THE WOEFUL STATUS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION - V

MY LAST WORD ON THIS SUBJECT (PERHAPS)

In prior post I have voiced my opinion on the negative results that politicians, school boards and watered down curriculum text have on our education system.   There is one other issue that has a pronounced effect on the outcome of a child’s education, and unfortunately it is a social effect that has no present solution. 

Let me reemphasize that teacher’s training and performance is not the problem.   Teachers presently meet demanding standards, constant evaluation and continuing education requirements that ensure their competency.  

However, having said this, all education content and societal beliefs of our teachers are not equal.   Teachers that matriculate through southern schools and southern colleges are extremely likely to carry religious beliefs into their classroom that conflict with hard factual information. 

Religion is, and always has been the enemy of enlightenment and free thinking.  

After retiring from teaching in Alaska, my wife and I moved to Kentucky, where we substituted in the local school system.   I took long term substitution positions in science, math and literature: generally the results of maternity leaves.  

When teaching science and biology I was told not to cover the family tree of man (Australopithecus to Homo sapiens – the timeline of mankind.)   I was told that that was one of a number competing theories and that it was best not to deal with it as it would cause parents to complain. 

 

Some of the teachers in the school kept Bibles on their desk; one of the teachers had a number of books entitled Chicken Soup for the Soul that she encouraged students to read; and at one high school assembly a Christian church group came in and gave a presentation on abstinence, complete with religious songs and Bible references. 

It was not an unusual thing in Kentucky for students to wear tea-shirts asking What Would Jesus Do.  

I also did a stent as president of Adult Literacy Council for the county.  One of the adult students was a Mexican named Jesus – the local community had refused to call him Jesus and so had nicknamed him Joe.  

I could go on and on listing the instances of religious compromise permeating the education system of that county; but, I must state that the school was a reflection of the norm of the community in general. 

The schools turned out students that were proficient in math, computer science and language arts.   The school also had an excellent shop program.  

The points of failure for most southern and many mid-western school systems is the blatant deficiency in science, civics and social studies, as well as the development of critical thinking skills.   This is the results of religious influences in the community that interject themselves into the school curriculum - often through the teachers. 

the Ol’Buzzard 

THE WOEFUL STATUS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION IV

WHAT DO WE TEACH OUR CHILDREN?

When I taught high school history I always began each semester by telling the students to hold every statement in the history text in suspect, because every account and record has fallacies of bias.   All enduring history has been recorded by the winners of wars.   If you win the war you get to tell history from your perspective.  The books also contain cultural biases.   History that is recorded by different nations does not necessarily agree on events, as national historians tend to record history to reflect their nation’s best image. 

I asked students to use the text as a guide line (a time line) to consider events as a basis to begin exploration and discussion.    To understand events is far better than memorizing dates and heroes. 

Back in the eighties, when I began teaching, I did not occur to me to ask my students to question math and science.  To me those disciplines were factual and indisputable.  But today every discipline, every text book should be held to question.

No mater where you live in this country or where you child goes to school it is likely that the text books they use have been influenced by the Texas School Board. 

As a general rule, public school districts across the country are free to choose the text book series they wish to teach in their schools, and each district pays the cost of new text book series.  But Texas acquired its power over the text book companies by paying 100% of the cost of all school text books, providing the books are selected from series approved by the Texas State School Board. 

There are approximately five million students in Texas, so text book companies strive to get on the short approved list of the Texas State School Board.  

The Texas State School Board has fifteen members.  The board approves all textbooks, curriculum and supplemental material used in Texas public schools.

In the early 1960’s religious fundamentalist targeted the State School Board because they feared that their children were being indoctrinated in Godless secularism by the liberal leaning text books being used in schools.  There was never a large turnout for School Board elections and so over the next decade the Christian conservatives co-opted the fifteen seats, consolidating control over curriculum and text book purchases

The cost of producing a science text book can run as high as five million dollars, and the books have to be produced on speculation.   The Texas market is so large that text book companies feel they must conform to Texas standards.  The books approved by the Texas School Board are likely to be mass produced by the publishers, so other states buy them to take advantage of cost savings. 

One Texas school board member believed that public schools were the tool of the devil; another openly stated that “evolution is hooey.”  The board as a hole believed that evolution, global warming and the separation of church and state were false.  

As a results Texas religious conservative fundamentalist have heavily influenced history, social studies and science curriculums across the nation. 

Science books now skirt the theory of evolution and any science that might compete with biblical teachings. 

 History books do not highlight slavery and segregation – they mention the attack on the twin towers but do not cover the US attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  In general History text have been watered down. 

Social Studies text justify McCarthy anti-communist witch hunt by the inclusion of the Venona papers.  The School Board demanded the includes the cattle industry boom of the nineteenth century; the problem of immigration; the philanthropy of industrialist; Phyllis Schlafly’s opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment; the Contract with America; the Heritage Foundation; the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association in social studies text.   

 

The list of concessions to the Texas State School Board could continue, but the fact remains that for the last fifty years the Christian conservative Texas School Board members have had a detrimental impact on the accuracy of the material we teach our children in school.     

Entering the second decade of the twenty-first century, the influence of small passionate minority’s in our schools curriculums is receding.  A concerted effort by liberals to replace the conservative, fundamentalist Christians on the Texas School Board has to some extent succeeded.   Book publishers are now moving to on-line publishing which drastically cuts the cost of production and decreases their vulnerability to manipulation by the Texas School Board.

The outcome quality of our education system is only as good as the accuracy of the information we are required to teach; and giving the classroom teacher the autonomy to encourage students to question, explore discuss and form their own opinions would be far more productive than teaching rote to prescribed text books.  

the Ol'Buzzard