Seriously Texas. Just Go Away.

I can’t....I can’t formulate cohesive thoughts through my anger. It’s like No Child Left Behind all over again. There is so much (SO MUCH) to be upset about in this article. The Texas School Board might ratify changes to textbooks in May that offset the “bias” of academia.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts1253

My favorite, the one that really shows the ridiculousness of what’s happening here is the recommendation to include country and western music among the nation’s cultural movements, but to drop hip-hop. Because clearly hip-hop isn’t American.

And it’s this blindness, this willful stupidity that has me nearly spitting with rage. Because apparently if you don’t like something and don’t understand its value from an aesthetic standpoint, it serves no purpose to anyone else. I love education that never tries to imagine the existence of anyone different from the one teaching.

Another gem is the decision to remove Thomas Jefferson as an influence on the nation’s intellectual origins. Instead they want to focus on Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin. Because clearly, Calvinism directly fed into the construction of our Constitution. Who needs Jefferson and his Declaration of Independence anyway?

I mean, what is there to be upset about? Why would we want to educate our students to question their surroundings, their information, and their own thoughts? Why would we want to raise a populous that considers the consequences of one‘s actions, good and bad? Why would we want to raise a critically aware, ethical, educated populous? That’s just silly talk! Let’s just hate everyone that’s different. It’s so much easier.

I’m not saying textbooks don’t have problems; I’m not saying we shouldn’t constantly be reassessing our textbooks, their information, and possible neglect and/or “spin” that is harmfully effecting the education of students. We should be critical of our textbooks; we should revise our textbooks We should be as honest as possible about the plurality of belief in our country, the problems it causes, and why the U.S. was designed to house all of those conflicts.

But the irritation with a few (and I do believe it to be a fairly minor population who happens to be loud) consistently irritates me because these few manage to affect many. The problem with the possible school board revisions is that Texas provides 80% of the textbook market; this means that it isn’t simply a state decision (though that would be bad enough). And, theoretically school systems in other states could choose not to buy from the Texas publishers, but the reality of budgets and costs means that to shift publishers at this point would be nigh on impossible.

But let’s make sure to play up McCarthy’s noble fight against Communism because that damn liberal bias in academia dares to question the ethics of a man who destroyed multiple lives for very little purpose. This idea that you must be “tolerant” of intolerants, and that those who are unwilling to accept tyranny are tyrants drives me insane. I’m not saying there aren’t crazies all over the place, but I am saying that the crazies, no matter what they’re saying are crazy; crazy is its own party. The rest of us do the best we can and you cannot argue against an ideological move because some crazies share the same label.

My point here is we shouldn't attack the “liberal bias” in academia because there are some crazy liberals and we shouldn't attack “conservative” values because there are some crazy conservatives. That’s not what this rant is about.

This rant is about the refusal of some (in this case the Texas School Board) to accept the multiple, wonderful variants of beliefs in this world and specifically in this country. To attempt to destroy that plurality destroys democracy; yes country and western music is a very important cultural movement in America. So is hip-hop! Have them both!

Yes, much of our government was influenced by Christian thought, but much of it was designed to allow for non-Christian thought. You can’t ignore either of those sides. Nor does our beginning dictate our path; there were no other value options when things were being imagined, but there was enough fighting happening over “Christian” values (Catholics vs. Protestants vs. Puritans) that people realized we needed to allow for freedom of choice. You can’t cut Thomas Jefferson out because two hundred years later it’s too darned inconvenient to make room in the country for those you don’t like!

I believe, honestly, that some level of bias is always going to be present. I think anyone that claims otherwise is unaware of their bias. I also think the best way to combat this is to be honest as a teacher about your biases and place the emphasis on sharing ideas, not arguing. We need to present educational material to the best of our abilities as decided by those who have dedicated their lives to the study; that means historians, sociologists, etc, not the Texas School board, should be making these decisions.

We then need to educate our teachers to be critical thinkers who are aware of what they believe, why they believe, and willing to teach and encourage the students that agree and disagree with them. But how are we ever going to get self-aware teachers when we’re busy designing textbooks that offer “conventional wisdom” instead of a critical, and yes sometimes disturbing, picture of the world.

Heaven forbid education upset you. I’d just hate for someone to learn something.