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A New Battlefront Opens in the Textbook Wars

By Anneli Rufus, AlterNet. Posted September 28, 2006.


The battle over school textbooks spills out of Kansas and into California. At stake are whether gays are part of state history and how Islamic history should be taught.
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A New Battlefront Opens in the Textbook Wars

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We trust school textbooks to be packed with facts, to be dispassionate overviews of everything that is and that has ever happened. We assume that middle-school and high-school students today know the same stuff we knew at their age: that with certain embellishments, certain improvements and updates, each new generation chiseling its initials into desktops inherits a basic knowledge set, taken for granted, the nuts and bolts and navigators that we studied, back then.

But that was then. Now we live in strange times when everyone nurses his or her own truth. The very concept of objectivity has been deconstructed on kindergarten nap carpets. Thus the question of what deserves to be taught -- and what gets forgotten -- is a political matter. At its core throbs a $4.5-billion-a-year textbook industry in which four megapublishing houses produce nearly all the books used at American public schools. And the process by which it is decided what kids will learn is a big messy mosh. Its winners and losers include pressure groups, religious zealots, lobbyists, school boards, the megapublishers -- Houghton Mifflin, Harcourt, Pearson and McGraw-Hill and their many imprints -- and, oh yeah, the kids.

Just as the left and right accuse each other of controlling U.S. media, both also accuse each other of controlling academia.

Sen. Sheila Kuehl -- better known to boomers as the actress who played Zelda in "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis," circa 1960 -- authored a bill this year requiring California textbooks to "accurately portray in an age-appropriate manner the cultural, racial, gender and sexual orientation diversity of our society." The state senate approved the bill 22-15 on May 11. LGBT activists celebrated because, in academia, what California does matters. Along with also-populous Florida and Texas, it's an "adoption state," which means that books selected by California's school boards are fast-tracked to being adopted nationwide. Kuehl was optimistic, telling ABC News that she envisioned future textbooks describing James Baldwin not merely as "an African American writer" but as "an African American gay writer." (Baldwin himself preferred being called simply "an American writer" to "a black writer.")

SB 1437's critics included Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who vowed to veto the bill if and when it reached his desk. Hoping to dodge that veto, on Aug. 7 the state legislature approved an amended -- some say gutted -- version of the bill, which mandates only that textbooks not reflect adversely on people based on sexual orientation.

On Sept. 6, Schwarzenegger vetoed it.

It comes down to the same old skirmish: Should individuals get column inches because of what they did -- or because of who they are in terms of involuntary identity-definers such as gender and class? Who goes in? Who stays out? Says who? Not everyone can fit. The books are already overstuffed: Houghton Mifflin's 747-page A More Perfect Union, a typical middle-school social studies volume, weighs four pounds.

The sins of yesterday's history textbooks were largely of omission: the achievements of women, non-Westerners, preliterate societies and people of color remained sadly unsung. A fix-that urgency infuses today's books. The frontier-settlement section of America: Pathways to the Present starts with a brief introduction, and then: "The majority of settlers who traveled to the west were white. There were, however, thousands of African Americans who moved westward." Next we learn about "A Frontier for Women": "Many women regretted their family's [sic] decision to go west." The pendulum swings wide, atoning. Houghton Mifflin's To See a World includes details on Renaissance writer Christine de Pizan and patron-of-the-arts Isabella D'Este, but omits mention of their near-contemporary, Galileo. Fair? Or arbitrary?

A main reason for making textbooks so diverse is the idea that kids need role models in whom they can recognize themselves, and academia has been dead-white-men territory for far too long. My husband's teachers at Berkeley public schools in the late '60s and early '70s were academic revolutionaries. You kids have already learned white people's history, they announced at the start of each school year. But the kids hadn't already learned white people's history. As it happened, they never did.

Because the financially strapped Berkeley School District was stocked solely with old, unapologetically eurocentric books -- which the kids seldom saw -- many teachers typed and mimeographed their own classroom materials to distribute instead. My husband saved a stack of these. "Africa: The Father and Motherland," reads one yellowed page featuring a map. Other pages comprise a crash course in Swahili. (Mimi ni mwanafunzi means "I am a student.") The teachers handing out these materials, and the students memorizing them, were nearly all white: the spawn of professors, grad students and beatniks. It was the wave of the future. Since 1976, California's curriculum has been legally required to be inclusive and characterize specified groups in upbeat, inspirational ways. According to official state guidelines, an equal number of males and females must be depicted performing equally strenuous physical and mental tasks, solving problems and displaying a span of emotions. To be adopted in California, textbooks are forbidden by law to "reflect adversely," as the official wording puts it, on pretty much anyone.


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Anneli Rufus is the author of several books, including "Party of One: The Loners' Manifesto."

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good riddance
Posted by: rsaxto on Sep 29, 2006 12:51 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Getting rid of textbooks altogether would be good riddance for they are essentially tree killers. If every kid had a laptop and unlimited access to cds/dvds/internet they could devour the required info and whatever other stuff they might want to read/watch without having to lug around heavy tomes of disinformation. They might even learn enough to stop having stupid wars.

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» RE: good riddance Posted by: Jesse
» RE: good riddance Posted by: ezilla
» RE: good riddance Posted by: willymack
» RE: good riddance but Posted by: edith
» RE: good riddance Posted by: acidrain69
» RE: good riddance Posted by: Jayzer
if you want real change towards the left, encourage the rightwingers to go with school vouchers
Posted by: rebel_pig on Sep 29, 2006 3:47 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I am all with the rightwingers on the supposed desire to let parents have school vouchers. The present American school system is a major factor in propangandizing young minds into the rightwing vs fakeLeft pseudoPolitical framework that helps the rich politically paralyze America.

The rightwingers used to talk a lot about school vouchers. But they no longer do, now that they are completely in power. They could effectuate school vouchers now. But they have not. Why not?
I will tell you why: because their think tankers tell them that the school system helps maintain the status quo, and they LIKE the status quo. Both Dems and GOP and their rich upper class backers depend on the school system to help them stay at the top.

The only place school vouchers are in effect are in some of the advanced nations of western europe. Check Belgium out for example.

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How about those teachers?!!
Posted by: Urstrly on Sep 29, 2006 4:27 AM   
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Having an all too intimate education the corporate textbook world, I have concluded that the resources spent on the latest edition of history books would be better spent on educating teachers. It is not the industry but the boards of education in Texas, California, and to some extent, Florida, who put extraordinary demands on publishers. They, on the other hand, are overeager to please their customers by "teacher-proofing" the texts, since in many districts it is an unspoken rule that social studies teachers coach sports, in Texas preferably football.

In truth, it is a daunting task to create a history that includes the many facets of our complex past and present that can be broken into lesson-size chapters accessible to eighth and eleventh graders, which are the usual years for teaching history.

My own preference would be to teach the Revolution, the Constitution and the Civil War in eighth grade and reserve the other eras for high school where kids have a better academic grasp. But whether that those subjects are taught by rote memorization, by indoctrination by some religious zealot or by well-meaning but ideologically driven teachers like those in Berkley mentioned by the author are all beyond the reach of the publisher (and frequently the board of education.) We'd be better off training teachers in the methods of historical analysis so that they can help their students step back from slogans and ideology to see that history is shaped by human beings like themselves making tough choices with wide-ranging, and often unintended, consequences under pressure of a wide array of economic and political forces.

It's not the Thompson package of videos and guides and websites that bothers me as much as the tendency of publishers to select materials that are free of controversy, or to squeeze the genuine controversy out of the topics they choose. A well-educated history teacher is the best agent of democracy.

And then there is science education...

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maybe this is why I teach Latin
Posted by: dannrusso on Sep 29, 2006 6:32 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
it is kind of comforting to know that the language itself is never going to change. A Genitive of Possession is always going to be a Genitive of Possession...

now, the books being written on slavery and women in the ancient world - the culture aspect is changing daily (mostly for the good in my mind) giving new insights into things that never were studied before...most of which were pretty cool

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Total Control
Posted by: mite on Sep 29, 2006 7:12 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Operations Research Technical Manual-TW-SW7905.1, Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars: www.lawfulpath.com
Anneli Rufus said it...FOUR publishing companies= total control of our knowledge. Now with the Internet earlier generations are finding out the LIES feed to us by the people who control this world.
If you research the past 60 years of history you'll find more and more smaller companies being bought out or put out of business, i.e. Wal-Mart, Chase Banks, etc.
If the people who read this posting on AlterNet want to get the truth go to the above web site www.lawfulpath.com and read the information presented. Maybe better read Milton William Coopers book `Behold A Pale horse', if you can even find it now.
Look up on the Internet North American Union, NAFTA Highway, see how Canada, Mexico and the U.S. are to be put under one Shadow government.

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» RE: Total Control Posted by: kittynboi
School isn't about education....
Posted by: RJMills on Sep 29, 2006 7:55 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
School has nothing to do with education. This article offers compelling evidence.

Anyone who thinks teaching such things contributes in any way to a comprehensive education must not be too well educated.

I guarantee the nation's private schools will not be teaching this sort of BS.

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Texts are big $$$$ - Take the $$$$ out of it!
Posted by: JCR on Sep 29, 2006 9:09 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"But textbook publishers are major corporations. Textbooks are consumer products. So -- like the sellers of soft drinks or software -- the top publishers strive to please the maximum number of potential buyers."

This says it all . . . We have, in part, entrusted our childrens' futures to corpowhore Houghton Mifflin and other "academic" predators. Regarding subjects like History, which ranks near the bottom in terms of importance to students and parents alike, has been distorted to such a degree that it's plain insulting. To get an idea of the consequences, just look at the path a nation of historically illiterate dunces is following. I won't even touch upon anthropology and biology except to say that evolution is still a foreign concept to most pupils. I for one think we should just throw in the towel and begin teaching students that the world is indeed only 4500 years old.

Possible solutions - establish a public textbook company that defers to professors from academic institutions other than Jimmy Swaggart U. That's a start. What is important is taking the huge profits out of the industry but that is another topic ALTERNET SHOULD BE ADDRESSING AS WELL. This goes back to the lead-in paragraph. This is big business and $$$ will corrupt whomever is involved. $150 for a biology text - bullshit!!

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An Important Aspect Not Mentioned
Posted by: thirdmg on Sep 29, 2006 9:19 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Sen. Sheila Kuehl's bill to include an accurate portrayal of sexual orientation in textbooks has an important aspect not raised in the above article. Unlike all of the other groups mentioned, gays kids are not raised, nurtured and protected by their own - that is, by other gays. Overall, they receive the least social support, including from peers, from religious groups and even from their own families, and they have the least protection from bullying in the schools (the religious right makes sure of that). As an indication of how serious the problem is, it is estimated that up to one-third of all teen suicides are gay kids.

In short, they are the most vulnerable of all students. Kuehl's bill would be a small step towards correcting the problem by means of education.

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Did you idiots even read the article?
Posted by: merrygoround on Sep 29, 2006 10:17 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
This is an extremely important article. It seems that all the previous commenters here didn't even bother to read it before posting vacuous and completely wrong-headed comments.

Yes, it says that the textbook companies are capitalist entities that slavishly respond to market demands for the contents of the textbooks. But the article shows that the pressure groups that are pushing their agendas are almost all left-wing, politically correct multiculturalists! So the textbooks are completely twisted into politically correct pretzels, and end up teaching nothing at all. Our textbooks, the article proves, don't push lockstep conservative viewpoints, but instead are a pile of liberal mush.

It shocks me to read the comments here from people who just assumed that an article on AlterNet would confirm their hilarious worldview, that "right-wingers" control the educational system. The article proves the exact opposite -- that multi-culturalists control the educational system.

It looks like the Gramscian project is complete -- the Left has stealthily seized total control of schools.

And as for the religious influence -- the Islamic pressure groups seems to have much more success in twisting facts to their liking than do the Christian pressure groups. The truth is, evolution is rightfully taught in about 95% of all US school districts. Yes, it should be 100%, but it's not really an issue that is gaining much traction, so it's nothing to be overly concerned about. But it seems that every textbook contains touchy-feely whitewash about the violent imperialism of Islam, as a result of pressure from the various organizations listed in the article.

I'd say this was one of the best articles Alternet has ever run. Too bad so few of the viewers even bothered to read it.

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As a teacher
Posted by: Robba29 on Sep 29, 2006 10:23 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I have taught 6th, 7th, and 10th grade world history. The quote at the beginning states, "We trust school textbooks to be packed with facts, to be dispassionate overviews of everything that is and that has ever happened." I have NEVER walked in thinking this. I walk in knowing that the text is biased and has omitted the controversy and meat of the social studies. The textbook is a resource, like anything else. Most teachers use it as such--they know what's there and what isn't. Most of us create our own supplements to address the omissions in the text--to tell the whole truth and let the students decide. We are guides, not gurus on the mountaintop of education. We don't have all the answers. But, we can point our students in the direction to get those answers, and make sure they see both sides of any issue. As a progressive, I tend to see students come away with a more open view of the world that way--they don't feel that their family values have been attacked, but they start to question why tehy were never told certain things.

On another note--the article is abit right-sided biased. I've actually used TCI curriculum and it is one of the most well balanced curriculums out there--better than the textbooks. I also ensure that I discuss all religions in my class so students have full exposure to what's out there, the different ways people believe--or not (which the kids have a harder time with than learning about other religions).

Anyone who wants to read a really good book on bias in textbooks and how adoption committees work should check out Chris Lowen's "Lies My Teacher Told Me." Awesome book, tons of info, and should light a fire under our asses.

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» RE: As a teacher Posted by: merrygoround
» RE: As a teacher Posted by: Robba29
» RE: As a teacher Posted by: merrygoround
» RE: As a teacher Posted by: Robba29
» RE: As a teacher Posted by: merrygoround
» RE: As a teacher Posted by: Robba29
» RE: As a teacher Posted by: merrygoround
» RE: As a teacher Posted by: Robba29
» RE: As a teacher Posted by: flairndip
Truth Is Non-Negotiable
Posted by: NoPCZone on Sep 29, 2006 10:28 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Rather than take sides in a controversy, put the verifiable facts on the table and make the students (gasp) THINK. Make them look at the claims of the lunatics in light of documentation and see the truth for what it is.

Students who are trained to read, collate, analyze, and compare information independently will be getting the greatest gift to ever come from a classroom or teacher. The confidence, ability and skills necessary for critical analytical thinking is the most important single skill a student can get from any humanities course. With it they can learn and do anything. Without it, they are fit for few of the high wage jobs of the future.

The truth, when presented honestly, needs no help from those with an agenda. Well documented and verifiable facts can stand on their own, while specious arguments, selective truth and uninformed opinion will fail.

Narrow minded zealots impede the advancement of humankind and the human condition. Freethinkers are the ones who change the world.

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» RE: Truth Is Non-Negotiable Posted by: Robba29
» RE: Truth Is Non-Negotiable Posted by: NoPCZone
» RE: Truth Is Non-Negotiable Posted by: perri6
» RE: Truth Is Non-Negotiable Posted by: merrygoround
Education?
Posted by: talkville on Sep 29, 2006 11:59 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Who, then, is 'part of history'? Is the question answered by the 'deciders'? Any text book is just that: a book of text. A form and a content. If a gay, for instance, read a particular one, would that THEN make that person a part of history? Much money and energy is directed to 'education', much is taught in myriad ways. Except one thing: the practice of thinking. We are confronted with the complete amalgamation of the word 'education' with the word 'indoctrination'. Each now thoroughly implies the other, most specifically in 'our schools'.

Even back in the 70's and 80's, the text book watchers and 'editors' were active. Seems they were 'making history'. Since I've always supplemented my readings with other textbooks, however, I guess that makes me 'not part of history' too. Oh well, some in the river, some on the banks - or is that at the banks?

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Labor History
Posted by: edith on Sep 29, 2006 12:54 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Before we worry about "gay" history, let's make sure our textbooks accurately record the struggles of workers-paid workers, slaves and those who do not own capital. This usually is dealt with in a cursory way with a piciture of Sam Gompers or John L Lewis. Maybe sitdown stirkes of the 30's are mentioned, and the 8 hrs day. But no mention of the unrelenting hostility to unions by racists, most Presdents and most members of Congress. No mention of the difference between limited labor rights in America and greater rights in Canada and Europe. Working people are the majority. why is their story not told? How you fornicate should not be the primary concern of textbook reform.

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» RE: Labor History Posted by: merrygoround
» RE: Labor History Posted by: talkville
Teach This and Lose Your Job!
Posted by: sofla100 on Sep 29, 2006 5:08 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If you taught the Truth today in American Social Studies high school classes you would be fired. Consider the following:

911. The full truth is that Osama objected to US troops being kept in Saudi Arabia and the entire WTC event would not have happened if this were not the case. Osama also did not like US support of Arab regimes that were pro-Western but he was always very clear about seeing US troops in Saudi Arabia as being a "defecation" on Islam.

Israel. Started by "Zionist terrorists" using tactics that included bombing the King David Hotel. Today, Israel routinely kidnaps and holds thousands of Arabs incommunicado and without charges. Israel also receives US support to the tune of plus $10 billion annually. Much of the support also comes from weapons the US gives Israel. These weapons, including cluster bombs and white phosphorus, have been used by Israel upon civilian populations such as recently in Lebanon.

USA state sponsored terrorism. Support for countries such as Israel that engage in massive human rights violations. Also support from the US of governments that target human rights activists and union leaders. These "activists" would interfere with the doctrine of "free trade," which calls for human labor to be as cheap as possible. The US goal being to support US corporate elites with sweatshop operations in foreign countries.

Slavery in the "Old South." Depicted today in textbooks and the media more along the lines of "happy Plantation families" till the "Yankees" came along. In reality, slave owners completly owned slaves and many were subjected to the worst tortures and abuses imaginable. But just try to teach this in South Carolina.

Systematic and continued violation of the US Constitution by President Bush. Completly illegal and unconsitutional "operations" that include Guantanamo, extraordinary rendition and torture.

Well, I could go on and on. But, none of this can be taught in USA schools if you are a teacher. Not if you want to keep your job.

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» Actually... Posted by: Robba29
» RE: Actually... Posted by: sofla100
» RE: Actually... Posted by: Robba29
march of the morons
Posted by: willymack on Sep 29, 2006 6:58 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It seems intellect-challenged busybodies want our kiddies to become Homer Simpson clones, incapable of analytical thought, original thought, or any thought at all. Short of sterlizing the sorry lot of them, it's got to be made clear to them that shackeling their children's minds to reflect their own abysmally ignorant and truncated worldviews only serves to produce a nation of dunces-or maybe that's what they're after.

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Where Have All The Liberals And Progressives Gone?
Posted by: thirdmg on Sep 29, 2006 7:54 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Odd, I thought AlterNet was a place for commentary from liberals and progressives. At least, it used to be. But, lately, as I read through the message boards, it's becoming more and more difficult to distinguish between commentary from those on the radical right and those who claim to be on the left. They're often virtually interchangeable.

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Livia
Posted by: Livia on Sep 30, 2006 12:13 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Textbooks have been dumbed down annually for decades. I used to work for a company that produced textbooks, and not only did the publishing companies simplify the language and the content every year, but Texas (big surprise) had its own version of textbooks that were even more dumbed down and slanted than the books the rest of the country would receive a few months later in their K-12 schools. One book gave the story of Anne Frank a happy ending. Yet another changed the word "porridge" to "soup" because "porridge" is too difficult a word for young children. This was 20 years ago. I shudder to think what's happened since then. Remember when they decided the SATs were too hard? My husband and I used to joke that our little dog got 100 points on her SAT test; what a smart puppy. Between increasingly dumbed down textbooks, lowered educational standards, fundamentalist "home schooling," and the Christian Taliban's war against science, it's no wonder that our country's intellectual property is in quicksand. I agree that it's good to study the presence and effects of heterosexism and gender bias in textbooks, but the bigger question is whether our children are being educated at all.

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Skewed views
Posted by: cmd on Sep 30, 2006 9:05 PM   
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You can't teach history by ignoring inconnvieniet people and ideas in it. I applaude California. You really don't present the truth if King James is portrayed as heterosexual and Thomas Jefferson not shown as a rascist. It is okay for students to learn about world religious beliefs, but they should be exposed to more than one religion and idea. You shouldn't be taught about the ten commandmants without being taught about the five pillars of Islam and the four noble truths of Buddhism.

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Wow, such paranoia
Posted by: flairndip on Oct 1, 2006 3:14 PM   
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Reading through these comments, I am in shock that so many people really believe that the educational system is there solely to churn out mindless little clones who will keep filling the coffers of the neocons. I suggest that some of you actually get out there and visit a school. There are exciting and challenging classes being taught to students in many parts of this country, and there are educational movements that emphasize social justice and fairness and many of us teachers do actually ask our students to think and to challenge what they see on TV. Nor do many of us rely on textbooks. I am sure that is not the case in every classroom or perhaps in every small town in the USA, but before convincing yourselves that this is yet another giant conspiracy, do some actual research.

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