

U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY GRIPPED BY FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIAN FUROR, THREATS MOUNT
VS. RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/press-releases/2014/Bible_Verse_3-13-14.html

[boutons_deux]

TX Christian Taleban still fighting to indoctrinate children into their dishonest propaganda

Writing to the Standards:

Reviews of Proposed Social Studies Textbooks
for Texas Public Schools

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

For the first time since 2002, the State Board of Education (SBOE) this fall will consider proposed new
social studies textbooks for all grades in Texas public schools. Extensive reviews of these textbooks,
sponsored by the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund, show that they suffer from many of the same
serious flaws that plague the state’s controversial curriculum standards for social studies the SBOE
approved in 2010.

The new textbooks must be based on those curriculum standards, the Texas Essential Knowledge and
Skills, or TEKS. The standards have come under heavy fire ever since the SBOE approved them.

A scathing review from the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute in 2011, for example, called the
new U.S. History standards adopted by the SBOE a “politicized distortion of history” filled with
“misrepresentations at every turn.” Many of the problems Fordham identified were evident also in the
standards for the other social studies courses, especially U.S. government and world history.

Findings

Our reviewers’ broad findings noted below are followed by a listing of specific examples of problems
they identified during their examination of the textbooks up for adoption in Texas:

• A number of government and world history textbooks exaggerate Judeo-Christian influence on
the nation’s founding and Western political tradition. 4

• 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 civilizations.

• 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 (Pearson) 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.

http://www.tfn.org/site/DocServer/FINAL_executivesummary.pdf?docID=4625

fuck Texas, fuck Texans and fuck the Christian Taleban.

[boutons_deux]

Georgia teacher burns through sick days to protest criticism of classroom Bible-thumping


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/god-in-classroom-screen-capture-615x345.jpg

A history teacher in Cherokee County, Georgia has decided to take a week of sick days to protest those who criticize him for “bringing God into the classroom,” 11Alive reports (http://www.11alive.com/story/news/local/canton/2014/09/09/cherokee-county-god-classroom/15370875/).

Sequoyah High School teacher John Osborne said that he left because he didn’t feel the administration supported him. “I do have the right to fight for what I believe in and talk about Jesus in the classroom,” he told 11Alive, and claimed that he had been talking about Christ in the classroom “for years.”

But when a student complained that Osborne had told a class that pot smokers were going to Hell, the administration brought Osborne in discuss the matter. He claimed that he never said such a thing, but admitted to regularly discussing Jesus Christ in his history classes.

“As I have grown in Christ,” he said, “it’s grown stronger in the classroom.”

When asked whether he would return after he used up his sick days, Osborne said, “I don’t know — only God knows — and I will pray about it.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/09/11/georgia-teacher-burns-through-sick-days-to-protest-criticism-of-classroom-bible-thumping/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

If these GA Taleban had peanuts for brains, it would be a huge leap up in intelligence.

[boutons_deux]

TX Christian Taliban news:

New Texas Social Studies Textbooks Draw Fire During Public Hearing

Too much negative about former President George W. Bush, too much positive about Hillary Rodham Clinton, and way too much coverage of Moses.

Those were among a long list of complaints — from both sides of the political spectrum — during an all-day hearing Tuesday on new history and social studies books for Texas public schools.

Most of the complaints centered on alleged biases in the textbooks and e-books that the State Board of Education will vote on in November. But more broadly, the hearing demonstrated how pitched battles over culture and politics are reflected in Texas’ schools and their curriculum. The materials will be distributed to schools in the fall of 2015.
Southern Methodist University history professor Kathleen Wellman told board members that several of the books on U.S. government and U.S. history exaggerate the influence of biblical figure Moses on America’s Founding Fathers.

“These books make Moses the original Founding Father and credit him for virtually every distinctive feature of American government,” Wellman said. “Moses shows up everywhere doing everything.” :lol

She said publishers are trying to follow an ill-conceived curriculum requirement approved by the state board four years ago that called for more coverage of Moses and Mosaic Law in textbooks.

“This epitomizes the wrong-headed idea that the United States was founded on biblical law. The publishers are trying to conform to a standard without knowing how to do it,” Wellman said.

If the books are adopted as now written, she added, Texas schoolchildren will grow up “believing that Moses was the first American.”

On coverage of political figures, Emily McBurney of Temple said the Worldview company’s world history book has virtually nothing good to say about Bush, including the “increasingly low approval ratings” during his White House tenure and his continued resistance to evidence of human-caused climate change.

But Clinton, the former secretary of state and first lady, receives 38 lines of glowing descriptions in the book, McBurney told the board.

“Her roles as secretary of state (2009-2013) has often been seen as having a dual purpose: to improve the image of the United States and its relationships with foreign nations that were seen as damaged by the Bush administration, and as an advocate for the impoverished and the hungry around the world,” the high school textbook read.

Extended criticism of the Worldview books led board member David Bradley (R-Beaumont) to remark: “Do you own any Worldview stock? Because I would recommend that you sell it.”

Bradley was part of the social conservative bloc on the board that in 2010 pushed through new curriculum standards for U.S. history and other social studies courses that reflected a much more conservative tone than the previous standards.

Several speakers who criticized the books Tuesday blamed many of their problems — including factual errors — on the standards adopted four years ago over the objections of Democrats and mainstream education groups.

But board president Barbara Cargill (R-The Woodlands) warned those in attendance that complaining about the standards now won’t do much good because they are now required in classroom instruction, achievement tests, and textbooks.

“We are not here to dive back into the curriculum standards,” she said. “That was over in 2010. We are here now to discuss textbooks.”

Other people testifying Tuesday cited unfair treatment of Muslims, Latinos, American Indians, and various minority groups.

Mustafaa Carroll of the Council of American-Islamic Relations told board members that some of the books unfairly blame the rise of international terrorism on Muslims and Islamic fundamentalism.

“Terrorist groups with nationalist and political agendas have formed in every part of the world,” said Carroll, who has headed the regional CAIR office in Dallas and Houston.

He cited the Irish Republican Army and “Jewish-Zionist terrorist groups who committed acts of terror in their quest to establish a Jewish state.”

Jacqueline Jones, a history professor at the University of Texas at Austin, criticized the Pearson U.S. history text for encouraging ideological biases “that are either outside the boundaries of established mainstream scholarship, or just plain wrong.”

The authors, she said, “seem determined to shield impressionable (high school) students from some of the unpleasant facts of our history.”

That includes former Alabama Gov. George Wallace, whose opposition to school integration and glorification of white supremacy is watered down, she said, to make it sound “as if he was appealing to those who did not like the Beatles’ music or their haircuts.” :lol

“We do our students a disservice when we scrub history clean of unpleasant truths, and when we present an inaccurate view of the past that promotes a simple-minded, ideologically driven point of view,” she told the board.

Karin Gilliland of Garland, who said she spent more than 130 hours reviewing some of the books this summer, criticized the world history books that are now using B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era) to replace B.C. and A.D. when citing historical dates. Some scholars use B.C.E. and C.E. to avoid using the central figure of Christianity, Jesus Christ, as the reference point for the important dates.

She also said that one of the books devalues the good in America. “I don’t see people flocking to Russia or Arabia or Africa. I see people flocking to America,” she said. “Our values are what make us great.” :lol

Texas last adopted new social studies books in 2002. As one of the largest textbook purchasers in the nation, the state has a strong influence on books marketed in other states.

http://www.nationalmemo.com/new-texas-social-studies-textbooks-draw-fire-public-hearing/

The American Dream, ya gotta be asleep to believe it.

[boutons_deux]

Texas Proposes Rewriting School Textbooks to Deny Man-Made Climate Change

In the proposed 6th grade texts, students were introduced to global warming amid false claims that there was scientific disagreement about its causes.

“Scientists agree that Earth’s climate is changing. They do not agree on what is causing the change,” the passage reads.

It quotes two staffers at the Heartland Institute :lol who are not scientists.

The report said the entire section was misleading. “Scientists do not disagree about what is causing climate change, the vast majority (97%) of climate papers and actively publishing climatologists (again 97%) agree that human activity is responsible,” the report said.

The NCSE reviewers also found disinformation on climate change in the proposed 5th grade text books. The passage reads: “Some scientists say it is natural for Earth’s temperature to be higher for a few years. They predict we’ll have some cooler years and things will even out.”

But the centre said that was incorrect. “We are not aware of any currently publishing climatologists who are predicting a cooling trend where ‘things will even out.’”
The reviewers said the proposed 6th and 8th grade texts also contained false statements on the causes for the thinning of the ozone layer.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/16/texas-proposes-rewriting-school-text-books-to-deny-manmade-climate-change

==============================


Ties to the Koch Brothers

The Heartland Institute is connected to the Koch brothers (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Koch_brothers) and their network of right-wing donors. In the past, the Institute has accepted $40,000 from the Claude R. Lambe Foundation (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Claude_R._Lambe_Foundation) and $62,578 from the Charles G. Koch Foundation (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Charles_G._Koch_Foundation). Both organizations are members of the Koch Family Foundations (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Koch_Family_Foundations).[2] (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute#cite_note-2)

Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council

The Heartland Institute is a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Legislative_Exchange_Council) (ALEC) as of 2010-2011.[3] (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute#cite_note-3) It is a member of ALEC's Telecommunications and Information Technology Task Force (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Telecommunications_and_Information_Technology_Task _Force),[4] (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute#cite_note-TITMeetingAgenda-4) Education Task Force (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Education_Task_Force),[5] (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute#cite_note-EdMeetingAgenda-5) Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Commerce,_Insurance_and_Economic_Development_Task_ Force)Financial Services Subcommittee[6] (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute#cite_note-MeetingAgenda-6) and Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Energy,_Environment_and_Agriculture_Task_Force).[7] (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute#cite_note-EEAMeetingMaterials-7) James Taylor, managing editor of the Heartland publication Environment & Climate News (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environment_%26_Climate_News), spoke at the Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Energy,_Environment_and_Agriculture_Task_Force) meeting at the 2011 ALEC Annual Meeting.[7] (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute#cite_note-EEAMeetingMaterials-7)Heartland was also an Exhibitor at ALEC's 2011 Annual Meeting.[8] (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute#cite_note-Corporate_Chairs-8)

The Heartland Institute has also functioned as a publisher and promoter of ALEC's model legislation.[9] (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute#cite_note-9) At the Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Commerce,_Insurance_and_Economic_Development_Task_ Force) meeting of ALEC's 2010 annual meeting, Alan Smith “The Hurricane Mitigation Promotion Act” and “A Resolution Concerning Tax Treatment of Affiliated Reinsurance.”[10] (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute#cite_note-10) Marc Oestreich, who represents Heartland on the Education Task Force (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Education_Task_Force), has also sponsored model legislation. Oestreich sponsored the "Parent Trigger Act," which he presented at the 2010 States and Nation Policy Summit,[11] (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute#cite_note-11) and the "Taxpayers’ Savings Grants Act," which he presented to the K–12 Education Reform Subcommittee during ALEC’s 38th Annual Meeting.[12] (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute#cite_note-12)

Heartland Partners With ALEC to Roll Back Renewable Energy Sources

As a part of its 2013 agenda, ALEC partnered with the Heartland Institute to roll back the Renewable Portfolio Standard (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Renewable_Portfolio_Standard) (RPS), state-level legislation that requires utility companies to produce a certain amount of their total energy from renewable sources.[13] (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute#cite_note-13)

The Institute brought a model bill, dubbed the Electricity Freedom Act, to ALEC's attention in May 2012. While ALEC publicly expressed its high hopes for the legislation, the bill had little success in state houses during the 2013 legislative session, failing to pass every legislature in which it was introduced.[14] (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute#cite_note-14)

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute

TX is really a fucked up state, BigCarbon and Christian Taliban leading the fucking.

[boutons_deux]

New U.S. history curriculum sparks education battle of 2014

To improve the Advanced Placement class for U.S. history, some of the best and brightest history scholars in the country worked for six years on a new curriculum.

The idea was to replace traditional memorization with more emphasis on critical thinking and some key periods in American history, such as the 1980s.

It all seemed innocuous enough. Maybe even a tad dry.

Then it exploded.

Just weeks before the school year began, the change sparked a political feud over how children should be taught about American history — and whose version.

From the tea party to talk radio, conservatives have taken aim at the new curriculum, describing it as liberally biased and anti-American.

In August, the Republican National Committee passed a resolution condemning the course, decrying it as a "radically revisionist view of American history that emphasizes negative aspects of our nation's history while omitting or minimizing positive aspects."

( :lol standard Repug LIE. Repugs want all y'all to stay asleep so you believe in The American Dream )

The resolution urged Congress to withhold any federal funding to the College Board, a private company that designed the curriculum, until the course is rewritten. The resolution called for a congressional investigation and at least a one-year delay in implementing the course while a committee of lawmakers, educators and parents come up with a new version that tells "the true history" of the country.

Concerned Women for America, a conservative Christian women's activist group that claims more than 600,000 members, has told followers to petition local and state school boards to delay the implementation of the new course and be ready to pull their children out of Advanced Placement classes unless revisions are made.

Two weeks ago, the Texas Education Agency overwhelmingly approved a preliminary proposal to favor state-sanctioned educational materials in the classrooms over those provided by the College Board or other outside educational groups. STATES' RIGHTS!

"No one is against AP classes," said Ken Mercer, a board member from San Antonio who was behind the proposal. But the tea party Republican said he was deeply concerned about what he called the "liberal bias" of the Advanced Placement materials.

"I've had kids tell me when they get to college, their U.S. History 101 class is really I hate America 101," Mercer said. :lol

The fight over the AP curriculum really took hold in Colorado.

Since Sept. 22, thousands of Jefferson County high school students have walked out of classes in a protest against a conservative school board member's plan to scrutinize the AP history curriculum after she also found it too negative in its depiction of America.

On Tuesday, students at a middle school in the same sprawling suburban Denver district also walked out. On Monday, two high schools had to close because of teacher sickouts. Earlier, two others were forced to close.

Julie Williams, elected last year to the Jeffco Public Schools board as part of

a conservative slate now in the majority, asked that teachers instead use a curriculum that promotes a respect for authority, patriotism and "essentials and benefits of the free-enterprise system."

:lol iow, "all y'all kids be ignorant sheeple for life, and stand still, bend over, do nothing while the 1% and corps (aka privileged white men) loot the country"

She said teachers should avoid materials that "encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife or disregard the law."

Williams and other conservatives say the new framework leaves out important positive figures and events in American history by design to tilt the instruction. They complain there are only passing references to the Founding Fathers, to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, and to important military battles won by the United States.

Williams has acknowledge that she only skimmed the framework and did not really know what was in the choice of reading materials vetted by the College Board.

(http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-colorado-schools-fight-20141001-story.html#)The vitriol against the test has taken the College Board aback. "The curriculum framework that follows is just that — frameworks for conveying the content and skills typically required for college credit and placement," the group said in a statement.

"The frameworks do not specify the detailed content a teacher will choose to teach," the statement said.

The College Board added that no historical figures or events had been omitted that were present in previous years.

The board has released a sample test, which is given at the end of the class to determine whether a student receives college credit. The test includes a section on interpreting documents and charts, multiple-choice questions and essays.

Here are a few sample questions.

"Briefly explain ONE example of how contact between Native American and Europeans brought changes to Native American societies in the period 1492 to 1700."

An essay question:

"Analyze major changes and continuities in the social and economic experiences of African Americans who migrated from the rural South to urban areas in the North in the period 1910-1920."

Another:

"Some historians have argued that the American Revolution was not revolutionary in nature. Support, modify or refute this interpretation."
The leadership of the National Education Assn. has been closely watching the controversy.

"There are political overtones all over this. It certainly does appear that this is not isolated. What I don't know is who is writing the script," NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia said.

In Tennessee, Hal Rounds, a tea party candidate who recently lost his Republican primary challenge for the state's House of Representatives, agrees that this fight is political, but he blames the other side.

"I have become real concerned about the way history is being taught. Many people in this country's subcultures, and I call intellectual academics a subculture, think that it's not right for America to be on top of the world. So they are teaching the bad things in history and leaving the good things out," :lol he said.

That notion baffles history teachers who are by turns insulted and enraged.

Stephanie Rossi, a 35-year teacher who has taught AP U.S. history at Wheat Ridge High School in Jefferson County for more than a decade, is stunned by "the assumption that teachers of U.S. history are leading kids astray, teaching them to be un-American and we're not honoring the history of this country."

She said critics did not understand the new curriculum. Most students come to the accelerated class already understanding well-known historical characters and events.

Her job, she said, is to challenge them to dig deeper into the role of religion, geography and ideology surrounding history and adding other voices or perspectives that might not be as familiar.

"This notion that we would leave these pivotal figures in American history out is just ludicrous," said Rossi, who serves as vice president of the Jefferson County teachers union.

"I don't think of history as positive or negative. I think of it as a story. And within that story there are successes and failures, tragedies and moments of great brilliance," she said. "I feel very strongly that I have to let my students come to their own understanding, their own conclusions."

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-colorado-schools-fight-20141001-story.html#page=1

typical Repug/VRWC/tea bagger "history":

The slaves were happy on the plantations (because slavery is approved in the Bible, and should be tried again, but only for blacks)

The Civil War was not fought over slavery.

USA won the Viet Nam war, NEVER lost a battle.

[DeadlyDynasty]

^Why do you whine about everything, tbh? That's not how grown men conduct themselves...you should be setting a better example for your children.

[RandomGuy]

Georgia teacher burns through sick days to protest criticism of classroom Bible-thumping


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/god-in-classroom-screen-capture-615x345.jpg

A history teacher in Cherokee County, Georgia has decided to take a week of sick days to protest those who criticize him for “bringing God into the classroom,” 11Alive reports (http://www.11alive.com/story/news/local/canton/2014/09/09/cherokee-county-god-classroom/15370875/).

Sequoyah High School teacher John Osborne said that he left because he didn’t feel the administration supported him. “I do have the right to fight for what I believe in and talk about Jesus in the classroom,” he told 11Alive, and claimed that he had been talking about Christ in the classroom “for years.”

But when a student complained that Osborne had told a class that pot smokers were going to Hell, the administration brought Osborne in discuss the matter. He claimed that he never said such a thing, but admitted to regularly discussing Jesus Christ in his history classes.

“As I have grown in Christ,” he said, “it’s grown stronger in the classroom.”

When asked whether he would return after he used up his sick days, Osborne said, “I don’t know — only God knows — and I will pray about it.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/09/11/georgia-teacher-burns-through-sick-days-to-protest-criticism-of-classroom-bible-thumping/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

If these GA Taleban had peanuts for brains, it would be a huge leap up in intelligence.




I dont' mind the guy having the right to believe whatever he wants, but if he is drawing a government paycheck, he shouldn't be using his time to push any one religion.

[boutons_deux]

Ben Carson: AP History will make students join ISIS (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/01/1333611/-Ben-Carson-AP-History-will-make-students-join-ISIS)

"There's only two paragraphs in there about George Washington ... little or nothing about Martin Luther King, a whole section on slavery and how evil we are, a whole section on Japanese internment camps and how we slaughtered millions of Japanese with our bombs," Carson said at the event.

He continued, "I think most people when they finish that course, they'd be ready to go sign up for ISIS ... We have got to stop this silliness crucifying ourselves."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/01/1333611/-Ben-Carson-AP-History-will-make-students-join-ISIS

all y'all right-wingers got some real intellignet NEUROSURGEONS on your team :lol

this one one black neurosurgeon that should operate on Wild Cobra

[boutons_deux]

5 Scary Ways the Right-Wing Is Trying to Subvert How Kids Are Taught US History


Revising AP U.S. History To Make It More Nationalistic: Over the past year, conservatives nationwide have complained that AP U.S. history courses are too left-wing, focusing too much on gross injustices like slavery and Jim Crow. This campaign has born fruit, with new AP standards being released (http://www.newsweek.com/revised-ap-history-standards-will-emphasize-american-exceptionalism-358210) that now include a section on “American exceptionalism” – the greatness of the American experiment, essentially – and a more “neutral” tone in areas of history critics felt were too “anti-American."



Trying To Ban AP U.S. History Altogether: The successful campaign to make national history standards more nationalistic was started by GOP lawmakers all over the country who are simply trying to ban (http://neatoday.org/2015/03/16/oklahoma-educators-quash-effort-ban-ap-u-s-history/) the courses from high school altogether. This effort was spearheaded in Oklahoma, and became a cause celebre for Republican lawmakers all over the country (http://atlantaprogressivenews.com/2015/03/14/state-senate-votes-to-ban-ap-u-s-history-claims-the-courses-are-biased/).


Controlling the History Textbook Market: One of the nation's largest textbook markets is in Texas, which is such a large state that when changes are made to textbooks there, they tend to impact what's published and sold in other states. There are battles on almost an annual basis to revise these textbooks to be more conservative, with extreme religious advocates pushing for designating America (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2014/11/texas-textbooks-teach-america-is-christian-nation/) as a “Christian nation.”


Koch-Approved Education: In North Carolina, a Koch-backed group isdeveloping a curriculum (http://www.alternet.org/education/how-koch-brothers-are-trying-brainwash-americas-kids) for K-12 students, even using grant money from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, meaning that a politicized right-wing organization is essentially being paid by taxpayers to help indoctrinate kids.


Eliminating Courses That Teach Critical Thinking: In Arizona, the right-wing war on education took the form of an outright ban (http://articles.latimes.com/2013/mar/12/nation/la-na-nn-ff-ethnic-studies-arizona-20130312) on ethnic studies courses in public schools. Opponents of the ban are currently fighting (http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2015/07/07/appeals-court-revives-challenge-to-arizona-ban-on-ethnic-studies/) it in federal court.


http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/5-scary-ways-right-wing-trying-subvert-how-kids-are-taught-us-history?akid=13352.187590.ov8T2g&rd=1&src=newsletter1040341&t=9

[boutons_deux]

Texas mom calls out publisher after noticing high school son’s text book glossed over slavery

A Texas mother took to YouTube to call out the publishers of her son’s geography text book for hinting that Africans first came to the United States as immigrants rather than slaves, ABC13 reports (http://abc13.com/education/mom-calls-out-textbook-publisher-for-interpreting-slavery-as-immigration/1014971/).Roni Dean-Burren was taken aback when she noticed her 9th grade son’s textbook, “World Geography,” addressed the forced displacement of Africans to the Americas to work as slaves in an unusual way. The subject is addressed under a section of the book, published by McGraw-Hill, called “Patterns of immigration.”

On the section’s title page, there is a map that describes Africans being brought to the United States as “workers.”

“The Atlantic slave trade between the 1500s and the 1800s brought millions of workers from Africa to the southern United States to work on agricultural plantations,” Dean-Burren read from the text. “Immigrants — yeah that word matters.”

She then points out a section that discusses English and Europeans coming to the U.S., many as indentured servants,

but then notes that “there is no mention of Africans working as slaves or being slaves. It just says we were workers.”

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/10/texas-mom-calls-out-publisher-after-noticing-high-school-sons-text-book-glossed-over-slavery/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

Coddling of the American Mind?

How about Dumbing Down of American Kids?

[boutons_deux]

Texas: We don't need academics to fact-check our textbooks

The Texas Board of Education rejected a measure Wednesday that would require university experts to fact-check the state’s textbooks in public schools.

The board rejected the measure 8-7, reaffirming the current fact-checking system that relies on citizen review panels made up of parents, teachers, and other members of the general public.

The measure was likely proposed in response to a complaint last month, when a Houston mother found her child’s newly approved geography textbook referred to African slaves shipped to plantations in the United States between the 1500s and 1800s as “workers.”

Instead of requesting academic consultation, the board voted unanimously to require that review panels be made up of “at least a majority” of people with “sufficient content expertise and experience,” at the discretion of the Texas education commissioner. :lol

http://news.yahoo.com/texas-dont-academics-fact-check-textbooks-135530956.html

slaves were "workers" was no mistake. It's part of the slave states' strategy, including ST racists, to deny that the Civil War was over slavery, and that the "workers" were actually content to be owned and treated nicely.

We Don't Need No Steenkin Pointy-Headed, Educated Fact Checkers.

[baseline bum]

Kind of funny how you yourself glossed over the genocide of American slavery by comparing NCAA athletics to it.

[boutons_deux]

Kind of funny how you yourself glossed over the genocide of American slavery by comparing NCAA athletics to it.

you're one stupid fuck who refuses, maybe is incapable, of undertanding my ECONOMIC-only comparison of modern blacks exploited for free so NCAA/colleges could pocket $Bs. with blacks as cotton-pickin capital.

[baseline bum]

you're one stupid fuck who refuses, maybe is incapable, of undertanding my ECONOMIC-only comparison of modern blacks exploited for free so NCAA/colleges could pocket $Bs. with blacks as cotton-pickin capital.

So you acknowledge NCAA athletics are nothing like American slavery?

[boutons_deux]

So you acknowledge NCAA athletics are nothing like American slavery?

GFY

[baseline bum]

GFY

But you still acknowledge NCAA athletics are nothing like American slavery?

[boutons_deux]

But you still acknowledge NCAA athletics are nothing like American slavery?

GFY

[baseline bum]

GFY

You would make a good repug the way you dodge questions son.

[boutons_deux]

You would make a good repug the way you dodge questions son.

RIF, and you are functionally illiterate, kiddo.

[baseline bum]

http://athenacinema.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Monty-Python-and-the-Holy-Grail.png

[TeyshaBlue]

:lmao

Just a flesh wound!

[boutons_deux]

:lmao

Just a flesh wound!

Baseline Butt is the guy on the left

[baseline bum]

Let's call it a draw

[boutons_deux]

let's you GFY

[boutons_deux]

Messing With Texas Textbooks

Larry Wilmore examined the latest school textbook revisions from Texas, which is eliminating references to the slave trade, Jim Crow laws, and the Ku Klux Klan — changes will affect history books in schools all across the country.

Texas is a big place, Larry explained, “and the one thing Texans like more than white picket fences — is whitewashing history.”

But how to illustrate this? Larry read to a group of schoolchildren from the new book, “Goodnight Slavery.”

see the vid

http://www.nationalmemo.com/late-night-roundup-messing-with-texas-textbooks/

[boutons_deux]

Scholars Find 400 New Errors in ‘Racist’ Textbook Revamp

Rallying scholars say the revised Mexican-American studies textbook, which describes Mexican Americans as dangerous and lazy, also introduces hundreds of new errors.


The board is scheduled to take a final vote this week on the Mexican American Heritagetextbook, which has been widely criticized (https://www.texasobserver.org/mexican-american-history-textbook-coalition/) for its poor writing, factual errors and passages describing Mexican Americans as lazy and dangerous.

expert reviewers said the changes only introduced more errors. The publisher offered 900 responses to critics, but University of Texas professor Emilio Zamora said he and other reviewers counted 400 more errors in those responses.

What hasn’t changed, Zamora said, is the book’s depiction of Latino culture as anti-American.

The book says that Chicano activists in the 1970s “wanted to destroy this society,” and suggests that immigrants arrive from Latin
American countries with an appetite for revolution.

“They say it directly, and they say it indirectly,” Zamora said. “In fact, that’s the central theme of the textbook.”

https://www.texasobserver.org/mexican-american-studies-textbook-sboe-rally/

[boutons_deux]

TX Christian Taliban news

Texas Board of Education Votes to Keep Evolution-Doubting Language in High School Biology Textbooks

Evolution skeptics on the State Board of Education voted against updating Texas' 9th grade biology textbook to reflect scientific fact on Wednesday. While the vote — which keeps language doubting evolution in Texas textbooks — is only preliminary (the final vote is scheduled for April), the move could be seen as a red flag for teacher advocates, evolution experts, and Texans who generally believe in science.

"Teachers are practically begging the board to stop forcing them to waste classroom time on junk science standards that are based mostly on the personal agendas of board members themselves, not sound science," said Kathy Miller, president of education advocacy group Texas Freedom Network, in a prepared statement. "But these politicians just can’t seem to stop themselves from making teachers’ jobs harder."

The board's decision comes after a 10-member committee of educators and biology experts (formed by the board) recommended that the state pull four phrases from Texas' 9th grade biology textbook that could leave students doubting proven science.

The phrases, creatively shrouded in jargon, ask students to

“analyze and evaluate” various evolutionary processes, including the “complexity of the cell” and “proposed transitional fossils."

Another section asks biology teachers to

examine "all sides of scientific evidence...so as to encourage critical thinking by the student." This language falsely suggests evidence has "sides" to argue,

the committee told the board, when evidence should not be interpreted as anything but fact.

These skeptical phrases were added to all high school biology books in 2009, when a citizen review board that included a few religious activists recommended their entry. The move prompted the school board to ditch the citizen-based committee (http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/02/01/269962257/texas-overhauls-textbook-approval-to-ease-tensions-over-evolution), and instead mandate that teachers, professors, or subject area experts be prioritized when selecting future textbook review panels.

http://www.sacurrent.com/the-daily/archives/2017/02/01/texas-board-of-education-votes-to-keep-evolution-doubting-language-in-high-school-biology-textbooks

[Blake]

Americans are dumb. Texans are even dumber.

[boutons_deux]

Critics Fear New Texas Law Giving SBOE Wide Discretion Over Textbooks

Texas lawmakers just gave the State Board of Education more power over textbook content. What could possibly go wrong?

Senate Bill 801 (http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/85R/billtext/html/SB00801F.htm), authored by Senator Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, and signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott on June 9, gives the controversy-plagued (https://www.texasobserver.org/heres-the-fringe-theology-kids-are-learning-in-texas-schools/) State Board of Education (SBOE) the authority to reject textbook content it deems not “suitable for the subject and grade level for which the instructional material was submitted.” That may not be as innocuous as it sounds.


Seliger has said (http://tlcsenate.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=42&clip_id=12251) that his measure is “not intended to create another ideological battleground,” :lol :lol :lol

but to ensure that textbooks are “acceptable from an academic point of view.” Indeed, the law does mandate that textbooks be “reviewed by academic experts.” However,

it doesn’t require that those experts determine whether content is suitable for students.

That determination is left in the hands of partisan, elected board members, who are not required to have any teaching experience or academic training in the subjects they oversee.


SB 801 “allows members of the board to inject their own ideology or reject a book for other reasons.”

“We might as well call this the State Board of Textbook Censorship now,”

The SBOE, she fears, “will use [SB 801] to force publishers to remove or change any content they don’t find ‘suitable’ simply for personal or political reasons.

This will turn already contentious textbook adoptions into an even bigger circus and embarrassment for Texas than they already are.”

The board is dominated by conservative and religious right Republicans who’ve drawn national attention and ridicule for their enthusiasm for culture wars.

Board members have

pushed for students to be taught that the United States is a Christian nation (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/magazine/14texbooks-t.html?mcubz=0),

attempted to smuggle creationism (https://www.texastribune.org/2017/02/01/state-board-ed-takes-preliminary-vote-evolution-st/) into the biology curriculum,

advocated (https://www.texasobserver.org/state-board-of-education-begins-meeting-to-revise-and-adopt-social-studies-standards/) teaching third graders that taxes and regulation are detrimental, and

tried to minimize (https://www.texasobserver.org/state-board-of-education-begins-meeting-to-revise-and-adopt-social-studies-standards/) the role slavery played in causing the Civil War.

Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands,

“has already made clear she and her colleagues will use that [suitability] provision to reject textbook content they don’t like.”

Quinn points to a recent article (http://www.yourconroenews.com/news/article/SBOE-member-seeks-suitability-clause-for-textbook-11077283.php) in which Cargill said the board should be able to

object to content it finds “in poor taste.”

SB 801 also gives SBOE members discretion over a wide range of topics, from sex education to evolution.

would allow the board to reject content that dealt “with gay and lesbian children and their rights.”

“I think that would be correct,” Byer responded.

the board has sometimes given the views of ideological groups more weight than input from educators and academics. During the 2014 social studies textbook adoption, for instance, several board members made much of Islamophobic textbook reviews (http://www.bakerinstitute.org/research/religious-imbalance-texas-social-studies-curriculum/) from the conservative grassroots group Truth in Texas Textbooks (https://www.texasobserver.org/roy-white-truth-texas-textbooks-sboe/)

https://www.texasobserver.org/critics-fear-new-law-giving-sboe-wide-discretion-textbooks/

[boutons_deux]

Texas State Board of Education Votes to Remove Hillary Clinton from History Curriculum

Texas officials might be about to mess with the school curriculum yet again.

According to a report (https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2018/09/14/history-curriculum-texas-remembers-alamo-forgets-hillary-clinton-helen-keller) in the Dallas Morning News, the Texas State Board of Education on Friday issued a preliminary vote to sharply cut back the social studies curriculum in the state.

One major change is the elimination of required teaching about Hillary Clinton:


As part of an effort to "streamline" the social studies curriculum in Texas, the State Board of Education voted on Friday to change what students in every grade are required to learn in the classroom. They approved the removal of several historical figures, including Hillary Clinton and Helen Keller.


For their part, the Texas Board of Education asserts that they are simply following the advice of the workgroup, which ranked Clinton and other deleted historical figures against a rubric to determine whether they are "essential" to learning about history, as part of an effort

to ensure kids do not have to memorize too many names and dates. :lol

Curiously, however, this rubric gave perfect scores to local members of the Texas Legislature. :lol



Additionally, the board is refusing to make several other changes (https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2018/09/11/texas-probably-wont-ax-reference-heroic-alamo-defenders-history-class-moses-slavery) to the curriculum recommended by experts for elimination,

including the deletion of references to "Judeo-Christian values," and

the alleged influence of Moses on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Also recommended for deletion but still kept in by the board:

references to the "heroism" of defenders of the Alamo,

which is problematic because those men were fighting, in part, for the right to practice slavery (https://splinternews.com/the-alamo-and-its-overlooked-history-of-slavery-could-1793848838).


https://www.alternet.org/texas-board-education-hillary-clinton (https://www.alternet.org/texas-board-education-hillary-clinton)

[boutons_deux]

Texas Students Will Soon Learn Slavery Played A Central Role In The Civil War

Texas' Board of Education voted Friday to change the way its students learn about the Civil War. Beginning in the 2019-2020 school year, students will be taught that slavery played a "central role" in the war.

The state's previous social studies standards listed three causes for the Civil War: sectionalism, states' rights and slavery, in that order. In September, the board's Democrats proposed listing slavery as the only cause.

"What the use of 'states' rights' is doing is essentially blanketing, or skirting,

the real foundational issue, which is slavery,"

the Republican-led board landed on a compromise:

Students will be taught about "the central role of the expansion of slavery in causing sectionalism, disagreements over states' rights and the Civil War."

The approved curriculum still lists only one cause for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

"the rejection of the existence of the state of Israel by the Arab league and a majority of Arab nations."

https://www.npr.org/2018/11/16/668557179/texas-students-will-soon-learn-slavery-played-a-central-role-in-the-civil-war

(Texas) Christian Taliban exonerating Israel as completely innocent, not because they love Jews but because Israel LAND (even tainted with Jews) is where EndTimes and Rapture will occur.

"central role of the expansion of slavery" what?

Even w/o expansion of slavery to new states, slavery in the slave states had to go.

SBOE is just another TURD contributing to the TX shit hole.

[Winehole23]

actually, that's a modest step forward

[boutons_deux]

at least in blue states

The School Privatization Agenda Has Taken a Hit

From New York to California, new candidates ran and won on platforms opposed to privatization,

big-money backers of charter schools suffered humiliating losses, and

voters trounced efforts to expand voucher programs

that drain public schools of the funding they need.

in California where former charter school executive Marshall Tuck went down to his opponent, little-known Assemblyman Tony Thurmond, in the race for state superintendent of education.

Tuck got $36 million from charter industry advocates— !!!!!!!!!!!! :lol

including $11 million combined (https://edsource.org/2018/donations-top-44-million-in-free-spending-race-for-california-state-superintendent/604060) from

real estate developer Bill Bloomfield,
Gap co-founder Doris Fisher, and
venture capitalist Arthur Rock—

but still lost.

It was his second run for the position after getting millions from many of the same backers four years ago to take on then-incumbent (https://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-ln-state-supt-winner-20141104-story.html) superintendent Tom Torlakson.

This year’s race was much closer, but

Tuck lost again despite outspending, by more than two to one, Thurmond, who got backing from the state teachers’ unions.

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-school-privatization-agenda-has-taken-a-hit/

Capitalists want to destroy public education, replace it with for-profit shit hole schools, killing teacher unions, while pocketing tax $$$, while their owns kids go to expensive private schools to avoid mixing with Real People.