The next time they want to secede ... let them
Nothing
new about this.
Lying to children is a slippery slope. Once we have started sliding down it, how and when do we stop? Who decides when to lie? Which lies to tell? To what age group? As we loosen the anchor of fact, of historical evidence, our history textboat is free to blow here and there, pointing first in one direction,then in another. If we obscure or omit facts because they make Columbus look bad, why not omit those that make the United States look bad? Or the Mormon Church? Or the state of Mississippi? This is the politicization of history. How do we decide what to teach in an American history course once authors have decided not to value the truth? If our history courses aren't based on fact anyway, why not tell one story to whites, another to blacks? Isn't Scott, Foresman already doing something like that when it puts out a "Lone Star" edition of Land of Promise, tailoring the facts of history to suit (white) Texans?
(Loewen, 338)
One of the sad things is that this sort of action denigrates
Texas, as well. I mean, think about the reputation Texas has as a backwater full of half-wit yahoos. Cosmopolitan San Antonio, or Austin, and even Dallas, are unrecognizable if one expects only stereotype. When the idea of
Matthew McConaughey running around stoned and naked while playing the bongos is actually a
plus for local reputation in light of stereotype, there might just be a problem.
There is a reason Texas is the butt of so many jokes. There is a reason why it is considered a filthy, uneducated, incestuous, outsized backwater full of morons with gun racks for their gun racks.
And this? Yeah, it's part of the reason why.
Perhaps worst is the idea of what this does to students. Think in terms of equal protection. Imagine that I am an employer, or a college admissions officer. If I see someone was educated in the Texas public school system, how should that sit with me? I'm sorry, but if one is educated according to a deliberately inferior standard, I don't expect them to perform as well. In the long run, this is going to hurt Texas students as they emerge from their educations and into the job market. Nothing like starting the rat race a leg short, eh?
Texas politics should not be outsized idiocy. Then again, who's to contradict the will of the people?
Maybe Texas will do the rest of the nation a favor:
Jeff Danziger, March 2, 2010
____________________
Notes:
Loewen, James. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbooks Got Wrong. 1995. New York: Touchstone, 2007. Google Books. March 16, 2010. http://books.google.com/books?id=Et...resnum=1&ved=0CAYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false
"Matthew McConaughey". The Smoking Gun. (n.d.) TheSmokingGun.com. March 16, 2010. http://www.thesmokinggun.com/mugshots/mcconaugheymug1.html
