The Most Righteous Church of Justified Ignorance in Texas Committee
In Texas, we caught a great idea. Let the Texas Board of Education appoint 140 people to textbook approval committees but only let three of them be current faculty members at Texas colleges and universities.
TFN has identified more than a dozen other Texas academics — including the chair of the History Department at Southern Methodist University as well as faculty at the University of Texas at Austin — who applied to serve but did not get appointments to the panels.
But the TFN analysis found that political activists and individuals without social studies degrees or teaching experience got places on the panels. One reviewer, Mark Keough, a Republican nominee for the Texas House District 15 seat, got an appointment to a U.S. History panel after being nominated by SBOE chair Barbara Cargill. Keough, a pastor with degrees in theology, has no teaching experience listed on his application form. Keough recently retired from a career in car sales to run a ministry in Cargill’s hometown of The Woodlands and to run for office.
Yep. Pass up an SMU professor for a used car salesman. Them used car salesman, they know stuff. Plus, he’s read the Bible, the only textbook you’ll ever need.
Not shocking, a group of academics studied the textbooks written by by the Committee of Perpetual Ignorance and found a boatload of mistakes.
Here’s one —
Text mentions Moses and claims that the “biblical idea of a covenant, an ancient Jewish term meaning a special kind of agreement between the people and God, influenced the formation of colonial governments and contributed to our constitutional structure.”
Well, I’ll be John Locke’s monkey’s uncle. The opposite is true.
They are real big on Moses and the Ten Commandments being the basis of all our laws. Yeah, and that’s why not honoring your parents is a felony offense. And that saying Good Lord will cost me a fine. I also need to mention that we could pretty much empty the House of Representatives if adultery laws were properly enforced. Does anybody know how many states have coveting laws?
Of course “thou shalt not bear false witness” is only against the law if you’re under oath, not producing a teevee ad for your reelection.
And, the Second Amendment and the NRA pretty much try to undo Thou Shalt Not Kill.
So we’re left with not stealing. Oh hell, that only counts if you’re poor. If you’re stealing banks accounts, mortgages, and the stock market you’re exempt.
Moses plan didn’t work out too well with the Founding Fathers.
They need to put me and slingshot on that committee.
Thanks to Tina for the heads up.
I wonder how many lawyers are involved in the language of the new text books. And how many lawyers will it take to appeal this to the Supreme Court?
See, Republicans do create jobs, for lawyers.
1This one is really hard for me to take. The institutionalized ignorance and cultivated stupidity in the system here is something would expect to read in some fantasy dystopian novel. I weep for my grandkids going through this system. They are bright (don’t all grandkids start out at smart and bright…) but I can see some of the effects on the oldest amongst them.
2Alabama can and does hold a candle to the Texas thingy. My grand-daughter is one of those super smart kids who do things like take apart a DNA sample on their mama’s kitchen counter. (The new kitchen was not a result of this little science experiment. It was a result of a dishwasher that blew a tidal wave of water all over the place.) Her parents are determined that the millisecond they hear creationism in her high school science classes they will remove her and get her into a decent college on early admission, which thanks to her grades and test scores would be do-able. I would love to know how the New England states do stuff with textbook selection for public schools. Those private New England academies probably have no problems.
3I think it was Mark Twain who said: “God made an idiot for practice, and then he made a school board.”
4You can thank the New Apolistic Reform (aka Dominionists) for this. They have been infiltrating the military, Republican Party, and the public school system for years. One of their goals is to force a Theocratic form of government on the USA. They are a scary bunch. Ron and Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin are just a few of its’ members.
5Who was that old woman in Lufkin who started reading and commenting on Texas textbooks before they were published back in the 60’s and 70’s? The publishers started letting her edit their books before submitting them to the state, just to make it easy on themselves. I don’t know who to be more ticked off at. The lady from Lufkin or the TEA, the lege, SBOE or the publishers.
6Deborah, it does seem that the goal of the Dominionists in our country is very similar to the goal of ISIL in the Middle East. Of course, our religious fanatics don’t get to freely behead people, but we know they’d like to. The only question is whether they’d start with gays or uppity women.
7Oh, the things I learn by visiting the Salon! I had no idea that Texas schools used textbooks at all, and now I find out that they only CALL them textbooks. Maybe one day they’ll switch to the real thing. Baby steps.
8It’s almost as if the dominionists, creationists, yahoos, and morons (I know. I’m being redundant) reject reality and are set on creating their own.
Only they know how to create the kingdom of God on Earth. The only problem is that they demand that the non-like-minded be forced to join them.
I don’t believe I care to do so. Every other hare-brained utopian scheme in human history has failed. So will theirs.
9RP, the dominionists and ISIL are sisters under the skin, while both are too whacked to realize that fact.
Waiting for President Obama to deliver a smack down on Congress and Saudi Arabia. He’s too slow, he’s too fast, should, could want, etc ad nausea criticism.
The Saudis are too cute for words, playing and financing every form of mayhem. President Obama and Secretary Kerry have delivered a message; we’ll help, but you best damn get your own ‘boots on the ground’ and stop with the funding of jihadists.
Dubya and Cheney were too sweet with the Saudis. Bin Bozo was a Saudi as were the majority of the 9-11 attackers. The Bush2 administration managed to get the House of Slush safely out of America, while they couldn’t protect New York? It doesn’t pass the smell test of credibility.
10Just like Texas…
Islamic State Group Issues New Curriculum in Iraq
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/islamic-state-group-issues-curriculum-iraq-25513767
“The new curriculum even went so far as to explicitly ban Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution — although it was not previously taught in Iraqi schools.”
11I have been ashamed of the majority of Texans for some time. Knowing this does not improve my demeanor towards them.
12My two grandsons live in Evanston, IL (Thank God). I miss them terrible however, I am so glad that they will NOT be exposed to this utter nonsense in the name of “edukayshon” Texas style. Yes, yes I know about the epic political corruption in Illinois but Evanston is not called “The Peoples Republic of Evanston” for nothing. So far, the two kids education has been superb. I only hope that continues as they progress through the grades. Their parents are adamantly opposed to returning to Texas and I don’t blame them.
13You forgot the asterix on the 10 C’s that refers to a note at the bottom of the page: “IOKIYAR”…
14The damage conservative Republicans have done to the
15state of education in the U.S., not to mention the cuts in medical and scientific research, will have repercussions far into the future, sad to say. If we don’t manage to kick them out of positions of power, we may never recover.
Take a look at the average ACT scores nationwide. This is a result of these type of idiots running education:
http://www.act.org/newsroom/data/2012/states.html
I went through Richardson Schools and graduated early in 1971. My ACT score at age 15 was 33 out of 36.
Now, if schools make a composite score of 20, they can go to college.
Yeah, 40 years of idiocy has certainly done something to Texas schools. It ain’t good.
16If we’re going to go Biblical lets start with the precept against lending money for interest. Wall Street would just love it: http://www.openbible.info/topics/money_lending
17Lynn, I think it will be the burning at the stake for uppity women–my gay ex, after all, produced three kids so if gays just keep their true natures on the down low, they will be fine.
18Uppity ( attractive ones especially) can’t hide their uppityness that well–one slip of the lips..sigh.
If the gnarly old fat ugly preacher man wants to be your
“special friend” then you are doomed.
My mother was a divorcee when that just wasn’t done, very pretty…and those gross pigs from church, the ones who couldn’t wait for Armageddon were constantly sniffing around, just sure she needed “help” sometime after 9 at night..when she wouldn’t co-operate (who would! Yech!) then the entire church turned on her and called her bad names. Sigh. I wish the rapture (which sounds like a nuclear blast to me) would take those super delux Kristians out and let the rest of us live in peace. Just a thought. Had more than enough of that hypocrisy in my childhood to last a life time…
Belief systems do NOT belong in government.We were founded by enlightened men, not necessarily Christian, and they wanted separation of church and state!