When textbook revisionists discuss textbook selection the reference is often expressed as errors or bias. The appeal for textbooks chosen by parents and board members raises the question of which parents and which board members which then translates into which bias do we want in our textbooks. I have attended two school board meetings since the August 7 election. The audience in the board room and the Carolyn Campbell rooms included the same political activists each time. We have divided into an us and them liberal and conservative adversarial cast of identifiable names and faces. We do compete for the minds (and souls) of the student population. I think it is the right of parents to instill whatever bias the family embraces in the home and in the steeple of religious preference in the minds of their children. I dont think we need to impose those biases in the classroom. I would like to see textbooks reviewed and selected by professional educators, skilled in grade level certification, and with backgrounds in specific subject areas. The first two board meetings and the August election was evidence of a conflict between the majority of incumbent board members and a group of candidates funded and supported by Americans for Prosperity, the 9/12 Project, Kent Davis, and the Eagle Forum. There is also a rigid line of debate on religious content in the classroom, in textbooks, and in board meetings. This is not about a war on Christianity, or people of faith or no faith, this is about the integrity of academia and student performance within a culturally diverse and ideologically divided community. My primary concern is that the principals, the teachers, the librarians, and professional specialists feel threatened by the reversal of academic direction with the reconfiguration of the board.
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 11:12:11 +0000