Why are some states trying to rewrite history?

[lakhota]

Are they ashamed of their "factual" history, or what? For example:

Historians Find Major Errors In Virginia History Textbooks

Surprise, surprise, historians have found glaring errors in a textbook claiming that African Americans fought in large numbers for the South during the Civil War.

tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/12/historians_find_myriad_errors_in_va_history_textbo.php?ref=fpb

Mississippi Rep. Tried To Kill Historic Civil Rights Education Law Because It’s ‘Accusatory Of One Group’

“I want schools to be teaching my grandchildren to read, write a complete sentence and do math,” Moore said. “I just want to make sure it’s teaching the truth and facts and not being accusatory of one group of people or the other. I don’t want it to be somebody’s philosophical idea of what civil rights are.”

thinkprogress.org/2010/12/29/ms-rep-tried-to-kill-historic-civil-rights-education-law-because-its-accusatory-of-one-group/

[steff]

Read up on how warped Texas is in rewriting the history that is taught to kids. It's sad that politicians now get to decide history and what is or isn't taught.

[lakhota]

King: Congress Will Probe Black Farmers' 'Reparations'



Rep. Steve King (R-IA) is continuing to blast the government's recent discrimination settlement with African-American farmers as "reparations" -- and even predicting that the new Republican-led House will investigate it.

In an interview with local western Iowa radio station KCIM, King discussed the oversight efforts that the new GOP House would undertake. First and foremost, he said, would be his pet cause of investigating ACORN -- which no longer exists as a national organization, but whose activists at the state level could be targeted.

"And there'll be other investigations looking into the Pigford farms issue," King added, "which I think is full of fraud, that's -- what it amounts to is paying reparations to black farmers in America. We don't do reparations in America."

King has previously attacked the settlement for discrimination in past decades by the Department of Agriculture as "slavery reparations".

He also famously described a hypothetical fraudulent claim that might result from the settlement: "The fraudulent claims might be, well Johnny, yeah he was raised on a farm but he wouldn't help his dad. He went to the city, became a drug addict, and when Daddy needed the help, Johnny wouldn't come and help his daddy. But now his daddy's died and Johnny wants the $50,000 that comes from the USDA under this claim."

The full quote from the new interview:

"There has been a list of government oversight and investigations that needs to be taken up. And it's just a natural thing that people that are in charge don't want to investigate their own party. I saw that happen to some degree when Republicans were in charge, and I clearly see it happen now with Democrats controlling the presidency and the House and the Senate.

"So I think that you will see investigations of ACORN, for one. You'll hear a lot more in the news about ACORN, and about the insidious nature of them -- about how the national organization of ACORN now has been fractured, but they're reforming in the states with the same people, the same players, the same intentions.

"And there'll be other investigations looking into the Pigford farms issue, which I think is full of fraud, that what amounts to is paying reparations to black farmers in America. We don't do reparations in America."

tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/12/steve_king_digs_in_congress_will_investigate_repar.php?ref=fpc

[lakhota]

Texas Textbook MASSACRE: 'Ultraconservatives' Approve Radical Changes To State Education Curriculum

www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/13/texas-textbook-massacre-u_n_498003.html#s73765&title=Thomas%20Jefferson%3F%20Who%27s%20that%3F

[lakhota]

Hi steff, thanks for reminding me about Texas.

[steff]

No problem. Makes me glad that I didn't want to put my son into a Texas school and that was one of many reasons we moved. Makes me ashamed of my home state that they allowed history to be rewritten to satisfy the religious right wing.

[summer79]

In attempting to revise the past, illegitimate historical revisionism appeals to the intellect—via techniques illegitimate to historical discourse—to advance a given interpretive historical view, typically involving war crimes or crimes against humanity. The techniques include presenting known forged documents as genuine; inventing ingenious, but implausible, reasons for distrusting genuine documents; attributing his or her own conclusions to books and sources reporting the opposite; manipulating statistical series to support the given point of view; and deliberately mis-translating texts (in languages other than the revisionist's). Practical examples of negationism (illegitimate historical revisionism) include Holocaust denial and some Soviet historiography.

[lakhota]

summer79, right on! The right does the same thing with the Bible to suit their agendas.

[summer79]

You bet! This seems to be far too common. I would venture to say that there is no accurate history book in existence. Im sure we all have heard the expression "those who do not learn from the history are destined to repeat it" I happen to agree with this particular train of thought so the fact that the history books have all been modified seems to be doing all of us a great injustice.

[ugonow]

Fox had a long running thread of exposing liberal lies in text books libs put in in order to indoctrinate our children into their agenda.If we do not change these lies ,how do we keep our children from being polluted by the lib government schools?

[Politically_Incorrect12]

Dec 30, 2010 22:49:06 GMT -5 @lakhota said:

summer79, right on! The right does the same thing with the Bible to suit their agendas.

It's interesting that I never hear you bash any more liberal states and their education stances.

[deziloooooo]

"Five Ponds' books are reportedly less expensive than its competitors, too."
==============================================
That was what I was thinking as I read the article and sure enough , there it was.
To think that who ever picks these books for instruction, so important in presenting material to be learned, are so incompetent.

By the way Lakhota..where do you get all these articls from..you must spend a lot of time scrolling back and forth looking for stuff.

I wonder how kids who might be interested in looking things up, there are those I know, believe I would have been one of them, just no internet back in the day, as they get into things at school and then do some basic research , and come across information that the teacher was wrong on or the books they are useing are all wrong . How treated as they bring to the attention of the educators.
Sitting in the corner facing the wall with their mouths taped shut with duck tape possible?

[steff]

How treated as they bring to the attention of the educators.
Sitting in the corner facing the wall with their mouths taped shut with duck tape possible?

****************************************************I don't know how to do the quotes thing yet...


from my experiences with my son, it depends on the teacher as to how they will react. After Katrina, he had a teacher who was trying to talk about historic hurricanes and just didn't know what she was talking about. Being from the Gulf Coast, my son knew about the 1900 hurricane that hit Galveston & how it killed an estimated 9,000 people. She was not pleased to have been corrected for her misinformation and for awhile, she attempted to make his life miserable in that class. (lets just say that MoM took care of that for him)

Now just recently, during a presentation in class, the teacher stopped my son and said he has incorrect information regarding the Great Depression. They stopped everything and looked up the information and my son was correct. The teacher had no problem laughing at himself for thinking he knew something he didn't and was pleased that my son didn't take it wrong or get defensive. He simply showed the teacher how & where he got his info and how it was correct.

However, the first incident was with a regular county teacher, the second incident was with a professor who is teaching classes at the Charter high school my son attends. I think that made the difference. the regular teacher didn't like or expect a student to know more than she did or to dare mention it....the professor is used to open discussion on issues & information. My son has enjoyed the UGA professors much more than the regular teachers because of their willingness to listen and look deeper for information.

[deziloooooo]

" lets just say that MoM took care of that for him"
=====================================

Thank the lord for Mom's..was she apologetic or just gave you lip service to stay out of trouble, not really sorry for her /his reaction?

"They stopped everything and looked up the information and my son was correct. The teacher had no problem laughing at himself for thinking he knew something he didn't and was pleased that my son didn't take it wrong or get defensive. He simply showed the teacher how & where he got his info and how it was correct
==============================================
Now thats a good teacher..and a good lesson to the class , as to how and why to check facts if any doubt. Thats what they are attempting to do , get rid or chnge , if gotten sloppy the ones who are not up to snuff. I remember the principal would come and observ classes at times back in the day, not sire of that is the case anymore, so mucy burocraic BS they have to do know. I would be in gavor of silently observing of classes ..by camera and sound..not a infringement, many work places have that today, why not education, even a taping of so a administrator could critique the class..like game related video..why not.

[deziloooooo]

Dec 31, 2010 13:50:46 GMT -5 steff said:

****************************************************I don't know how to do the quotes thing yet...

on the quote , you go to the post where the quote is that you want to quote, click on the quote, upper right corner, then between the beginning and the ending quote, you delete all you don't want quoted if just a line , as i just did with you then after donne just hit "post reply " and hopefully it comes out as you ant..fingers crossed , lets see. Had to clean it, make sure all non wanted ,arks are deleted, but yep , yea, it worked. hope that helps.
mmmm..don't have a clue with the box is so large, oh well..

[steff]

My son is in an "experimental" Charter high school started by the county. I can actually peek in and watch the classes online when I want. Everything is done electronically. They were issued laptops and all work is done on them. The teacher can 'watch' as they answer every question on a test and it's how all work is turned in. When my son was out of school for his knee injury, he did a lot of his labs & classes thru the classroom camera hookup along with the county sending out a teacher several times a week to homeschool him. (he was out of school for 12 weeks)

and no, the regular teacher tried to be a hardass regarding the correct information. It was eventually settled by me having him removed from her class after I caught her using a "failed" test score in 2 different grading periods. Upon regrading the test, the principal found he had actually passed. At that point, the principal quickly removed him from her class. He had been in all advanced classes at that point and the advanced history class had been cancelled. This teacher was a "general population" teacher....she HATED having the advanced kids in her class and was overly & unfairly hard on them. The next year she was not teaching at that school anymore.

[deziloooooo]

"The next year she was not teaching at that school anymore. "
========================================
In the real world she wouldm't be teaching period, just think of all the permanent damage one like that could do, not all kids have concerned parents like you are, or are in awe of the system and would just blame the kid as being in the wrong.
Good principal by the way and the electronics seem unbelievable..my frand son goes to Private, expensive school and classes are small and teachers naturally very good and into it but whikle he does use computer, they don't have that good a system set up yet.

[steff]

The class sizes at this school are generally under 15 students. They finish the required high school credits the first 2 years (freshman & sophomore). Their Junior & Senior year they take college courses (credits accepted by all Georgia colleges and most out of state colleges) and do internships with local companies specializing in Math, Science & Technology. Only 250 kids are accepted each year, if you don't get in your freshman year, you don't get in period. the drop rate is hovering around 50% because most simply can't hack the work (4-6 hours homework a night the first 2 years) and the grade requirements. A C average won't keep you in this school.

My son is currently a Junior taking mostly mechanical engineering courses, but this past semester he got really interested in video broadcasting & editting. When it came time to swap internships, he went from Delta Airlines to the sports dept in a local tv station, covering the districts high school games, filming and editting them for the news & weekend sports recap shows. He's getting to work with the broadcasting professor from UGA & has filmed UGA games with the college kids.

[Shirina]

Fox had a long running thread of exposing liberal lies in text books libs put in in order to indoctrinate our children into their agenda.If we do not change these lies ,how do we keep our children from being polluted by the lib government schools?

Would you be so kind as to illustrate what this agenda is and how it works? Some examples would be nice - meaningful ones that involve entire school districts, not one overzealous teacher.

You see, I'm curious because I have a degree in secondary education and I taught history, albeit briefly, to 7th graders. No one ever came to me and initiated me into the "Liberal Agenda" club, I suppose. No one told me what the agenda was, what was expected of me, and how to go about spreading said agenda in the classroom. I received no "Liberal Agenda" badge, "Liberal Agenda" card, or "Liberal Agenda" handbook. There wasn't even a secret handshake, which was terribly disappointing.

In fact, during my first week, still a hardcore teaching novice, I let slip a tiny disparaging remark about GW Bush in front of the kids. Given that we're spreading our "Liberal Agenda," I was expecting a pat on the back when my supervisor called me into the hallway. Imagine my surprise when I was politely but firmly told that I am not permitted to make snide remarks about the president or give personal political commentary of any kind. Stick to the facts!

Wow!

I can only assume, then, that I've been blackballed from the "Liberal Agenda" fraternity. Perhaps I'll rush them next year, but if I finally get in, I just hope they don't make me swallow live goldfish.

[traelin0]

I have no idea if there's a liberal or conservative "agenda" in our public school system, but I don't really care. They are an unadulterated failure, if the objective is to educate and inform. Ask the average 8th grade civics student today if they know whose writings Thomas Jefferson based the Declaration on, and they couldn't tell you. That's just a minor example I've come across. In the areas of math and science, I'd hire the average Asian engineer over the average (note: average) American any day.

[deziloooooo]

Where is the Money coming for all this..if it is a large extra expense or is just the set up and the type of kids going there, the dedicated ones , which means the progress is swift . Since you had a teacher who wasn't into this program, I wonder if he/her didn't have a choice in assignment or didn't understandd what she/he was getting into if volunteerred if it was a volunteer type deployment.
What ever, it sound like a great thing for your son and you as I would hate to tell you what the private is costing my daughter and husband for two kids, daughter going the private way too, second year.

[billisonboard]

"...Ask the average 8th grade ...student ... and they couldn't tell you. ..."

This is a fact that has forever been true.

[traelin0]

bills, not in my private school. Granted I am talking damn close to 25 years ago since I've been in 8th grade, but still. We have a nation of buffoons who can't do simple calculus coming out of high school. We have teachers majoring in education instead of majoring in their fields of study. Why are education majors teaching advanced math for instance?

I am going on anecdotes but the Asian engineers I have worked with and hired have been, on average, so far beyond the mental capacity of the average American engineer that it becomes a no-brainer for me.

The Asians also have a much more industrious work ethic. IMHO we need to go back to apprenticeships to compete. Too many kids are going to subpar liberal arts universities (and high schools which claim to be college prep but aren't), and mortgaging their entire futures with student loans. The federal govt. has destroyed education in this country.

[steff]

The money is coming from the district in partnership with the Georgia Dept of Education, UGA, Georgia Tech, and several Tech colleges in the state. The companies that are involved with the internships donate equipment, time & money. The professors from the colleges are being paid thru the colleges, not the district. There are also summer classes offered thru Duke University, at a discounted price, again, for college credits.

The advanced/honors classes in the Junior High/Middle Schools are now changing their teaching materials to help prepare more students for the Charter School. It was realized last year that most students simply aren't prepared for the work load & the difficulty of the Charter school. The drop rate last year was staggering because the kids simply couldn't handle it. The school is only in it's 4th year.... we finally got bus service this year! The first class is preparing to graduate this year and all have already been accepted into colleges with their credits.

The teacher my son had an issue with in Middle School was never part of the honors classes, so she wouldn't have been connected to the new school in any way. Only honors classes/advanced classes students are eligible. They have to pass a test given, get references from their principal & teachers, and then win a lottery drawing to get into the Charter school. Once there, they must maintain a B or above average, tutoring is REQUIRED on any failed assignment or test. If the student can't bring up the C or lower average after a set amount of time, then they are moved back down to regular high school back into the honors classes. The school specializes in the Science, Math & Technology fields and everything is geared towards that.

[Deleted]

SO-- what is this talk I hear about schools doing away with teaching history at all??

[deziloooooo]

"Ask the average 8th grade civics student today if they know whose writings Thomas Jefferson based the Declaration on, and they couldn't tell you"
=======================================
Oh come on already Trae..8th grade civics class , expecting a esoteric discussion of how a founding father based his decision of how and who influenced his writingss and ideas..give me a break already, no disrespect meant , but trae..just because that is your thing, 8th grade kids , even bright ones, discussion of..just not real,

[steff]

All the lab equipment was donated by the CDC, the Atlanta Zoo, and a Nasa contractor here in the state. The laptops were donated by Delta, Cemex, and all 3 of our local tv stations.

the whole thing is working hand in hand with the state colleges, businesses, and the school district. It was started as an "experiment" in getting kids a jump start on college & the science & tech fields.

[traelin0]

Dec 31, 2010 16:14:08 GMT -5 deziloooooo said:

=======================================
Oh come on already Trae..8th grade civics class , expecting a esoteric discussion of how a founding father based his decision of how and who influenced his writingss and ideas..give me a break already, no disrespect meant , but trae..just because that is your thing, 8th grade kids , even bright ones, discussion of..just not real,

My 8th grade civics teacher ingrained the founding documents in our heads. It is not esoteric in the least. The more important area of study for us was to learn how these guys THOUGHT, instead of the rote memorization that comes out of schools today. We learned how to think, not to memorize some cryptic event from 500 years ago. Ironically, learning how to think engaged us enough to go and do that secondary research ourselves.

Look at the recent study that compared us to about 33 other major nations. We ranked 25th in math and 14th in the other two areas of study. It's pathetic considering what we spend. The federal govt. has no business in education. Look at DC. It is still in the top 3 in money spent per capita on its students and they produce horrific results.

[steff]

I've heard nothing about schools no longer teaching history, but it's well known that politicians are now using their power to rewrite history textbooks to fit their political agenda. Just read up on how the religious right has managed to rewrite Texas history books to remove "liberal" historical figures and removed credit from them for the things they accomplished in history.

Stephen F Austin, the father of Texas has been removed from Texas history books. Along with Thurgood Marshall and his historic court case ending school segregation.

[deziloooooo]

I had two cousins back in the day, were in the "special catagory ", meaning advanced and they were very bright, today one is a known Psychologist in San Francisco , the other in education, retired now but with 100's of credits and degrees and back then they were transported to another school , a few days of specialized schooling with other like minded and identified kids, but nothing like this.
Go Georgia.. same to all those companies and Universitys who are participating..so glad to hear in these times of doom and gloom.
I would think the school system would qualify for federal help and encouragement to help out here. Good posts, thanks.