On Demand
Textbook Politics
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
When New Jersey High School student Matthew LaClair found what he considered conservative bias in his high school history textbook, he did more than just complain to his peers-- he wrote an op ed for a major American newspaper.
Read Matthew's op-ed
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My English teacher in high school was very much like that. He said that Jews, if placed in an inhospitable environment, will make something out of nothing, and that if you took the blacks and Hispanics out of the inner city schools and replaced them with Jews, the Jewish students would make the schools there prosper. I then (sarcastically) remarked that the blacks and hispanics would then screw up the suburban school (by his logic). He immediately denied that and actually threw that in my face a few months later as evidence of MY racism eventhough I was obviously challenging his statement as ignorant and bigoted.
He would talk in class about how Islam was a religion of violence and Christianity was a religion of peace (we had a Muslim girl in the class as well). On 9/11, he said we should kill 1,000 of "them" for every one of "us". I got into a screaming match with him on 9/11 for that statement. He did later call me at home to apologize for it.
My history teacher, on the other hand, was a conservative Republican, but he went out of his way to leave his politics at the door.
Well, sounds like this keen-witted youth is indeed learning how "governments really work!"
Diane Ravitch disects the censorship of school texts in her book "The Language Police". Books are vetted for language, gender roles, activity level of senior citizens, food; boys and girls are counted in pictures for equal representation. In her analysis the madness is on both sides.
More interested about why his school is using that book.
PS Isn't Bush's brother CEO of a company that sells textbooks to schools?
In my Kentucky jr high, they had to give "equal time" to a pastor advocating creationism during the science unit dealing with evolution. Yuck.
(I still can't believe this years later!)
This kid is going to be a pain in the @$$ to some conservatives. Keep up the good work!
"The Language Police" can be found at:
http://www.strandbooks.com/app/www/p/profile/?isbn=0375414827
It's quite possible to discuss the politics of these issues without taking sides as these people clearly have. You can discuss the controversy of global warming and the political tactics of either side without staking a claim. The alternative of a conservative bias is not necessarily a liberal bias.
Paulo, You should have told your Eng teacher when he called you at home that he should apologize to you in front of the class if that's where he originally made the statement.
Here we go:
http://www.ignitelearning.com/
founded by Neil Bush
This is another example of the influence Texas has had for many years now in determining the textbooks that are available to the rest of the nation. Because of the enormous numbers they purchase, conservative Texas politician have extraordinary influence in determining content.
This kid is in high school? He sounds like he's 40 years old.
To be fair, if you're going to criticize the book, shouldn't you use the most recent edition?
Graduate, young man, and move far away from new joisey.
What a great kid!
Bravo Matthew!
Mike, To be fair, he is in high school and was assigned the book. Do you really expect him to go out and get the 11th edition when every other student and his teacher is using the 10th?
What good is the latest edition if students or being taught from an old one.
No, He should criticize the book he's using, that's the one he's being taught from.
What's ironic is that suddenly the environmental deniers are the minority and talk about how the politicians are 'forced' to support environmentalism - The sad history is that the Bush administration, the oil industry, the auto industry ALL denied and suppressed any real discourse about global warming for years - when this country could have embarked on a planned, organized, gradual approach. Instead, we are playing 'catch up' because the anti progressive folks controlled the discourse thru fear and ignorance.
I still don't understand the so-called motivation of conservatives to complain about environmentalists. What's the motivation to lie about such research? You'd think religious folk were IN FAVOR of environmental destruction.
Also, kudos to this young man for this essay. It's very upsetting that more teachers don't take a stand with this crap.
"Well we've never had a complaint!"
I probably should've. He called me probably about two hours after the incident, so I was sort of preoccupied with what was happening (as was everyone else). But yes, he should've apologized to the class. I think the most upsetting thing is that nobody challenged him besides me.
I don't know what happened for the rest of the class because the principal's office called the class because my mother showed up to take me home. It's possible somebody also criticized him, but I never heard anything about it.
What an articulate and intelligent young man. If he is a representitive of today's youth I feel much more confident about the future. If only the people who vet our textbooks had his intelligence and insight.
hm
the "motivation of conservatives" is profit. don't forget the pro-business wing to the GOP.
oil companies want to squeeze every dime out of us before oil stops being profitable.
we need more adults who question/critique what they read/hear are told to read/hear like this "kid" does. and more kids who do the same.
the truth is that faith that cannot withstand doubt falls to dust. the same is true of science. it seems so bizarre to me that scientific theories which have withstood the tides of doubt should be so undermined, and such an anti-intellectual textbook prescribed.
without such activity, our culture will continue to dumb itself down.
if i ever bring kids into the world, i hope they are much like matthew.
The statement "It is a foolish politician who today opposes environmentalism" may be a generalization, as Brian pointed out on-air. But if it's biased, it's certainly not a conservative bias. If the authors intend to undermine the theory of global warming, why would they call a politician who shares their views "foolish"?
Also, "activist" is hardly a derogatory term, and a person who doubts a theory is, in fact, a "skeptic."
In passing, Brian Lehrer inserted that there were scientists who dissent with the 'consensus' on global warming (scientists, implicitly then, dissenting with the IPCC forecast). This would be an excellent subject for an upcoming show: how many climate scientists, in proportion to the world population of climate scientists, dissent? A second survey (which someone at WNYC might accomplish from a desktop and with a few phone calls) would be: what proportion of scientists in related fields?
What is the proportion of 'consensus' to 'dissent': 2:1? 5:1? 10:1? 100:1?
What is the ratio in discourse? (Op-eds, news in general?)
A follow up statistic: in buildings where people practice science for a living (for example, the Harvard campus, MIT, Princeton, Cal Tech, NASA, The Museum of Natural History, Cambridge, the Sorbonne, and their counterparts around the world) -- is there is a building dedicated to science where a majority of the occupants believe that anthropogenic global warming is not a critical issue?
Does journalism reflect that accurately?
Wilsons response: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-wilson27apr27,0,2538751.story
It would make an interesting experiment to take the names off the op-eds and have people guess which was written by a high school student.
"PS Isn't Bush's brother CEO of a company that sells textbooks to schools?"
I wouldn't be surprised. A couple of years ago Jeb Bush signed into law an education bill that emphasized "historic accuracy." The following passage has garnered controversy: "American history shall be viewed as factual, not constructed, shall be viewed as knowable, teachable, and testable, and shall be defined as the creation of a new nation based largely on the universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence."
http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/2006/0609/0609nch1.cfm
One of my favorite human beings, Professor Robert Jensen, thinks the law "undermines critical thinking." He believes "the law attempts to suppress discussion of the very idea that history is interpretation.... The fundamental fallacy of the law is in the underlying assumption that 'factual' and 'constructed' are mutually exclusive in the study of history."
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0717-22.htm
Dear Will,
Matthew is graduating and going to the New School in Manhattan which is 8 miles east of his home. His home is a mostly blue collar town with a rich immigrant history. Where should he move to? Texas? Where these textbooks are published? A person like Matthew may end up moving to Montclair, NJ, where many Manhattanites end up raising children. It's a beautiful old suburb with a thriving downtown and a progressive population. It's good enough for Stephen Colbert :) I may stay in Kearny and fight like Matthew or just head to Montclair if I can afford the taxes. I'll miss my Portuguese lattes (galaos) from the bakeries that cost 1.25. --Point is Jersey has a lot going for it.
I expect more than a cheap Joisey (no one pronounces it this way) joke from Wnyc listeners.
New Jersey vies with Connecticut each year for the highest per capita income of any state in the country.
Jersey has many exquisite sections (now increasingly being overrun with McMansions, unfortunately), and gets a bad rap because of the seaport/industrial section that faces NYC.
And of course, like San Franciscans, many New Yorkers are insufferably provincial, never leaving their comfort zones. These are the people who enjoy making ignorant, usually cutting pronunciamentos.
And if all you ever saw of Marilyn Monroe was her butt you wouldn't think she was particularly attractive.
(This from a NYC resident who spends a great deal of time in his beloved 2nd state, CT.)
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