Defending The Indefensible

Defending The Indefensible

By barefooted on Thu, 09/20/2018 - 1:34pm |

Donna Bahorich is the chair of the Texas State Board of Education.

The recommendations for U.S. history in high school regarding the contributions of significant political and social leaders would drop Hillary Clinton and Barry Goldwater from a list that included Andrew Carnegie, Thurgood Marshall, Billy Graham and Sandra Day O’Connor. For third-grade social studies, the recommendations regarding figures who exemplify good citizenship suggested leaving Helen Keller off a list that included Clara Barton and Ruby Bridges.

But, hey, they're keeping Moses.

URL:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-lead-texass-education-board-heres-why-we-ditched-hillary-clinton-and-helen-keller/2018/09/20/da4ee616-bc5b-11e8-b7d2-0773aa1e33da_story.html?utm_term=.c9979ff32e20

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Let’s hope other school district s are not this incompetent. From what I understand Texas helps set the standard for what is included in high school history textbooks. Perhaps U.S. History for Dummies with some supplements would provide a better education. There are online courses from Coursera and the Great Courses.Khan Academy does history as well.

by rmrd0000 on Thu, 09/20/2018 - 4:58pm

Gail Collins wrote an in-depth piece in 2012 regarding the influence Texas holds over the textbooks used by the rest of the country.

Texas originally acquired its power over the nation’s textbook supply because it paid 100 percent of the cost of all public school textbooks, as long as the books in question came from a very short list of board-approved options. The selection process “was grueling and tension-filled,” said Julie McGee, who worked at high levels in several publishing houses before her retirement. “If you didn’t get listed by the state, you got nothing.” On the other side of the coin, David Anderson, who once sold textbooks in the state, said that if a book made the list, even a fairly mediocre salesperson could count on doing pretty well. The books on the Texas list were likely to be mass-produced by the publisher in anticipation of those sales, so other states liked to buy them and take advantage of the economies of scale.

by barefooted on Thu, 09/20/2018 - 5:56pm

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