Friday, September 19, 2014

Conservatives now using public education to spread Right Wing propaganda and dumb down the population.

Courtesy of Salon:  

One of the biggest obstacles for the conservative movement when it comes to recruiting new members is, to be frank, reality itself. History, science, economics are all fields constantly churning out information that makes right-wing ideology look silly, nonsensical and even delusional. In response, the conservative movement has launched a massive media campaign against reality that spreads out on Fox News, talk radio and the web, but despite all this, conservatives are not satisfied. The kids are who conservatives really want. That’s why the right is relentless about its attempts to get into public schools, throw out actual information and replace it with false and misleading ideology. Whether or not they’ll actually be successful in tricking kids into becoming conservatives is up for debate, but in the meantime, they are doing a lot of damage to childrens’ ability to get a decent education. 

The latest battle in the ongoing war to turn public schools into propaganda machines for the right is being fought in the state of Texas. The state is often at the center of conservative-fomented education controversies, as right-wingers there keep trying to sneak creationism into the science classroom. Texas also continues to maintain its abysmally high teen pregnancy rate by pushing sex “education” that usually doesn’t bother to mention contraception. While the right has been losing some ground on those two issues, a new report from the Texas Freedom Network suggests that conservatives have been able to inject a shocking number of lies and disinformation into public school history classrooms.

The article goes on to remind us that the textbooks adopted by Texas are often the only ones publishers bother to print, and therefore become the textbooks used by public schools all over the country.

So how bad are these books really?

Well here are some of the troubling findings documented by ten scholars studying textbooks proposed for public school classrooms in Texas as reported to the Washington Post: 

A number of government and world history textbooks exaggerate Judeo-Christian influence on the nation’s founding and Western political tradition. 

Two government textbooks include misleading information that undermines the Constitutional concept of the separation of church and state. 

Several world history and world geography textbooks include biased statements that inappropriately portray Islam and Muslims negatively. 

All of the world geography textbooks inaccurately downplay the role that conquest played in the spread of Christianity. 

Several world geography and history textbooks suffer from an incomplete – and often inaccurate – account of religions other than Christianity. 

Coverage of key Christian concepts and historical events are lacking in a few textbooks, often due to the assumption that all students are Christians and already familiar with Christian events and doctrine. 

A few government and U.S. history textbooks suffer from an uncritical celebration of the free enterprise system, both by ignoring legitimate problems that exist in capitalism and failing to include coverage of government’s role in the U.S. economic system. 

One government textbook flirts with contemporary Tea Party ideology, particularly regarding the inclusion of anti-taxation and anti-regulation arguments. 

One world history textbook includes outdated – and possibly offensive – anthropological categories and racial terminology in describing African civilization. 

A number of U.S. history textbooks evidence a general lack of attention to Native American peoples and culture and occasionally include biased or misleading information. 

One government textbook … includes a biased – verging on offensive – treatment of affirmative action. 

Most U.S. history textbooks do a poor job of covering the history of LGBT citizens in discussions of efforts to achieve civil rights in this country. 

Elements of the Texas curriculum standards give undue legitimacy to neo-Confederate arguments about “states’ rights” and the legacy of slavery in the South. While most publishers avoid problems with these issues, passages in a few U.S. history and government textbooks give a nod to these misleading arguments.

The conservatives have been attacking public education for decades now, often attempting to undermine them by pushing for charter schools, or  encouraging parents to home school their children.

Now it seems that they are attacking education at its source.

Let's face it the conservatives and the religious right do not care one bit about truth, facts, or accuracy. All they care about is continuing to promote their agenda and maintaining a level of ignorance that allows them to continue to perpetuate their bullshit.

Remember facts have a liberal agenda.

16 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:57 PM

    How ironic. Sending your kids to Catholic school in TX might actually result in them being educated then sending them to public school.

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    1. Anonymous6:31 PM

      Word.

      From someone who was there and did that.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous9:18 AM

      Let's not forget 'The Good News Club' which uses (legally per court decision") school classrooms after hours to promote child evangelism. The goal is to indoctrinate children with the idea of being 'saved', with the hope that these children will then go out on the playground and convince other youngsters that they need to be 'saved' or horrible things will happen to them.

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  2. Anita Winecooler5:13 PM

    I can't agree more with everything this article points out, I've seen it myself when mine were in public grade and high schools. One teacher passed out creationist propaganda NOT printed in the text nor part of either her lesson plan OR the school's agenda. She also asked if anyone knew why the world map has the United States waaaaay on the left and Russia waaaay on the right. The kids really didn't give a shit but asked questions anyway, the answer? "To keep Americans from realizing how close the threat of communism is to the homeland". She's correct on the fact that cartographers purposely arranged it that way, but the overreach of the threat of communism? Seriously? The USSR is no more, and what's left is the country called "Russia", and Sarah's got that threat covered.

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  3. Anonymous5:31 PM

    This is exactly WHY we homeschooled (we live in a fundy crazed area) and exactly WHY our daughter plans to homeschool - so my and her kids can learn the 3 R's as well as evolution, history, critical thinking, etc.

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  4. Oh Texas...bless your un-fact-checked heart.

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  5. Sgt. Preston of the Yukon6:11 PM

    It's time for a Texas independence movement.
    Maybe they can succeed where Scotland has failed.

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    1. Anonymous7:04 PM

      I heard an interesting report on Scotland yesterday. They said when a country doesn't have its own monetary system, that's when they get into trouble when someone decides to use austerity to make the poor poorer and the rich richer. If Texas proceeds, will they print their own money? I say we don't accept it here! Let them manage without any help from Americans. Let them start now..no money for their stupid fences, no money for Perry's buddies, no money for anything.

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    2. Anonymous8:40 AM

      Seceding from the Union wouldn't work for Texas. Their in state economy is not big enough to support it and as soon as the Federal govt. pulled all of its operations out of there, they'd be the poorest place around with the highest unemployment in the Americas.
      All of these states that start mouthing off about seceding from the Union never stop to consider how much they are indeed subsidized by the Government they despise so much.
      'Had a similar discussion with someone about Scotland. It's one thing to get your independence, but do you have the resources to survive?
      M from MD

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  6. Anonymous7:01 PM

    My grandkids are in school in Texas. They recite the Pledge of Allegiance, the Pledge of Allegiance to TEXAS, and a Pledge of Allegiance to their school. And these are the people who gripe most about undermining parents? By the time these kids get done pledging their allegiance to these various governmental agencies, there isn't much allegiance left for parents, is there?
    By the way, the parents of these kids are true liberals who are transplants due to a job. They are amazed at the stupidity around them, and pay close attention to what books their kids are using.

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  7. Anonymous9:23 PM

    ...and that's why I want to see Sarah Palin and her Rethuglican ilk run out of town for good.
    They are pushing ignorance on the country (how patriotic!)...and making sure they're lining their pockets while doing it.

    ~Canuck~

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  8. Anonymous10:22 PM

    This does not bode well for our country's competition with other developed countries (and for that matter, less developed countries) in education, math, science, technology, etc.

    We are already falling behind and have been for a while.

    These kids won't be able to compete in the future.

    They will either be obedient home schooled dolts. (I am sure Mrs. Duggar is a nice person, but I have serious doubts that she can teach her kids trigonometry or calculus and we know they all will know nothing about biology.) And if this religious right influence on education trend continues, those not fortunate enough to go to private schools will end up being “dumbed down” and will have a harder time of it when (if) they go on to college and graduate school.

    Our children are our most important resource for the future. We cannot let religious zealots handicap our kids’ education and interfere with their potential for success. If we don’t stop it now, it could extremely grave implications for generations of American kids to come.

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    1. Leland2:56 AM

      Man! Talk about grossly biased! Yes, there ARE those who teach the drivel you are claiming, but a large number of parents are quite sincere in their concerns about the failing school system.

      One of MY biggest concerns for children who are home schooled is the lack of peer interaction. They have a tendency to grow up not knowing how to work with, and in, groups. It is possible to correct that, but it is rather hard.

      The problem lies in the hands of the politician's who have been put in place by the ignorant right - and by the liberals who DON'T VOTE! Those politicians seem to accept the idea they have a mandate to destroy education as the above article points out.

      Yes, there are areas where a parent might have difficulty teaching their kids a subject, but there are really GOOD teaching systems available that can teach practically anything. It's merely a question of using them - and often the parents have their own education improved!

      Now, having said that, if you were intending to speak ONLY of the religious nut jobs who yank their kids from public school to TEACH them that drivel, I agree with. Just, please?, don't make flat statements such as you have. It's generally too easy to prove flat statements wrong.

      As for your initial paragraph? It already has knocked us for a loop when it comes to international standings, since this has been an ongoing problem for thirty years - as stated above. I don't want to take up too much space here, so I won't bother specifying other problems with what you state as undeniable fact.

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  9. Anonymous3:00 AM

    The Right doesn't want an educated public. They push religion because it trains people to accept on faith, instead of facts. We know what's best for you - trust us.
    They spread their bigotry by ignoring history. Science is to be mistrusted, and the government is too big. Fear of knowledge is pushed. Be a good Christian, have faith and believe what we tell you.
    When people receive a well rounded education, they do question and seek proof, traits that are more prevalent in liberals than conservatives.
    And homeschooling? I'm sure parents mean well. But unless they have teaching degrees from an accredited school, their children get a poor education. And part of school is going into a group and learning how to interact with people different from your family. Kids don't learn that when homeschooled.

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  10. Anonymous3:13 AM

    Hey hey, remember 45 % or so of those of us who live in Texas didn't vote for these numbnuts. And we're hoping for 51% in November. Go Wendy!

    Dave
    Texas

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  11. Anonymous8:36 AM

    Considering how populous California is, how come they aren't the one deciding what goes in our text books?
    M. from MD

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