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Dennis Brasky-2 wrote: > > > By Eric Foner --- >> >> Clearly, the Texas Board of Education seeks to inculcate children with a >> history that celebrates the achievements of our past while ignoring its >> shortcomings, and that largely ignores those who have struggled to make >> this >> a fairer, more equal society. I have lectured on a number of occasions to >> Texas precollege teachers and have found them as competent, dedicated and >> open-minded as the best teachers anywhere. But if they are required to >> adhere to the revised curriculum, the students of our second most >> populous >> state will emerge ill prepared for life in Texas, America and the world >> in >> the twenty-first century. Another instance of micro-revisionism. My guess is that even if it succeeds in Texas it will fail to be a standard for the entire country because many other states will not do it out of fear of local repercussions. Large and influencial sectors of this country have become too diverse over the last 50 years for such a scheme to succeed country-wide. However, it may succeed in fragmenting the educational system nationally. That is, unless the state steps in through its USDOE http://www.ed.gov/ and does its job. I mean, isn't there a national education standard in the U.S? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that every state of the Union has laws requiring each and every parent to send their children to a school; public, private or "home-schooling". In exchange the federal government provides billions of dollars annually to subsidize the building and maintenance of schools locally and helps, I dare guess, pay teachers' salaries though rebates and such. To deliberately expunge important educational information for the purpose of denying our children the ability to become better citizens and better workers should be considered a violation of their civil rights. Those Texas reactionary intellectuals who wish to re-write their kids' textbooks to hide the truth or revise history seem to forget that. They forget that however imperfect, corrupt and inefficient it may be, the capitalist state can still be used by an injured citizenry to put them in their place. Texas has large population of Native Americans, Hispanics and Africans. A class action suit brought against the Texas school board in their behalf would probably help bring temporary redress and establish an edifying precedent. I hope the federal and state courts become busy (once again) over this issue. BTW, the Texas schoolbook depository metaphor is funny and illuminating. -- View this message in context: http://old.nabble.com/-Marxism--Eric-Foner-on-Twisting-History-in-Texas-tp28116018p28116176.html Sent from the Marxism mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
