Praying Before Legislating: America's Oxymorons

Texas State Board of Education member Cynthia Dunbar opens debate on new social studies standards with a politically divisive prayer on May 21, 2010.

I always get uneasy when I see prayer in a government office. America's Constitution makes the separation explicit. Why the fuck are government employees praying to Jesus in a government building as they begin government business? A new Facebook group may be in order: Stop Praying At Government Meetings. Someone go start it.

Richard Feynman On Textbook Adoptions

Nobel Prize-winning physicist and all-around genius Richard Feynman was once asked to be on the committee that decides which textbooks will be used in a certain California district. He devoted a chapter to it in Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman.

Texas Board Of Education: Oxymoron

Texas board adopts new high school curriculum

...As the debate continued Friday, conservatives rejected language to modernize the classification of historic periods to B.C.E. and C.E. from the traditional B.C. and A.D.

Conservatives say the Texas history curriculum has been unfairly skewed to the left after years of Democrats controlling the board.

Democrats and a moderate Republican accused conservatives on the board of trying to stir up a needless controversy Thursday by using the president's full name, Barack Hussein Obama, saying his middle name was loaded with negative connotation.

Critics had complained that Obama's full name was conspicuously absent in a high school history course that referred only to the "the election of the first black president."

When a Democrat tried to fix the omission, Republican David Bradley said "I think we give him the full honor and privilege of his full name."...

Monday Cartoon Fun: More Texas & Education Edition

Thursday Cartoon Fun: Texas Board Of Education Edition

Monday Bonus Cartoon Fun: Why Schools Fail Edition

Texas: Still The Most Embarrassing State Updated

Here is what the Texas Board of Education did:

– To avoid exposing students to “transvestites, transsexuals and who knows what else,” the Board struck the curriculum’s reference to “sex and gender as social constructs.”

– The Board removed Thomas Jefferson from the Texas curriculum, “replacing him with religious right icon John Calvin.”

– The Board refused to require that “students learn that the Constitution prevents the U.S. government from promoting one religion over all others.”

– The Board struck the word “democratic” from the description of the U.S. government, instead terming it a “constitutional republic.”

Congratulations Texas!

Update: Some more in depth here.

Texas: The Most Embarrassing State

Texas, our most embarrassing state, is on its way to re-writing history for its students. Here are some ideas for what should be taught in Texas, according to the Texas school board (sans links):

For instance, one guideline requires publishers to include a section on “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract with America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.”

There have also been efforts among conservatives on the board to tweak the history of the civil rights movement. One amendment states that the movement created “unrealistic expectations of equal outcomes” among minorities. Another proposed change removes any reference to race, sex or religion in talking about how different groups have contributed to the national identity.

The amendments are also intended to emphasize the unalloyed superiority of the “free-enterprise system” over others and the desirability of limited government.

One says publishers should “describe the effects of increasing government regulation and taxation on economic development and business planning.”

Throughout the standards, the conservatives have pushed to drop references to American “imperialism,” preferring to call it expansionism. “Country and western music” has been added to the list of cultural movements to be studied.

References to Ralph Nader and Ross Perot are proposed to be removed, while Stonewall Jackson, the Confederate general, is to be listed as a role model for effective leadership, and the ideas in Jefferson Davis’s inaugural address are to be laid side by side with Abraham Lincoln’s speeches.

Early in the hearing on Wednesday, Mr. McLeroy and other conservatives on the board made it clear they would offer still more planks to highlight what they see as the Christian roots of the Constitution and other founding documents.

“To deny the Judeo-Christian values of our founding fathers is just a lie to our kids,” said Ken Mercer, a San Antonio Republican.

The new guidelines, when finally approved, will influence textbooks for elementary, middle school and high school. They will be written next year and will be in effect for 10 years.

Texas: The Modern Stone Age

Meet the Flintstones

Nearly a third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, and more than half disagree with the theory that humans developed from earlier species of animals, according to the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.

The differences in beliefs about evolution and the length of time that living things have existed on earth are reflected in the political and religious preference of our respondents, who were asked four questions about biological history and God:

• 38 percent said human beings developed over millions of years with God guiding the process and another 12 percent said that development happened without God having any part of the process. Another 38 percent agreed with the statement "God created human beings pretty much in their present form about 10,000 years ago." ...

h/t swimming freestyle