WTF Texas. GTFO.

Casper

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Oct 6, 2009
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AUSTIN, Texas - Is Texas on the verge of rewriting history, or just correcting it?

The answer depends on whom you listen to on the state’s Board of Education, which is poised to vote this week on new social-studies curriculum standards that could significantly shape what Texas children — and perhaps those outside the nation's second-largest state — are taught in the classroom.

Social conservatives on the 15-member Republican-dominated board are optimistic they will be able to push through curriculum changes that, according to board member and conservative Texas lawyer Cynthia Noland Dunbar, “promote patriotism.”
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Among the recommendations facing a final vote: adding language saying the country's Founding Fathers were guided by Christian principles and including positive references to the Moral Majority, the National Rifle Association and the GOP’s Contract with America.

Other amendments to the state's curriculum standards for kindergarten through 12th grade would minimize Thomas Jefferson's role in world and U.S. history because he advocated the separation of church and state; require that students learn about "the unintended consequences" of affirmative action; assert that "the right to keep and bear arms" is an important element of a democratic society; and rename the slave trade to the "Atlantic triangular trade.”

Continued... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37220562/ns/us_news-life/#storyContinued
 
I like to picture Texas as a whole bunch of Yosemite Sams running around firing their pistols in the air. It makes more sense that way.
 
I like to picture Texas as a whole bunch of Yosemite Sams running around firing their pistols in the air. It makes more sense that way.

This is exactly true.

And I am really angry about this because TX is the #1 supplier of text books for the country, so this is really warping history class for political gains.

Here are some more changes they are making.

-The Board removed Thomas Jefferson from the Texas curriculum's world history standards on Enlightenment thinking, “replacing him with religious right icon John Calvin.”

-"Teachers in Texas will be required to cover the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation's Founding Fathers, but not highlight the philosophical rationale for the separation of church and state." “I reject the notion by the left of a constitutional separation of church and state,” said David Bradley, a conservative from Beaumont who works in real estate. “I have $1,000 for the charity of your choice if you can find it in the Constitution.”

-The Board refused to require that “students learn that the Constitution prevents the U.S. government from promoting one religion over all others.”

-McCarthyism will be taught as an example of how communism was rooted out of the federal government.

-Students will learn about the "patriot movement" of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.

-"Board members also rejected requiring history teachers and textbooks to provide coverage on the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy and new Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, while the late President Ronald Reagan was elevated to more prominent coverage."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/13/texas-textbook-massacre-u_n_498003.html#s73775

Also they must at least teach Christianity in schools. Nothing about other religions, just Bible-based teachings.
http://www.kltv.com/global/story.asp?s=10933571
 
What's really scary is this will be in most all text books country-wide.
 
yeah, i read or saw this on tv somewhere.. 60 minutes maybe? one of those late night news channels?




but yeah, rewriting history. what's the famous quote? history is recorded by the winners? texas must be winning.




and yes, a lot of the rest of the country follows their lead (or at least buys textbooks from them).




in other textbook news, was in the paper yesterday that clearwater HS is replacing all their textbooks with Kindles.

pasta:

By STEPHEN THOMPSON

[email protected]

Published: June 3, 2010

CLEARWATER - Cassandra Sigh and her brother are transferring from Seminole High to Clearwater High this fall because her family has moved. But the siblings will be getting more than a new school.

Each will receive an e-reader, and on it the textbooks for their English and math classes. If all goes as planned, the textbooks for their other classes will be downloaded onto the handheld devices in ensuing years.

"I don't have to worry about carrying millions of books in my backpack," said Sigh, 14.

In what in all likelihood is a first for a secondary school in the United States, Clearwater High is planning to give e-readers to all 2,100 students.

Other high schools in Pinellas County are waiting to see whether, among other things, students take responsibility for the devices, said John Just, assistant superintendent of management information systems for Pinellas schools.

So far, the school system has allocated $600,000 over six years to buy the devices for Clearwater High, and is negotiating with Amazon Kindle, Just said.

Just said the district is trying to cut the best deal it can, and wants a price lower than the standard $250-a-unit offered in bulk. The district also wants technical support and a longer-than-average warranty.

As with textbooks, students will have to pay for a new e-reader if they damage or lose it, but there is talk of offering insurance policies to parents to protect them if either occurs.

As with virtually everything that has made the transition from print to digital, it is cheaper to provide something on a high-tech screen than on paper. For example, Just said, a geometry book typically costs $74, but its e-version costs $64. Some e-versions of literary classics are free if the books are old enough.

"It's going to save so much money and it's going to save trees," said Linda Smith, a social studies teacher at Clearwater High who is one of about 100 teachers already to have received Kindles.

The decision to acquire the e-readers was made by Clearwater High School Principal Keith Mastorides, after the school district adopted a decentralization philosophy that allows principals to make choices individually for their campuses.

Mastorides said he had heard repeatedly from staff, parents and students that the school needed to increase its use of technology. There was talk of issuing a laptop computer to each student, but that option was considered too expensive.

Aside from containing textbooks, the students' e-readers also will offer Internet access.

Ideally, students also will be able to access homework assignments, attendance records and grades in real time, Mastorides said.

What they won't be able to do is download material, Just said.

Mastorides said he was encouraged by the district to tackle his e-reader program on a smaller scale, by giving them only to a group of students rather than all, but he didn't want to create an environment of haves and have-nots.

Sigh isn't the only student excited about the change.

"Some people get really frustrated ... you know, the heavy textbooks and carrying them through the hallways," said Mohamed Baydoun, 17, who will be a senior next year, but an e-reader is "really small and light to carry," he said.

Baydoun said that if students don't feel like reading the e-reader, they can activate a feature that prompts the device to read aloud.

"They're always going to be with you and you're always going to be in charge of it," Baydoun said. "There won't be any problem with like losing it or damaging it because it's like going to be your own Kindle."



.. you know, heavy textbooks. :waw:
 
kids do NOT, as a rule, pay for textbooks they lose/damage. maybe in HS because they can withhold their diploma, but in elem? especially low income elem?


those bills are a. never even given, or b. not paid if they are ... 99% of the time.
 
We are turning our kids into pussies.

Although, I do like the concept of just giving each kid an e-reader and publishing their years textbooks onto it. It makes a ton of fucking sense.
 
kids do NOT, as a rule, pay for textbooks they lose/damage. maybe in HS because they can withhold their diploma, but in elem? especially low income elem?


those bills are a. never even given, or b. not paid if they are ... 99% of the time.

Really? I did. $50 a pop every time there was a binding broken. And this was 20 years ago. We didn't get a report card unless we paid.

And I love the idea of ereaders for students. An 85 lbs elementary student carrying 45 lbs of books cannot be good for the development of a back already weakened by growth spurts.
 
I take issue with kids having that much homework to begin with that they need to carry that many books, but that's another issue I guess.

Well, it's also schlepping that bag from class to class, too, if you only have 3 minutes to move throughout the school.
 
Well, it's also schlepping that bag from class to class, too, if you only have 3 minutes to move throughout the school.

Never an excuse. When you're moving between classes, you're old enough to have lockers. My high school was huge and 4 minutes was plenty of time to go to your locker (even if it was all the way across the school) exchange books, and go to your next class. At most you should have to carry two classes worth of books.
 
My mom is a teacher in Texas. Her middle school has those large PDA like things for each student and she can send them assignments to these things.

Darn neat.
 
" I couldn't do my homework because I dropped my electronic textbook and it broke" will be the new "my dog ate it"