A new right wing movement is attempting to force religion onto the school curriculum in Texas. The state’s education board about to consider recommendations that children be taught that there would be no United States if it had not been for God.
Members of a panel of experts appointed by the board to revise the state’s history curriculum, who include a Christian fundamentalist preacher who says he is fighting a war for America’s moral soul, want lessons to emphasise the part played by Christianity in the founding of the US and that religion is a civic virtue.
One of the panel, David Barton, founder of a Christian heritage group called WallBuilders, argues that the curriculum should reflect the fact that the US Constitution was written with God in mind including that “there is a fixed moral law derived from God and nature”, that “there is a creator” and “government exists primarily to protect God-given rights to every individual”.
Considering Texas ranks 46th in the nation for SAT scores, the Texas education board needs to worry less about Jesus and more about math, science and reading. In a country with freedom of religion, no religion has the right to infiltrate public schools.
Save the church rhetoric and folklore for Sunday morning. Public school is for educating our children, not brainwashing them with silly theology.
Tags: America, Board, Christianity, Education, Freedom, God, Jesus, Public, SAT, School, Schools, Scores, Students, Teachers, Texas, United States
July 26, 2009 at 11:22 am |
Funny how those founding fathers, with God in mind, left God completely out of the constitution and explicitly declared that there be no religious test for public office.
July 26, 2009 at 10:04 pm |
Indeed. Not that it stops zealots from electing dishonest means that God would look down upon to take power. Ask them about this, and you’d basically be told that, well, God asked them to do it.
(Genius. Not only being blatantly dishonest – but holding God responsible for one’s dishonesty. I think there’s something in his commandments about that…)
July 27, 2009 at 8:30 am |
My father was an electrician back in the 1950s/60s, and I remember him saying that he always attended union meetings religiously, but few of his colleagues could be bothered! Consequently all the committees were stuffed with Communists and their “fellow-travellers”, as they made sure that they were at all the meetings – voting for the “right “candidates and passing all the “correct” motions – and that is why Britain ended up as such an industrial basketcase in the 1970s!!
July 26, 2009 at 1:07 pm |
I wrote about this on my own blog about a week ago when I first heard about it. Since then, I’ve read the report David Barton wrote. I was going to read the other reports as well and write a follow-up, but personal and work commitments got in the way.
It’s hard to even know where to start critisizing Barton’s report. Really, his interest in teaching the students about God is the least disturbing thing about his jumbled, ill organized, off the cuff opinions. Apparently, he disdains pedagogy. Also, if the legislature has not specifically written a law indicating that a thing should be taught, it is apparently, according to Barton, out of the purview of the schools. Therefore, he complains that students are taught things like how to read a chart, graph or map.
It really makes me want to throw my hands up in disgust and say, “Let them damn themselves to ignorance if they want. I don’t live there.” Then I remember that there are children involved whose families might not have the resources to send them to school or to “vote with their feet.” I feel really sad for these victims.
July 26, 2009 at 1:15 pm |
Don’t forget – the Bible is God’s “road map” that tells us how to live a happy and fulfilling life – hahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!
July 26, 2009 at 1:07 pm |
And the vast majority of our members of Congress are too chickenshit to stand up against this clear violation of the Constitution!
July 26, 2009 at 1:12 pm |
Quite – when did Americans rip up the Constitution? I live in the UK, but there was no mention of it on the News over here.
July 26, 2009 at 2:02 pm |
I understand Dennis Kucinich carries a copy of the constitution with him.
When my mother finished middle school, all the students were given a little book containing the text of the Declaration of Independence and a copy of the constitution. Although I agree with Obama that eight grade graduation ceremonies are little excessive, I think giving students a copy of the constitution is a nice idea.
However, I actually blame the left, not the right, for a decline in these types of things. When I was growing up, I recall that it was people on the far left with their moral relativism that made teaching about American government nearly impossible. Sometimes it seems to me that the far left opened up a void that the right filled.
July 27, 2009 at 7:19 am |
When I was growing up, I recall that it was people on the far left with their moral relativism that made teaching about American government nearly impossible.
How so?
July 27, 2009 at 8:54 pm |
Well, then the education system’s screwed either way. Here we have religious folk who insist on force-feeding the only answer and accepting no other.
(Someone up there might as well have made us robots if this is the only accepted education system, eh.)
July 26, 2009 at 4:28 pm |
When I click the link I get Pennsylvania listed as #43, and Texas as #46.
That said, do I understand correctly that the last column indicates what percentage of students took the test? Because not a single state in the top ten, and only two in the top twenty show participation in the double digits. When you only send your top 3% of students to take the test, it’s much easier to be #1.
Not trying to defend Texas or anything, but the chart is kind of flawed.
July 26, 2009 at 4:42 pm |
I noticed this as well, but I didn’t like to say anything, as I’m not sure how things work in the States. It seems more than significant to me that the bottom-performing two states had the highest “participation” rates – but then, perhaps we’re drawing the wrong conclusions here!
July 26, 2009 at 5:18 pm |
The SAT is the college entrance exam, so everyone doesn’t take it. There’s another exam called the ACT which is more common in the west and mid-west and the participation rates seem to reflect this regional variation. Since this would be self-selecting the SAT scores are probably not a good proxy for the quality of the education.
To check that I glanced at the score for Massachusets, which I’ve heard has the best public education system in the U.S. It ranks a surprising 27th with an 83% participation rate. My home state of New Jersey also made a dissapointing showing.
I tried to find another indicator of the quality of education state by state in the US. http://www.morganquitno.com/edrank.htm
I don’t know how valid it is, but it’s much closer to my expectations. Texas is halfway down the list.
I always wondered why, if the U.S. education system was as bad as everyone said, I didn’t feel like more of a dolt when talking to Europeans. Then I read something in the Times that mentioned that Americans in some states do about as well as Western Europeans on a mathematics exam. States are in charge of education and the variations are huge.
July 26, 2009 at 6:18 pm
I’m in Massachusetts, and I noticed that as well. Massachusetts and New Jersey are, I believe, the two most densely populated states. Last time I looked, we were both in the top ten smallest states, and the top ten highest population states. I’m guessing that 83% of MA kids and 76% of NJ kids are far higher numbers than even 100% of the kids in any of the top 20 states on the SAT list.
And yeah, I’d say your link is closer to what I would expect, too. I notice all the states where gay marriage is legal are in the top ten except New Hampshire, which is #12. Does that mean smarter states have fewer fundies? Heh.
July 27, 2009 at 3:09 am
That’s a good link. As Heidi states, the very first thing to strike you is that the smartest kids live in the more liberal, progressive states, especially in the north-east. This even occurred to me from the previous table, if you exclude states where only about 3% of the students took the tests!
July 26, 2009 at 8:12 pm |
Thanks for the catch, I fixed it on the post.
My brother is an English teacher in Texas. He can attest to the shortcomings of the Texas education system. He’s a great teacher, so hopefully it’s a step small step in the right direction.
July 26, 2009 at 9:04 pm |
I am a certified teacher in Texas, so I have more than a little insight into the inner workings of the Texas education system.
Yes, we have problems but we are also a border state that does not require one to show citizenship papers to send one’s child to school (as it should be). Further, Houston is one of the most international towns in the nation because of the oil industry and because of its size (approaching 6 million people). That being said, we have relatively large numbers of ESoL students that take the SAT in a language that isn’t their first language.
In addition, most of our kids attend public schools– even in the rich neighborhoods (unlike NYC where I lived for four years and found that rich kids all go to private schools– the private schools here that we have are overwhelmingly religious ones). Given the challenges that our schools face, they actually do a fairly decent job. I, myself, am a product of our public school system, and I ended up at Columbia. So, we aren’t all stupid, racist yocals or intellectual failures (which many people like to label Texans as).
Yes, there is a lot of to-do about our stupid Board of Education, and it really makes me mad that fundies are trying to weasel their ridiculous ideas into our secular public school curriculum, but as a teacher (in special education and science), it is well within my rights to teach primary sources and get around their stoopidity (not that other teachers will, though).
Finally, there are enough of us raising hell here about the stupidity of the school board that the Texas legislature is taking notice. There have been calls to strip the school board of their power, and I’m on board with that. Only certified teachers or experts with relevant PhD’s from well respected universities should have any say in the curriculum of our schools, and I think that if the school board is stripped, this may very well happen (one can hope!)
I personally think that our 4.7 million children deserve better.
July 26, 2009 at 9:58 pm |
I really feel the need to thank you for teaching real science in the face of crazy fundies.
July 26, 2009 at 11:44 pm |
I don’t intend to stereotype the entire state of Texas. I live in Iowa, and we’re not all simple-minded farmers either.
Admittedly, the SAT score ranking is a low blow. I do strongly believe that the state of Texas and their board of education needs to stop acting like they live in the “country of Texas”. It’s people like you that will keep the religious right accountable.
Keep fighting the fundies. We have a long way to go in the deep south to keep this garbage out of our public school systems.
July 27, 2009 at 8:53 am |
I have been reading for some time about the Texas Board of Education on a site that I visit called Wonderful Life @ http://www.robertsaunders.org.uk/wordpress/ so I am well acquainted with the likes of Rick Perry and (dentist) Don McLeroy (“I don’t agree with these experts. Someone has got to stand up to experts.”)! I think you would enjoy the cartoon that was posted there on 13th July courtesy of Far Left Side!!
July 28, 2009 at 11:22 am |
The school system in New York City is a bit anomolous in my opinion. Most of the people I know from New Jersey also went to public schools. My impression of middle class behavior in New York is that if you can get your kid into an “out of zone” school like Stuyvesant, they go there. Otherwise, you send them to private school. For the upper class, it’s a little different because snobbery and class identity come into play. I live in New York City now and a lot of people I know went to public school here. The only people I know sending their kid to private school want him to have a French education.
July 28, 2009 at 12:30 pm |
I lived in NYC for four years and I was a private tutor there. I dealt with students on a regular basis for years. The school system there is nothing like it is in Texas. That was my point. All this state comparison that goes on in which certain states are ranked lower is not necessarily due to the state’s residents being stupid or the state’s educational system being total crap. There are complicated social factors going on and that was my point. Many, many factors go into the academic performance of a state’s kids. One of the main factors in Texas comes from parents who either don’t value education at all (because they value manual labor since it was good enough for Jesus) or parents who want their children to be willfully ignorant (because the facts challenge their religious beliefs).
So, while we teachers fight in the trenches to improve student learning, we are also having to fight the school board which is elected by a largely religious base that is either uneducated or is willfully ignorant about social and scientific matters. It’s frustrating. It’s so frustrating that I have recently left the public education sphere in favor of academia– I’m hoping to fight the ideologues on a higher playing field.
July 28, 2009 at 12:42 pm |
Here in Massachusetts it’s pretty much public school, Catholic school, or boarding school. The richest kids go to the snotty boarding schools. The kids whose parents approve of religious schools and can pay the tuition go to Catholic school. There are a few Adventist schools. Everybody else goes to public school. There are also some charter schools, but the only one I have any knowledge of is atrocious. My friend pulled her daughter out of there after one year.
@LRA: I wonder if that’s why only 3% of the kids in the farm belt states even bother to take the SATs. Kind of depressing, really.
July 28, 2009 at 12:54 pm |
I hope you didn’t perceive me as somehow disagreeing with you. I’m very aware that averages don’t say much about individuals and that there are smart, curious and well educated people all over the country. I just wanted to point out that New York City is not representitive of the Northeast.
Perhaps I should mention that both my parents were teachers and I don’t tend to put all the responisbility for students’ achievement on teachers’ shoulders. My father taught in one of the worst urban high schools in New Jersey whereas my mother taught in a series of suburban schools of varying quality. They discussed how the social and familly environments affected the students’ ability to learn.
I’ve also taught, but, to be honest, I’m really bad at it.
July 26, 2009 at 9:55 pm |
Welcome.
July 27, 2009 at 7:09 am |
[...] http://thebeattitude.com/2009/07/26/texas-attempts-to-force-christianity-into-public-schools/ [...]
July 27, 2009 at 1:44 pm |
I’m very, very curious to know why our dear fundies (no need to name out people like Paul M and FreewareGospel in particular) have all gone to quiet…
July 27, 2009 at 2:07 pm |
For God’s sake – don’t tempt fate like that!
July 27, 2009 at 4:21 pm |
I work for a statewide association for science teachers in Texas. Needless to say, this isn’t out of the ordinary. This spring, we fought really hard to keep “strengths and weaknesses” out of the classroom with some mitigated success. The chair of the School Board wasn’t reinstated and, even though a rather conservative person took their place, they’re not AS bad.
Still. It’s like herding cats.
July 27, 2009 at 6:06 pm |
It makes me feel good to hear from people in Texas who are fighting the fight. On behalf of all the kids in your state, thank you.
July 28, 2009 at 2:35 pm |
Well, the people I work with are teachers. While, I know that a lot of them are theists, they’re still behind the teaching of evolution. There are a number of position statements on what the organization is for and evolution is definitely a major one.
I’m really happy to see science teachers who promote proper science education, no matter what their religious affiliation is.
July 27, 2009 at 10:26 pm |
From their point of view, it’s pretty straightforward. The only important thing is the opportunity to hang out eternally with Jesus and His Dad. Education does not help with this. Indeed, it may be an impediment.
August 1, 2009 at 12:02 pm |
Everything is bigger in Texas…apparently this doesn’t include SAT scores LOL. This is against separation of church and state since the public school’s are state run am I right?
August 1, 2009 at 1:42 pm |
Yes, you are right.