The Texas state school board is working on a statewide curriculum that ignores Thomas Jefferson – you know the guy who wrote the Declaration of Independence – and that refuses to discuss the separation of church and state. If we aren’t careful then this cancer could spread to other states and other children.
Meet the graduating Texas senior class of 2020 and beyond. This group of students has some unique identifying characteristics, products of an education based upon textbooks crafted with an agenda. If you were to test them on their knowledge, here’s what you’d discover:
* They don’t know who Thomas Jefferson is and why he’s significant, but they do known who John Calvin is and believe he was instrumental to the formation of our nation.
* They believe the terms church and state are interchangeable.
* They do not believe in evolution as fact, but are inclined to embrace creation theory or intelligent design as the explanation for how the universe came into existence.
* They believe the right to bear arms is a first AND second amendment right granted by the Constitution. (see 11:12 entry)
* They do not understand the term “democracy”, but can define “constitutional Republic” and apply it to the American system of government.
* They don’t know that the United States Constitution bans placing one religion over others.
* They can name at least three pro-free market factors contributing to European progress in medieval times. (Yes, I’m serious. Read the 6:43 pm entry)
* They cannot define capitalism, but are completely familiar with the idea that taxation and government regulation inhibits free enterprise.
* They ignore Hispanics and their role in various historical events in the United States, such as the Alamo.
This is part of a long term effort by the religious right and other conservatives to worm their way into the system that makes these decisions and then throw out actual facts and replace them with their agenda.
The reason the issue is important and focused on Texas is because Texas is one of the largest buyer of school text books and their “standards” are spread to other districts in other states that buy the same books.
The main problem is the response from the left and those of us who support church and state separation has been to laugh at Texas but the writer of the article karoli has a warning:
Still, in all the reports I’ve seen about this, there’s a certain derision from the left that sends danger signals off in me. Laugh at the Texas School Board at your own peril. They have just succeeded in approving a statewide curriculum indoctrinating students, educating them on a single point of view, and threatening our national curriculum in far too many ways. To shrug them off or paint them as buffoons misses their larger, and largely successful, plan.
I worry that we will all be caught flat footed like we were when Intelligent Design swept the nation before the science community and its supporters were able to ramp up to fight the effort.
