KurtFF8
26th May 2010, 16:44
Source (http://southernleftists.wordpress.com/2010/05/24/the-texas-textbook-war/)
By KurtFF8
The Texas Board of Education recently passed changes to the social science textbook curriculum that, as the NY Times writes (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/education/13texas.html), puts a “conservative stamp” on US history. Many of the changes are to be expected by a group motivated to “end the leftist/liberal bias” that exists within schoolbooks (although of course any actual Leftist will certainly point out that we feel the bias is for the system of Capitalism, not our ideas). The changes put emphasis on conservative movements of history, deemphasize the more “radical elements” in the civil rights movement (for example, either stop talking about the Panthers or paint them in a negative light). They also paint the founding fathers in a more religious way (e.g. them being opposed to separation of church and state) and make them seem to be more for “states rights,” which is of course absurd because the Founders were quite split on this issue (as is obvious by the Texas Board’s decision to deemphasize Jefferson). One of my personal favorite changes is the changing of the term “capitalism” to “free market system” because of the “negative connotation” that the word capitalism has. This strategy shows how the GOP in this country, and especially in the South, continues to move further to the right and is bringing with it the overall discourse. Leftists, especially in the South, need to combat this trend and get better at definding the framework for discussion.
This move by the Texas Board, while obviously a conservative political move, is quite interesting to me as it reminds me of the “West Virginia Textbook War.” Mike Ely over at Kasama Project had some interesting things to say (http://kasamaproject.org/2010/04/30/textbook-protests-when-the-poet-said-burn-our-churches/) about the WV situation (and Communist involvement). The difference is of course that what is happening here is almost the opposite of the WV case: there a more “liberal/multicultural” set of text books were being introduced and the most reactionary elements of WV fought tooth and nail to prevent them from introduction (which they for the most part failed). There was even a miner strike against the books which put Communists in an awkward position. In Texas, the GOP is now the one enforcing revisionist history to paint themselves in a better light (a much more blatant attempt at historical revisionism than the WV case I would argue) and the way to organize against these moves is a grassroots campaign that should involve different social movement and especially unions.
I don’t think that the Texas situation will intensify as much as the WV situation, but what I do think is that it is an important event in the South that opens up discourse on important things like “the term capitalism” to a much broader audience, especially for comrades living in Texas right now.
It will be interested to see what segments of Texas society start to resist this on the grassroots level.
By KurtFF8
The Texas Board of Education recently passed changes to the social science textbook curriculum that, as the NY Times writes (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/education/13texas.html), puts a “conservative stamp” on US history. Many of the changes are to be expected by a group motivated to “end the leftist/liberal bias” that exists within schoolbooks (although of course any actual Leftist will certainly point out that we feel the bias is for the system of Capitalism, not our ideas). The changes put emphasis on conservative movements of history, deemphasize the more “radical elements” in the civil rights movement (for example, either stop talking about the Panthers or paint them in a negative light). They also paint the founding fathers in a more religious way (e.g. them being opposed to separation of church and state) and make them seem to be more for “states rights,” which is of course absurd because the Founders were quite split on this issue (as is obvious by the Texas Board’s decision to deemphasize Jefferson). One of my personal favorite changes is the changing of the term “capitalism” to “free market system” because of the “negative connotation” that the word capitalism has. This strategy shows how the GOP in this country, and especially in the South, continues to move further to the right and is bringing with it the overall discourse. Leftists, especially in the South, need to combat this trend and get better at definding the framework for discussion.
This move by the Texas Board, while obviously a conservative political move, is quite interesting to me as it reminds me of the “West Virginia Textbook War.” Mike Ely over at Kasama Project had some interesting things to say (http://kasamaproject.org/2010/04/30/textbook-protests-when-the-poet-said-burn-our-churches/) about the WV situation (and Communist involvement). The difference is of course that what is happening here is almost the opposite of the WV case: there a more “liberal/multicultural” set of text books were being introduced and the most reactionary elements of WV fought tooth and nail to prevent them from introduction (which they for the most part failed). There was even a miner strike against the books which put Communists in an awkward position. In Texas, the GOP is now the one enforcing revisionist history to paint themselves in a better light (a much more blatant attempt at historical revisionism than the WV case I would argue) and the way to organize against these moves is a grassroots campaign that should involve different social movement and especially unions.
I don’t think that the Texas situation will intensify as much as the WV situation, but what I do think is that it is an important event in the South that opens up discourse on important things like “the term capitalism” to a much broader audience, especially for comrades living in Texas right now.
It will be interested to see what segments of Texas society start to resist this on the grassroots level.