Nicklas Johnson · morons.org - Conservative Correctness Agenda in Public Schools

Morons in the News: Conservative Correctness Agenda in Public Schools

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Overheard in SF: Heard inbetween the rabbit squeezing and the carrot munching

Conservatives are using the public schools and the children who attend them as pawns in their power game...
Posted by spatula on Nov. 22, 2004 08:44 UTC
36 comments from readers. Join the discussion!

Christian Conservatives on the Texas state Board of Education are rewriting textbooks to bring them in line with their neo-conservative social agenda. These are the same kinds of people who have been insisting for years that "the liberals" are driving their "agenda" in schools... but that seems to have been a case of Freudian Projection all along.

Where a textbook says something that doesn't agree with their warped take on reality, these people simply change the textbook. Here are some examples of changes proposed and changes in the past:

References to "marriage" must be defined as "a lifelong union between a husband and a wife" (not between two people, because that would imply that gays and lesbians married in Massachusetts, Canada or many parts of Western Europe actually exist).
References to "partners" become "husbands and wives".
Adolescence brings about an "attraction to the opposite sex" not "attraction to others" (even though adolescence plainly does bring about attraction to others of the same sex for gay youths, it isn't part of the universe that these conservatives accept, therefore it must be written out of the book.)
The last ice age took place "in the distant past" not "millions of years ago" (because the earth is only 6000 years old).

Unfortunately, because textbook publishers don't want to create separate editions of their books for the red states versus the blue states, large red states like Texas often end up getting their way, and religious and conservative convictions become hardwired into textbooks to promote a Conservative Correctness agenda in our public schools.

---Nick

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Posted by Pansy Bedwetter on Nov. 22, 2004 09:49

Actually, the last Ice Age ended between 18 and 12 thousand years ago, so it's not "millions of years ago". There is plenty of other evidence for life millions of years ago, but the ice age comment is wrong.

angelsaregay: But it is still 12-6000 years before Fundies believe the earth was created. See...

microbe: I'd guess that these morons never picked up a science book in their entire...

spatula: That's likely my fault. I incorrectly inserted the word "last" into the...

Random Guest: Point, but then it should have been corrected to 'thousands of years' instead...

Posted by Ainsley Ledbetter from Pittsburgh, PA on Nov. 22, 2004 10:24

Funny -- I felt like we've been going back into another ice age since the election.

DeepThought: You're thinking of a noo-klu-lar winter.

Posted by microbe on Nov. 22, 2004 10:25

No wonder the state of Texas chruns out more dipshits than any other state in the union(i.e. Anna Nicole Smith, George W. Bush, and Jessica Simpson)I wonder what they'll outlaw next in their curriclum....Math, Geogrphy, History? I feel sorry for all the intelligent people who live in Texas with common knowledge replaced by conservative fundementlist bullshit. What a shame that this nation is rowing far from the shores of reality and logic.

CHUCKY: Speaking of Texas dipshits, don't forget LBJ, [and his wonderful Vietnam...

Aeryl: Watched a very interesting movie, called Path to War, that is airing on HBO....

a_someone: LBJ did a lot of good work regarding the Civil Rights movement, but most people...

CHUCKY: So LBJ was credited with doing good works? How does his good works on civil...

Eagon: The entire point of the post that you were responding to was that LBJ wasn't a...

CHUCKY: "The entire point...." If LBJ had such a great vision regarding domestic...

Eagon: Look, you're just being obtuse here. All that was said that was LBJ enforced...

CHUCKY: QUOTE from the original thread I was commenting on:***"No wonder the state of...

Tex Arcana: Hey, Dubya is NOT a Texan--never has been, never will be. Hs father ain't one,...

Posted by Pansy Bedwetter on Nov. 22, 2004 12:24

Mmmm interesting. If marriage is a "lifelong" union between a man and a woman, then there really aren't that many of them in the US when the divorce rate is >50%...

Robguy: And in Texas in particular where the divorce rate is generally hire than the...

Kenster999: "higher" </PedanticMode>

Posted by Aeryl from Lou a vul, KY on Nov. 22, 2004 13:31

Texas is the largest buyer of textbooks in the country. They have immense buying power, so companies will usually change all the books.

Kenster999: I've never understood this. Doesn't California have a larger population? I...

Random Guest: Classroom and home copies, maybe? //playlist: Incubus - Megalomaniac

Cousin Steve: They buy a lot. But how many get read?

Posted by Perrin Aybarra on Nov. 22, 2004 14:07

Dear Texas: it becomes more plain with each passing day that you don't want to be part of a country whose founding principles are liberty, equality, and that religion and government must stay out of each other's business - in other words, America. The treaty under which you joined us gives you the right, unique among all other states, to seceed whenever you want, for any reason or none at all. Please do so with all haste, and spare yourselves and the rest of us further pain. Oh, and could you take most of the populations of the surrounding states with you, particularly those citizens of like mind with yourselves? Thanks.

Aeryl: A friend, who supported Bush, said that if he lost, she thought Texas(her home...

St Matthew: I wouldn't object.

Big Pansy: I wouldn't mind either, as long as they wait until I get out of here.

sqlrob: As a resident of a Texas County that voted ovewhelmingly *against* Bush, I...

Posted by peter from Chicago on Nov. 22, 2004 15:56

Not to defend these people, because their agenda is perfectly clear, but several of these things aren't that much of an issue.

Don't forget that gay men who marry are still husbands, and lesbian women who marry are still wives. Discussion of married people in the aggregate is still discussion of 'husbands and wives" even if gay people are included. OF course, the word "spouses" already covers that. I can, however see a useful distinction between married people and unmarried people, so "partners" is potentially vague enough to matter.

And Ice Ages, whether thousands or millions of years ago, are in fact in the distant past.

I don't agree with the opposite sex references, nor to the lifelong commitment thing, because both of those are utterly inaccurate.

But somehow, I think gay kids will still work things out, regardless of what their textbooks say. Not that I support this, nor what is likely to come next from these people, but this isn't the end of the world. Sucks though.

psychojosh13: also while we're picking out little details, i'd like to point out that...

Random Guest: It doesn't say husbands and wives, it says a husband (singular) and a wife...

Posted by tamzee on Nov. 23, 2004 15:06

"marriage" is SUPPOSED to be a life long union between a husband and wife......... "Do you take this MAN as your lawfully wedded husband?", "Do you take this WOMAN as your lawfully wedded wife?" I DO!....... until death do you part........

as far as the whole gay thing.....Quite frankly I am sick of it!!!!!! Who Cares if you like to screw a person of the same sex......keep it to your self!!!! My kids are too young to know about sex in general Much less the fact that uncle ray likes it in the ass.......If I stood on the corner spouting off that I deserved special rights and equality because I screw dogs My ass would go straight to jail. Keep your sexual preferences to your selves.....I don't care to hear how you like to get your jollies.........

and the Ice age? Nobody really knows for sure when it was... everybody guesses, no body lived through it....so who cares what the kids are taught on the subject.........I really doubt that will be a subject of importance when it comes to a job interview!!! ( unless the kid is going into that particular field and if that is the case the kid will be guessing just like everybody else.)

So if you are foaming at the mouth because you don't like what is being taught in school............Keep your kids home and teach them yourself.........and YES this is an option .........it is called home schooling !!!

spatula: I wish those disgusting heterosexuals would keep their sexuality to themselves...

tamzee: I totally agreee with you !!!!!!!

tonyschmo: Who's foaming at the mouth? You might want to take a look in the mirror.