See the American Taliban/GOP/Tea Party really need Americans to be ignorant... "This latest crusade of stupidity is being led by Republican Representative Ritch Workman. His minions on the Brevard County School Board, Amy Kneesy and Andy Ziegler, say they are reviewing the book, which has been used for three years in Brevard. But since neither of them have degrees in history, nor are they experts in that subject, one suspects that what they are really doing is counting and comparing how many words are allotted to each major religion. After all, with an entire chapter dedicated to Muslim empire building, there should be an equal amount of text on Judaism and Christianity, right? Especially Christianity. These people feel that the way each of these religions is spread, and the inseparability of Islam and Muslim culture, should have nothing to do with how each faith is treated in the text. Their lack of understanding on this points out their true agenda: stirring up anti-Muslim feelings. Wilfredo Ruiz, an attorney for the Florida Council on American-Islamic Relations, believes this is so:They just want to create an environment of intolerance toward Muslims and an environment of hate against Islam.Yep. That pretty much sums it up. This isn’t about fairness or making sure our kids learn about history – it’s all about tipping the scale their way and away from objectivity and accuracy. Of course, the school board has some help from two anti-Muslim groups in this: don’t they always appear behind the scenes? In this case, it is Citizens for National Security and ACT! for America, two groups well-known for their dedication to our students being taught with an objective eye. Oh, wait… even though district leaders had sent an invitation to ACT! when the textbook in question was first being reviewed, and even though ACT! did not send a representative, now they are suddenly very interested.This sort of crusade by laypeople and those with an ulterior motive, exposes one of the biggest hypocrisies extant on the right: their lip service to teachers while, at the same time, they seek to undermine them. They do it with science most of all, but whenever there’s a chance they can subvert actual learning, to color it with their worldview in place of facts, they are all over it. This textbook, published by a well-respected publisher of such books, Pearson, has been rigorously reviewed by people who actually hold degrees in history. Perhaps that is where the trueobjection lies – that those elitist intelligentsia say this information is correct, in opposition to the right’s inane war on fact.And herein lies the danger of using a religious book as a metric for education. Education is about objective truth, while the Bible is about subjective faith. Keeping each in their place is the way a wise society operates, which is why this sort of insidious meddling needs to be fought at every turn. School is for learning. Church is for catechism. Let’s not mix them." Read more: addictinginfo.org/2013/07/31/florida-gop-lawmakers-think-textbook-has-pro-islamic-bias-when-in-fact-it-has-a-truth-bias/#ixzz2ahmRNbWv
Posted on: Thu, 01 Aug 2013 08:46:07 +0000
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