Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Ideology Driven Education


The Texas Board of Education recently made wholesale revisions of the state curriculum.  Ordinarily, I wouldn’t care what they teach in Texas but the sheer size of population is bound to have an effect on education eleswhere because textbook publishers tend to aim for the widest market.

Thomas Jefferson, the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, was replaced on a list of figures whose writings inspired revolutions in the late 18th century and 19th century by John Calvin who believed in a theocracy, defined by his interpretation of what God wanted.

The rationale for removing Jefferson from the list is based partly on his letter to the Danbury Baptists in which he expressed his opinion the First Amendment built “a wall of separation between Church & State.”  It probably didn’t endear him to the elected educators that he was a Deist or Unitarian, depending on the source.

Also changed were all references to “capitalism” and “free market” which the majority of the board thinks have negative connotaions. Mind you, these people think capitalism is the greatest economic system on this planet, but now it will be called “free enterprise.”  The people who call themselves conservatives (their term not mine) shouldn't be  practicing historical revision.

Knox County (TN) was recently poised on the precipice of ideological revisionism, but stepped back just in time,

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