Without timely, accurate data making the best decision is
nearly impossible. Without knowing where we have come, we cannot find where we
are going. Back in our days of middle and high school, we lugged huge textbooks
home—without the aid of a backpack—to study. These books had information on
Mathematics (Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, and Calculus), English (grammar
and literature), Science (biology, chemistry, physics) and Social Studies
(Psychology, Sociology, Geography, and History). As a kid I loved the books. I
enjoyed the pictures, graphs, and reading about the world. I and other students
had to read/study the material provided by the teacher and information
contained within the textbooks. We were graded on how well our answers matched the
teacher’s notes and textbook. With my limited knowledge, I trusted what my
teacher taught and what I read in the textbooks. But what if the teacher taught
the wrong information? What if the information contained within the textbooks
was wrong? As a society, we could make poor decisions.
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| Israel is not listed on map. Instead listed as Occupied Palestine. |
I am sure you have heard how “some” are rewriting history
from Muslims discovering America to Jerusalem being an Arab city. One has even
removed Israel and renamed it “Occupied Palestine” from a map of the Middle
East. They have rewritten (distanced) the close ties of the Democratic Party
with the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and have portrayed the Democratic Party as the party
that championed Civil Rights. They fail to mention that it was a Democrat
Commissioner of Public Safety (Eugene “Bull” Connor”) that turned the fire
hoses and dogs on blacks in Birmingham, AL. They fail to mention it was a
Democratic Alabama Governor (George C. Wallace, Jr.) that stood in the doorway
to prevent black students from registering at the University of Alabama. They
exclude the work the Republican Party, which was the party of Abraham Lincoln,
Frederick Douglas, and Susan B. Anthony. It was the Republican Party that
passed the Civil Rights Acts of 1875, 1957, 1960, and 1964. This is a blatant
attempt to rewrite and cast the Republican Party as anti-black and by extension
anti-minority.
 |
| Guyer High School Revised Ten Amendments |
More recently we have this example from Guyer High School in
Denton, TX. Take a look at both the First
and Second Amendments in United States History: Preparing for the
Advanced Placement Exam[i].
The first is the textbook (red) and the
second is the original (blue).
First Amendment: Congress may make
no laws that infringe a citizen’s right to freedom of religion, speech, press,
assembly, and petition. Congress may not favor one religion over another (separation of church and state). Emphasis
added.
First Amendment: Congress shall
make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the press; or the
right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a
redress of grievances.
The phrase “separation of church and state” does not appear
in the Constitution. The First Amendment contains the “Establishment Clause”.
The Establishment Clause prohibits government—either Federal or State—from making
any laws “respecting an establishment of religion.” The government cannot
establish an official religion—remember Church of England—and cannot unduly
favor one religion for another. Finally, it prohibits government from giving
preference for religion to non-religion, or more importantly, giving
preference for non-religion to religion. It does NOT mean you cannot pray in
public schools, or opening Congress and Senate sessions with an invocation.
Sadly, the Chief Justice of Alabama was ordered by a U. S. District Judge to
remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from the Alabama Judicial Building opining
the monument “crossed the line”. The decision indicated the monument in the
Judicial Building gave preference to one religion over another. However, the
same Ten Commandments hang on the walls of the Supreme Court of the United
States. No consistency.
Second Amendment:
The people
have the right to keep and bear arms in
a state militia. Emphasis added.
Second Amendment:
A well
regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a Free State, the right
of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Based on the wording of this text, a citizen only has the
right to bear arms while serving in a “state militia”. Several decisions handed
down from the SCOTUS have reaffirmed citizens the right to bear arms in McDonald v. Chicago (2010) and is not
dependent on serving in a “state militia” in District of
Columbia v. Heller (2008). In Presser
v. Illinois (1886), it provided further clarification that any restriction of
Second Amendment is on Government not "the people".
In a response, the school system stated this was a
supplemental textbook but the primary text contained the correct information.
Furthermore, all of the Amendments were “simplified” but the others did not
contain any major errors or editorials.
Other Examples
Prentice Hall in their textbook World History[ii]
devotes an entire chapter to Islam including sections on the rise of Islam and
the building of the Muslim empire. There are NO chapters for either
Christianity or Judaism, but are referenced in embedded paragraphs. The editors
describe Jesus is a “self-proclaimed” Messiah, but definitively declares Muhammad
a prophet.
Texas Education Service Center Curriculum (TESCCC) made a
major change in “World History Unit
 |
| Remembering 9/11--Remix style. |
To be more politically correct and in an attempt to not
alienate females and transgenders, Teachers Curriculum Institute (TCI) in History Alive! America’s Past[iii]
changed the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson wrote, “We hold these truths
to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” The TCI
version reads: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people
are created equal…”
Do not misunderstand my motives. I am a firm believer in both
education and continuous improvement. We should expect our students have the
most correct information and minimize the number of errors in the textbooks. I
also understand the purpose and use of “nationalization” in which different
countries view world events through national lenses. A textbook written and
published in USA differs from one from United Kingdom recounting the American
Revolution. Textbooks in Germany, Japan, and Italy have a different “slant” to
World War II than USA, UK, France, Australia, and Russia. We expect this. But, we
should not play favorites. We should not try to rewrite history so it is more
palatable. History is bloody. History is violent. We must make sure we know our
past. If we are not careful, left to those with an agenda, History is a weapon.
The wrong information either found in a textbook or taught in a classroom does
not provide a well-rounded education. If you say the wrong or inaccurate thing
long enough, people start believing it. Don’t believe me? Find in the Bible the
phrase, “God helps those that help themselves”. It is not in any of the canonized
works of the Christian Bible.
According to a 2002 Columbia Law School Study, nearly
two-thirds of respondents polled thought the phrase “From each according to his
ability, to each according to his needs” came from the Constitution, or at
least written by the Framers of the Constitution. Sadly, it was not written by
any of the Framers, it was not even written by an American. Instead it was
written by a German. Karl Marx wrote the phrase in his 1875 The Critique of the Gotha Program.
Essentially, it is the Executive Summary of the principles of Communism.
[i]
John J. Newman, John M. Schmalbach United
States History: Preparing for the Advanced Placement Exam 2dn Revised Edition, (Amsco School
Publications: New York 2010).
[ii] Elisabeth
Gaynor Ellis, World History[ii]
(Prentice Hall: New York, 2007).
[iii] Bert
Bower, History Alive! America’s Past (Teachers Curriculum Institute: Rancho
Cordova, CA 2003).
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