Texas Does It Again

First, Texas rewrote a substantial amount of history- now, it's gunning for a re-write of the way textbooks portray Islam, detecting (though how, I don't know- perhaps via nose?) a pro-Islamic bias in the schoolbooks of the nation's children.

Just because the Left likes to use the educational system as a way to push their agenda doesn't mean that Conservatives should do the same damn thing. More bias, even if it's to the right of the political spectrum still undermines the educational system, still presents a view of history and the world that isn't as factual as it could be and in general, won't do what conservatives want it to do, I think. If the Right starts playing the game of the Left, then the education of our children just becomes another victim caught in the crossfire of the tiresome and irritating Culture War. And I'm not hip to that at all- end the bias, stop the insanity, Texas! Let's put the best view of history forward for our kids, instead of grabbing it and trying to make it conform to an ideological agenda.

The problem then becomes two fold: is such a thing possible and does the Texas Board of Education actually have a point? First of all, yes I do think such a thing is possible, but we have to be able to let go of some of the more nationalistic views about America for it to happen. America has done some not-very-nice things over the course of its history and emphasizing those doesn't paint an accurate picture even as glossing over them in the name of making sure LIttle Johnny knows that America kicks ass makes for an equally inaccurate picture. Personally, I think facing up to the bad and the good is a true measure of what makes a nation great. If we can't be honest about our history, then what kind of a country are we? I think you talk about everything. You talk about the way we've treated Native Americans, slavery, sexism, racism- all of it. But you also point out that America is still and always will be a bastion of freedom for the world. We've done some bad things, sure, but we try and make them better and everyone still wants to come here.

I don't know, maybe that's too simple or too complex for people to grasp. But I'd like to think in a perfect world, kids would get to know their country a little better than they do. The amount of stuff I learned about Native Americans and their experience in school was miniscule. I'm making up for it as best I can now, but it was a huge gap in my education, I think- and Native Americans and their struggle are just as much a part of the American story as anyone elses. At the end of the day, there's got to be a better way than this. We can't turn curriculum into a political football, it'll make problems in education even worse than they already are.

But does the shoe fit? Here, I think the Texas Board finds itself on slightly firmer ground. Hating Christianity has become almost a hobby of a lot of people on the Left, which strikes me as political suicidal given how many people in this country believe in God and go to Church. Hating on organized religion and seeing it as some sort of a symptom of a deranged mind or a thing that 'hicks' in the middle of the country do is a problem for large chunks of the Coastal Intelligentsia. Now, I'm not saying that Christianity is without its problems. But there's a large number of church-goin' folks in this country that feel like their values and their faith is under attacks by the secular left. And in this score, they have something of a point. Maybe not to the extreme that a lot of people on the right think, but yeah, I think there's a section of the left which likes to piss all over Christianity and people have a right to be upset by that.

Do we favor Islam as a result of this? I think the struggle with learning about any religion is just getting the basics right before you get into the complex stuff and no doubt, Islam, like Christianity has its good points and bad points throughout history. Good curriculum, I think, would emphasize learning about the basics, but should also not shy away from controversial topics. Honor killings, FGM, concepts of jihad and martyrdom- good scholarship would demand to know where these practices began? Do they conform to the original message of Islam? Are they widespread? How do such things happen? Even as we acknowledge the controversy over evolution v creationism in our classrooms, we cannot shy away from controversy just because it happens to be attached to the religion of Islam.

So, I disapprove of this- primarily because I don't want to turn education into a political football. Take ALL the politics out of it and concentrate on LEARNING and TEACHING and we might be getting somewhere. But I have to acknowledge the point: shying away from the controversy surrounding aspects of Islam, while emphasizing the controversies of Christianity isn't the kind of well-rounded educational practice we should be encouraging. I'm just not sure making a political statement about it is the right way of correcting the problem.