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Last week, the conservative-leaning Thomas B. Fordham Institute issued its annual report card on the state of history instruction in US public schools. The group gave Texas a near-failing grade of "D" on its history curriculum, almost accusing the Texas Board of Education of educational malpractice for the ideologically-saturated drivel that five million Texas school children are now forced to endure after controversial social study standards were adopted by the religious right-dominated Board last year.
The report notes, for example, that the leaders of the State Board of Education made no secret of their evangelical Christian right wing biases or their determination to "inculcate biblical principles, patriotic values, and American exceptionalism" into the regular public school day.
The result, says the Institute, is a "confusing, un-teachable hodgepodge."
Specifically, the Fordham Institute says the heavily politicized document "distorts or suppresses" those "less triumphal" chapters in American history that the Board deemed "politically unacceptable," such as slavery and segregation, while "Biblical influences on America's founding are exaggerated, if not invented."
The complicated but "undeniable" history of separation between church and state, says Fordham, "is flatly dismissed."
Texas Scores "D" on Right Wing History Standards - Ted Frier - Open Salon
The report notes, for example, that the leaders of the State Board of Education made no secret of their evangelical Christian right wing biases or their determination to "inculcate biblical principles, patriotic values, and American exceptionalism" into the regular public school day.
The result, says the Institute, is a "confusing, un-teachable hodgepodge."
Specifically, the Fordham Institute says the heavily politicized document "distorts or suppresses" those "less triumphal" chapters in American history that the Board deemed "politically unacceptable," such as slavery and segregation, while "Biblical influences on America's founding are exaggerated, if not invented."
The complicated but "undeniable" history of separation between church and state, says Fordham, "is flatly dismissed."
Texas Scores "D" on Right Wing History Standards - Ted Frier - Open Salon