Did ya'll see Steve Blow's column re: fundie textbooks (DMN)?

[tanyev]

Steve Blow:
Turning textbooks into the Good Book

A concerned mom called my attention to the politically loaded lessons. She was troubled by some of the Texas history worksheets her son was bringing home.

That's where he had learned the definitions of liberal ("referring to philosophy not supported by Scripture") and conservative ("dedicated to the preserving of Scriptural principles").

--snip--

In more recent history, the re-election of Bill Clinton is explained thusly: "To some Americans, a healthy economy is more important than the moral fiber of their country." Interestingly, the various investigations of Mr. Clinton get more than twice the space in the workbooks that Watergate gets.

And Jimmy Carter is described as someone who "claimed to be a Believer."
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/localnews/columnists/all/stories/DN-blow_05met.ART.North.Edition2.3e852c7.html

I'll have to keep checking the website this week and see how much hate mail pours in about this column.

[acmejack]

1. Please keep us updated on this one.

I'll make sure the Texas Freedom Network knows about it, I'm sure they do. But just in case it slipped by them. I'm not sure there is anything we can do about it, though.

[MagickMuffin]

2. I feel Sorry for the Kids having to learn this crap!

It will be apparent when they go off to college, unless of course they go to Liberty University, ie Falwell's nightmare of a college.
I didn't see anything about the grade level of the class. Did I miss something?

On the matter of evolution, there is no pretense of balance. "The theory of evolution has no real scientific basis. ... There is simply no true scientific support for the theory," according to the ACE version of American history.

(In the interest of balance, type "statement on evolution" into Google and you will find solid support from virtually every scientific organization.)

The textbook goes on to set up a false choice between evolution and God. "Both cannot be right. Is it logical to trust Darwin or God? It is odd that whenever given the choice of accepting the Bible or some man-written book, the liberals always reject the Bible and accept the other book."

I had hoped to discuss educational philosophy with officials from ACE. But after they heard my questions, I got a polite decline.

I'm sure they're nice, well-intentioned folks and all that.

But a question comes to mind: If they teach that God is only on their side, how is that different from those we fight in Iraq?

The curriculum is published by Accelerated Christian Education. And that company started right here – in Lewisville.
Though ACE is now headed up in Florida, its distribution and other facilities in Lewisville are valued at more than $20 million on county tax rolls.

[liveoaktx]

3. Stinks but it's a private school, not public-that woman decided to pay

to send her kid to a "Christian" School -if she doesn't want to PAY MONEY to have her child indoctrinated, she can take the kid out and send to public where there can be a legit issue.

[tanyev]

4. Yes, but this needs to serve as a warning that parents who are

thinking about putting their kids in "Christian" schools need to pay careful attention to the curriculum. Way back when I was in elementary school, I went to a Lutheran school. We had a few kids in our class who were not members of the church. Sure, they had to sit through Lutheran religion classes, but for every other class we used state approved textbooks that were also being used in public schools. You can no longer take that for granted.

[tanyev]

5. UPDATE: Here come the LTTEs.

It even got its own page on the website.

Letter #1 makes some good points, but she seems to fall into the I-think-both-sides-are-wacko category:

Conservative or liberal government has nothing to do with Christianity, abortion, feminism, education, crime, homosexuals, gun control or any other issue that seems to have been dragged into the philosophies. This country will always be a combo platter of liberal and conservative solutions.

I just feel sorry for the voters who are too young to know that neither political party was meant to be lunatic, right-wing, Christian gun-nuts or tree-hugging, tax-crazy atheists.

Letter #2 was written by somebody who freebases the Kool-Aid:

What an astounding exposé! Steve Blow must be right: What difference could there possibly be between those kooks at Accelerated Christian Education and those we fight in Iraq? I'll bet ACE is behind those daily car bombings in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles! I'll bet they're really called ACE-Qaeda!

Thanks for serving up another fat slice of politically correct pie! And I thought we actually celebrated diversity of ideas, but Mr. Blow has just added another log to the fire that seeks to consume all opinions and practices failing to conform to a particular viewpoint.

Um, yeah, teaching kids incorrect facts is OK because we need to promote diversity. :crazy:

Letter #3 somehow makes a correlation to the teacher in Colorado who got in trouble for "bashing Bush."

The Bennish brand of indoctrination goes on all the time in our public schools by teachers who are smart enough to use more subtle techniques to make sure their students get the right message.

I had to find out about Jay Bennish on the Internet. Small wonder a lot of us get their serious news elsewhere.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/letters/stories/DN-wedartletters_0308edi.ART.State.Edition2.ae98.html