God Bless The Texas State Board of Education! | by EricaThunderpaws
“The benefits of education and of useful knowledge, generally diffused through a community, are essential to the preservation of a free government” - Sam Houston, First President of the Republic of Texas
The great State of Texas has just declared it will no longer allow revisionist history to corrupt its social studies textbooks.
This decision by the Texas State Board of Education will have an impact across the country because Texas buys more textbooks than any other state in the nation. Pragmatically speaking, publishers can't afford to print different versions for other states, so what happens in Texas textbooks, spills over into other states. In the long run this means that America's children will once again learn that capitalism is good. They'll discover that our country was founded on a value system based on religious principles. And they'll be told again about the people who made America into an exceptional country; people like Thomas Edison, Daniel Boone, Neil Armstrong, Ronald Reagan, and others who were given short shrift by textbook authors.
In addition, the SBOE requires that teachings about the Bill of Rights must include a reference to the right to keep and bear arms. And there's more! Our government must be accurately described as a constitutional republic, not a democracy. As for economics, Karl Marx and Kenyesian theories will finally be sent to the back seat, because Milton Friedman's and Friedrich von Hayek's free-market theories must be taught, not ignored.
Thank you Texas!
That's truly wonderful news and bodes well for many other states as well I think!
ReplyDeleteForgive me for pointing it out, but don't you find it a trifle ironic that the new standards have removed the namesake of your blog?
ReplyDeleteMer99:
ReplyDeleteStrange comment - and incorrect also! Perhaps you've mistaken this site for "obama.com" or "fightthesmears.com" etc.??
I don't know what Mcr99 is referring to.
ReplyDeleteReference to Thomas Jefferson removed from part of the standards.
ReplyDeleteDunbar's amendment - change
"explain the impact of Enlightenment ideas from John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and Thomas Jefferson on political revolutions from 1750 to the present."
to:
"explain the impact of the writings of John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and Sir William Blackstone."
Interesting. Do you have a link?
ReplyDeleteI would prefer to cite the minutes of the meeting directly but they don't seem to be posted yet, at least not where they pop up in the first several pages of a Google search.
ReplyDeleteHere are two sources per your request. I cite them only to validate the quote, not to discuss their commentary or opinion:
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/texas-removes-thomas-jefferson-from-teaching-standard/19397481
http://www.statesman.com/opinion/when-in-the-course-of-human-events-347809.html
Mcr99,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the links. I have written to the SBOE for an explanation.
So, no acknowledgment of irony.
ReplyDeleteI would be interested in their response. Please post it when you get it.
Ironic, yes. If I get a response, I will certainly post it here.
ReplyDeleteMcr99 ...
ReplyDeleteInteresting and puzzling. Thomas Jefferson's political affiliation was the early Democrat Party (before they changed the name to Democratic). I imagine the next change of the name will be something in the order of - Democratic-Socialist Party.
Cleaning out some bookmarks and thought I would check in on this thread.
ReplyDeleteTo KeithAllenLehman
No, actually not. Jefferson's first party was "Republican", which was later changed by Andrew Jackson to "Democratic Republican".