Teach your children well - send them to Texas

How many of you believe that in the last 25 years, what our schools teach about US History has been altered to fit the whims of the political left? If you agree, you join 60% of Americans who feel the same. To put a sharp point on the issue; many believe that the curriculum for teaching US History in our schools and Universities has been hijacked by the hate America strain of leftist elites. Their notion of "education" consists of presenting an ideologically rigged set of "facts" in the classroom that seek to narrow rather than expand a student's mind.
The State of Texas recently was in the news as the their state school board chose, by a bipartisan 11 – 3 vote, to change their US History textbooks to present a more centric and patriotic view. In the last Texas textbook re-write in 1997, the formerly left of center review panel removed Christmas, the Liberty Bell, Neil Armstrong, Albert Einstein, and reduced teaching about Thomas Edison, Veterans Day, and Independence Day, religious heritage, and more. Compare those changes with the ones just agreed upon in Texas.
- 8th grade students will analyze Abraham Lincoln's ideas about liberty, equality, the Union, and government as contained in his first and second inaugural addresses and the Gettysburg Address, and contrast them with the ideas contained in confederate leader Jefferson Davis’ inaugural address.
- Causes of the Civil War will be presented in this order: sectionalism, states’ rights and slavery.
- Students are asked to “examine…compare and contrast” the phrase “separation of church and state” to the original wording of the Constitution.
- In high school history, a standard promotes discussion on the “solvency of long term entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare”.
Are these controversial concepts?
Critics immediately hit the airwaves with charges that US History had been incorrectly re-written. They alleged that the new textbooks removed Thomas Jefferson from the standards. False - Jefferson is in the standards five times, second in prominence only to George Washington, and the Declaration of Independence he authored appears another 25 times. They argued that slavery was removed and renamed something more flattering. False. Slavery is extensively covered nine times in the new curriculum.
Then the critics accused the board of intentionally diminishing women and minorities. False again. The truth – they added Hillary Clinton, Barbara Jordan, Cesar Chavez, Thurgood Marshall, Dolores Huerta and Sonia Sotomayor to the textbooks. Does this sound like a blackball of the left by the conservatives?

What did our open minded liberal teaching establishment in California do? They passed a law seeking to bar textbooks adhering to Texas’ educational standards from the state. Our bottom of the list California schools chieftains want to indoctrinate us in their aging leftist curriculum. None of this pro-America Texas nonsense will appear here. So here we are – 49th out of 50 in terms of school success – and we are convinced the Texas school board is wrong.

It reminds me of the story from the 80’s movie “Stand and Deliver” about Bolivian born Math teacher Jaime Escalante. He was the teacher who believed and proved he could teach advanced Mathematics to inner city kids at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles. He also showed that the education system didn't give a whit about education. His success was opposed by the school authorities, fellow teachers and most aggressively by the teachers unions. His success was so pronounced that often 50 or more kids would cram into his classes. The union forced a contract provision limiting classroom size to 35 students, throwing kids who were for the first time in their life learning math out of the classroom. In 1990 the Unions and the School District stripped Escalante of his chairmanship of the school math department. Escalante retired and went back to his native Bolivia.


My daughter went to San Jose State for a year. She was taught that Texas was stolen from Mexico. She was indoctrinated in Multicultural ethnic studies courses that called America oppressive and actively encouraged mushy headed students to actively fight for "social justice”. That is the new term for government forced re-distribution of wealth, and jailing business people for making a profit.

I have two ancient California textbooks on US History in my library at home. One is from 1936 called The Story of America. The second is from 1961 – West’s Story of our Country. Both of these extol American Exceptionalism. Both of these present a positive view of America, covering the highs and lows of our history in a very uplifting way. Somehow, between then and now, the textbooks we use present a very different view of American History. Today’s California textbooks are heavily tilted to the political left point of view and are far more consistent with the drivel my daughter endured at SJ State.

So here’s to Texas finally correcting a heretofore unopposed slide to the left in their educational system.