Conservatives push their totalitarian excesses in the classroom

[Charles Stucker]

Top 5 crops of Texas:
Cotton
Greenhouse & Nursery
Corn
Wheat
Hay

Agriculture is the second largest industry in the state,
generating $80 billion for the economy annually.




California Agriculture:

California is the nation’s top agricultural state,
and has been for more than 50 years. Agriculture
generates approximately $31.8 billion a year,
more than any other state.

I just don't see how the two states can be compared.

This is why you should learn to read before posting your inaccurate statistics. You end up with moronic idiocy like stating the "Top" agricultural state makes $31.8 billion while little ol' Texas makes only $80 Billion. Your numbers, your conclusion.

But the last time I checked 80 was more than 31.8

I don't blame you for the mistake, after all Democrats are mentally challenged (That's the new PC term the retard Democrats seem to prefer)

 

[Bfgrn]

PRINCETON, NJ -- Thus far in 2009, 40% of Americans interviewed in national Gallup Poll surveys describe their political views as conservative, 35% as moderate, and 21% as liberal. This represents a slight increase for conservatism in the U.S. since 2008, returning it to a level last seen in 2004. The 21% calling themselves liberal is in line with findings throughout this decade, but is up from the 1990s. . . . .

. . . .These annual figures are based on multiple national Gallup surveys conducted each year, in some cases encompassing more than 40,000 interviews. The 2009 data are based on 10 separate surveys conducted from January through May. Thus, the margins of error around each year's figures are quite small, and changes of only two percentage points are statistically significant.

To measure political ideology, Gallup asks Americans to say whether their political views are very conservative, conservative, moderate, liberal, or very liberal. As has been the case each year since 1992, very few Americans define themselves at the extremes of the political spectrum. Just 9% call themselves "very conservative" and 5% "very liberal." The vast majority of self-described liberals and conservatives identify with the unmodified form of their chosen label. . . .
?Conservatives? Are Single-Largest Ideological Group

Now with demographics like these, how can one say that if we go by personal ideology, HALF the stuff in our text books should be the liberal point of view?

This country has never had a high percentage of liberals, let alone half the population being liberal. To be accurate, our textbooks must show a history and culture that is moderate or tilts right of center.

I hope the Texas conservatives stick to their guns.

Your logic and thinking FAIL...our school textbooks should NOT reflect political ideology. They should be an honest attempt to give an accurate account of history.

History teaches us when people justify altering text along a political ideology, it leads to indoctrination and a totalitarian state...

It is a sad commentary that a nation founded on liberal tenets has a minority of liberals. It appears the indoctrination is well beyond the infant stages.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Conservatives Re-Write Declaration of Independence

The Civil Rights Movement created "unrealistic expectations of equal outcomes" among minorities, according to Texas conservatives trying to rewrite American history textbooks. They want students to learn that bit of undemocratic, phony history.

Imagine Thomas Jefferson opening the Declaration of Independence with, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, no one should have unrealistic expectations of human equality..."

The Texas State Board of Education, dominated by anti-evolution, authoritarian ideologues, has made news around the world for trying to rewrite history. They want Confederate President Jefferson Davis' words given equal treatment with President Abraham Lincoln's. Now there's an example of an unrealistic expectation of equality.

This is all taking place in the Texas textbook adoption process, a process that influences books studied by students around the country. Texas is big, and its schools order a lot of books. To keep costs down, textbook publishers push those books in other states.

...

I grew up in Texas. In the '60s conservatives were fond of teaching the dangers of Soviet communism. At the top of their list of abuses was the Soviet Union's rewriting of history and its ideological abuse of science. I happen to agree about these totalitarian excesses. But doesn't it sound familiar? There's no climate crisis, and Jefferson didn't mean it about the equality stuff. I guess it depends on who, exactly, is twisting science and history. That is just what conservatives once condemned as "situation ethics." Hypocrisy is a slippery slope.

Whole article...

Another OP dedicated to proving Rahm "Dems are Fucking Retards" Emanuel correct

 

[Foxfyre]

PRINCETON, NJ -- Thus far in 2009, 40% of Americans interviewed in national Gallup Poll surveys describe their political views as conservative, 35% as moderate, and 21% as liberal. This represents a slight increase for conservatism in the U.S. since 2008, returning it to a level last seen in 2004. The 21% calling themselves liberal is in line with findings throughout this decade, but is up from the 1990s. . . . .

. . . .These annual figures are based on multiple national Gallup surveys conducted each year, in some cases encompassing more than 40,000 interviews. The 2009 data are based on 10 separate surveys conducted from January through May. Thus, the margins of error around each year's figures are quite small, and changes of only two percentage points are statistically significant.

To measure political ideology, Gallup asks Americans to say whether their political views are very conservative, conservative, moderate, liberal, or very liberal. As has been the case each year since 1992, very few Americans define themselves at the extremes of the political spectrum. Just 9% call themselves "very conservative" and 5% "very liberal." The vast majority of self-described liberals and conservatives identify with the unmodified form of their chosen label. . . .
?Conservatives? Are Single-Largest Ideological Group

Now with demographics like these, how can one say that if we go by personal ideology, HALF the stuff in our text books should be the liberal point of view?

This country has never had a high percentage of liberals, let alone half the population being liberal. To be accurate, our textbooks must show a history and culture that is moderate or tilts right of center.

I hope the Texas conservatives stick to their guns.

Your logic and thinking FAIL...our school textbooks should NOT reflect political ideology. They should be an honest attempt to give an accurate account of history.

History teaches us when people justify altering text along a political ideology, it leads to indoctrination and a totalitarian state...

It is a sad commentary that a nation founded on liberal tenets has a minority of liberals. It appears the indoctrination is well beyond the infant stages.

You're right. They should not reflect poltiical ideology. That's why the liberals should not prevail in this debate. What the debate iis all about is whether we will include ALL the history that has been a part of what the United States of America and the world has been or include only that convenient to liberal ideology.

Our history includes religion and conservative thought and idealist principles put forth by people, both good and bad, from decade to decade. For instance some liberals want to ignore the religious influence that has had a profound role in the nation's culture, heritage, history, laws, symbolism, art, music. That would be a gross distortion should they prevail. Liberals would paint the civil rights movement as nothing but compassion and benefit to minorities while ignoring the downside and damage that many of those initiatives created for minorities.

It is not conservatives who are pushing ideology in the nation's textbooks; it is liberals who want our history and culture to be something very different from what it is.

I hope the Texas conservatives prevail.

 

[Bfgrn]

Now with demographics like these, how can one say that if we go by personal ideology, HALF the stuff in our text books should be the liberal point of view?

This country has never had a high percentage of liberals, let alone half the population being liberal. To be accurate, our textbooks must show a history and culture that is moderate or tilts right of center.

I hope the Texas conservatives stick to their guns.

Your logic and thinking FAIL...our school textbooks should NOT reflect political ideology. They should be an honest attempt to give an accurate account of history.

History teaches us when people justify altering text along a political ideology, it leads to indoctrination and a totalitarian state...

It is a sad commentary that a nation founded on liberal tenets has a minority of liberals. It appears the indoctrination is well beyond the infant stages.

You're right. They should not reflect poltiical ideology. That's why the liberals should not prevail in this debate. What the debate iis all about is whether we will include ALL the history that has been a part of what the United States of America and the world has been or include only that convenient to liberal ideology.

Our history includes religion and conservative thought and idealist principles put forth by people, both good and bad, from decade to decade. For instance some liberals want to ignore the religious influence that has had a profound role in the nation's culture, heritage, history, laws, symbolism, art, music. That would be a gross distortion should they prevail. Liberals would paint the civil rights movement as nothing but compassion and benefit to minorities while ignoring the downside and damage that many of those initiatives created for minorities.

It is not conservatives who are pushing ideology in the nation's textbooks; it is liberals who want our history and culture to be something very different from what it is.

I hope the Texas conservatives prevail.

Ah of course...I could have predicted the need to create 'the monster'... the 'liberal bias' we've had to endure.

When you read the theological dogma of Texas conservatives like Cynthia Dunbar, it is clearly not about accuracy...it's about removing history that doesn't fit that dogma.

Cynthia Dunbar
About Me
1. how the left is erasing what made this nation great
2. socialistic, and even communistic, world views they possess
3. America is under attack by a new social and ideological war through humanistic special interest groups that have emerged on our soil.
4. We can't play the game and win if we don't know how to expose their attack.”

"Our Constitution... has not left the religion of its citizens under the power of its public functionaries, were it possible that any of these should consider a conquest over the consciences of men either attainable or applicable to any desirable purpose." --Thomas Jefferson: Reply to New London Methodists, 1809. ME 16:332

Here's an interesting read from a liberal...

Twisting History in Texas

Comment
By Eric Foner

March 18, 2010

The changes to the social studies curriculum recently approved by the conservative-dominated Texas Board of Education have attracted attention mainly because of how they may affect textbooks used in other states. Since Texas certifies texts centrally rather than by individual school districts, publishers have a strong incentive to alter their books to conform to its standards so as to reach the huge Texas market. Where was Lee Harvey Oswald, after all, when he shot John F. Kennedy? In the Texas School Book Depository--a tall Dallas building filled with textbooks.

Most comment on the content of the new standards has focused on the mandate that high school students learn about leading conservative figures and institutions of the 1980s and '90s, specifically Phyllis Schlafly, the Moral Majority, the Heritage Foundation, the Contract With America and the NRA. In fact, there is nothing wrong with teaching about modern conservatism, a key force in recent American history. My own textbook has a chapter called "The Triumph of Conservatism" and discusses most of the individuals and groups mentioned above.

More interesting is what the new standards tell us about conservatives' overall vision of American history and society and how they hope to instill that vision in the young. The standards run from kindergarten through high school, and certain themes obsessively recur. Judging from the updated social studies curriculum, conservatives want students to come away from a Texas education with a favorable impression of: women who adhere to traditional gender roles, the Confederacy, some parts of the Constitution, capitalism, the military and religion. They do not think students should learn about women who demanded greater equality; other parts of the Constitution; slavery, Reconstruction and the unequal treatment of nonwhites generally; environmentalists; labor unions; federal economic regulation; or foreigners.

Whole article...

 

[Oddball]

This is another example of why we are becoming a dumb nation. Parents today want to control the classroom curriculum in the false belief that time and ideas do not change. Instead of granting their children the opportunity and freedom to think about all sorts of things, they want them controlled. Not sure how we resolve the reactionary aspect of conservatives. Progress is a snail.

GREAT CAESAR'S GHOST!!

How DARE the customer be so pretentious to know what they want to be served, and how they want it delivered?!?!???

Is it any wonder that collectivist-authoritarian drips like you are viewed as arrogant disconnected snobs?

At some point, you have to allow and trust the people that work for you to do the job for which you have hired them.

Do you stand over your mechanic's shoulder and critique every aspect of his work as he fixes your brakes? Do you tell you Doctor exactly how to do his job?

A really good teacher is up to date on the techniques, innovations, and ideas of their field. If they're doing something, its often for a reason.

As a parent, if you don't like the job a teacher is doing, you have the right to complain. But at some point you'll have to fish or cut bait. If the teachers don't hold a candle to your superior brain power, quit your job and teach your own kids.

Analogy of fail.

If my mechanic or doctor sucks, I can take my business --and my money-- elsewhere. I can even sue for malpractice....The same cannot be said of gubmint schools.

 

[Dr.Traveler]

Analogy of fail.

If my mechanic or doctor sucks, I can take my business --and my money-- elsewhere. I can even sue for malpractice....The same cannot be said of gubmint schools.

I repeat:

But at some point you'll have to fish or cut bait. If the teachers don't hold a candle to your superior brain power, quit your job and teach your own kids.

And you do know that some teachers are now carrying malpractice insurance as parents have started suing teachers over the dumbest crap imaginable.

You may think you don't have a choice in your kids education, but you do. You can always homeschool or simply go for private school. Or move to a new school district.

 

[Oddball]

How many of those lawsuits have gone anywhere?....Like, none?

Simple fact remains that gubmint schools and the NEA/AFT have completely insulated themselves from the normal market forces, which would have driven their institutionalized incompetence out of business decades ago.

 

[Dr.Traveler]

How many of those lawsuits have gone anywhere?....Like, none?

You'd be surprised. Again, you should talk with some high school teachers. Parents these days can't believe little Johnny got an "F" because he earned. It has to be the big bad teacher's fault.

Teacher's carry malpractice insurance for a reason, and part of why so many teachers fall in with the NEA is that when stupid parents of stupid children sue, the NEA is there to help.

Simple fact remains that gubmint schools and the NEA/AFT have completely insulated themselves from the normal market forces, which would have driven their institutionalized incompetence out of business decades ago.

Doubtful.

 

[Barb]

Until recently, Texas’s influence was balanced to some degree by the more-liberal pull of California, the nation’s largest textbook market. But its economy is in such shambles that California has put off buying new books until at least 2014. This means that McLeroy and his ultraconservative crew have unparalleled power to shape the textbooks that children around the country read for years to come.

The rest of the article is telling as well.

I'm astonished.

see I'm even gonna use a smilie to show you how astonished I am:



If anything is "telling" about the article, it is its admission that
1. Texas' economy is good
2. Texas is more conservative
3. Texas has the most influance in text book content

In contrast:

1. California's economy sucks
2. California is more liberal
3. California has less influance in text book content

The reason I'm astonished is that even with such obvious evidence (that YOU provided yourself) of the success of a more conservative state over a more liberal state, you continue to believe something's wrong with other states adopting the more successful model's text!

I suppose if we could find some bankrupt backwater that published texts, you'd leap at the chance to put them into the hands of your state's kids?

It seems what really is the problem is the successful workings of the free market.

So, you equate the teaching American Exceptionalism in history class, and religious based creationism in science with the "success" of Texas?
They have more people of school age, and that is why publishers favor them. Your invisible hand lacks relevance.
I hope the pictures helped your understanding. If I knew you preferred them as a means of communication I would have used them sooner.

 

[Foxfyre]

Until recently, Texas’s influence was balanced to some degree by the more-liberal pull of California, the nation’s largest textbook market. But its economy is in such shambles that California has put off buying new books until at least 2014. This means that McLeroy and his ultraconservative crew have unparalleled power to shape the textbooks that children around the country read for years to come.

The rest of the article is telling as well.

I'm astonished.

see I'm even gonna use a smilie to show you how astonished I am:



If anything is "telling" about the article, it is its admission that
1. Texas' economy is good
2. Texas is more conservative
3. Texas has the most influance in text book content

In contrast:

1. California's economy sucks
2. California is more liberal
3. California has less influance in text book content

The reason I'm astonished is that even with such obvious evidence (that YOU provided yourself) of the success of a more conservative state over a more liberal state, you continue to believe something's wrong with other states adopting the more successful model's text!

I suppose if we could find some bankrupt backwater that published texts, you'd leap at the chance to put them into the hands of your state's kids?

It seems what really is the problem is the successful workings of the free market.

Did you notice that this went right over their heads?

In my opinion, the whole idea of American exceptionalism, apparently a uniquely Conservative observation, is that the great American experiment, with the 'conservative' structure built into the system, produced the greatest nation this world has ever seen. More wealth, more prosperity, more innovation, more freedom, and more opportunity, and more optimism than any large group of people had ever known. Our national credo, history, institutions, culture gave us a specail--okay exceptional--position among peoples of the world. Are we better than anybody else? We can't say that. But we can sure point to those ideas, concepts, and principles that have made the American way a superior system.

We should never be ashamed of that. And it should be in our textbooks no matter how much it offends the small minority of the Left who seem to despise what we have been and what we are.

 

[Samson]

The rest of the article is telling as well.

I'm astonished.

see I'm even gonna use a smilie to show you how astonished I am:



If anything is "telling" about the article, it is its admission that
1. Texas' economy is good
2. Texas is more conservative
3. Texas has the most influance in text book content

In contrast:

1. California's economy sucks
2. California is more liberal
3. California has less influance in text book content

The reason I'm astonished is that even with such obvious evidence (that YOU provided yourself) of the success of a more conservative state over a more liberal state, you continue to believe something's wrong with other states adopting the more successful model's text!

I suppose if we could find some bankrupt backwater that published texts, you'd leap at the chance to put them into the hands of your state's kids?

It seems what really is the problem is the successful workings of the free market.

So, you equate the teaching American Exceptionalism in history class, and religious based creationism in science with the "success" of Texas?
They have more people of school age, and that is why publishers favor them. Your invisible hand lacks relevance.
I hope the pictures helped your understanding. If I knew you preferred them as a means of communication I would have used them sooner.

Unm.........your own evidence says that California's Economy Sucks, and therefore California has less influance over text book contents:

But its economy is in such shambles that California has put off buying new books until at least 2014.

Nothing about Texas having more "people of school age" (AKA, "children," in the popular venacular). As far as I'm concerned Texas has as many children as CA.

Oh BTW

Texas: No State Income Tax

California & New York: High State Income Tax

 

[Samson]

Did you notice that this went right over their heads?.

You mean the irony of more liberal states being such fiscal basketcases that they cannot afford to buy more liberal texts, whilst more conservative Texas has a stronger economy and can buy whatever the fuck texts they want AND THESE TEXTS REFLECT THE STATE'S SUCCESSFUL, CONSERVATIVE VALUES (or "Totaltarian Excesses")?



Never expect the obvious to be very well understood.