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READING BETWEEN THE LINES: What are textbooks teaching students?
Jul 02, 2010
By CAROL HOPKINS
Of The Oakland Press
On this day when Americans reflect back to the nation’s beginnings, many may discuss history from information they gleaned from their years in public school — from famous battles, legislation and progress to outlaws and leaders.
Readers who attended a recent Oakland Press town hall meeting wanted us to find out who writes history and in response, we asked readers if they believed school textbooks contain biased information. We tossed out the question online: “Have history books been changed to reflect a more politically correct view?”
There were as many different answers as there are citizens.
“Usually history books will be from one point of view, usually the victor,” wrote Aaron, and he then quoted Winston Churchill saying, “History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.”
John said, “There is no doubt that textbooks are inaccurate and written to reflect what people want children — and us as once being children — to believe. To say there is a conspiracy to do this would be an understatement. The most obvious example I saw in one of my son’s history textbooks was the chapter on unions. (One) chapter was way over the top, even declaring that unions had saved all Americans from becoming slaves and that unions were responsible for ‘almost every great achievement in America.’”
Where’s the Original commented, “My experience is that the bias is in omission. All sides of a subject are rarely provided, or explained well. There is little reference to original sources. All I am seeing is someone’s opinion of important subjects.”
In the Bloomfield Hills School District, for example, teachers and principals do an extensive evaluation and comparison of possible texts, reviewing three or more publishers if possible, according to the district.
They request their preference and submit the evaluation forms to the assistant superintendents for instruction. The forms and recommendations are taken to the Board Instruction Committee. The preferred text is made available for board member perusal. If approved by the Board Instruction Committee, a recommendation is made to the board for final approval and purchase.
In Birmingham schools, the district’s education council purchases textbooks on the recommendation of department heads and its instruction department.
Jerry D stated: “Just ask any child why the Civil War was fought. The vast majority will say slavery. But if you study true history, slavery had nothing to do with the start of the Civil War. I can go on with so many rewritten history topics. Take the challenge.”
JAS wrote, “In every era, from time immemorial, education of youth has, is and always will be perversely slanted to the left or the right (dependent upon who’s in authority) and the pendulum never stays in the middle! ”
jimmy4pat said, “As a retired teacher (43 years), I can honestly say most books of history, civics and politics were ‘scrubbed’ in the (Jimmy) Carter (and after) years. It is sinful and killing America. Bring back the books of pre-WW II and save America! God Bless!”
One recent textbook controversy occurred in May when the Texas School Board of Education approved changes to the state’s curriculum. The board’s decisions will set the standards for the history curriculum for about 4.8 million public school students in Texas in the next 10 years. Given the significant size of the Texas textbook market, observers wonder if the changes might influence the curriculum of other schools across the nation.
Local readers have strong opinions about even a Texas-style change.
David Pomeroy of Waterford Township wrote, “I heard a state school official in Texas opening his mouth (on radio a few months ago) and proving how few of his brain cells were fully empowered. He was talking about the rationale for state-level administrators to oversee the rewriting of textbooks as he claimed ‘the experts who wrote the current textbooks tend to tilt to the left.’
“If indeed there does exist some leftist tilt in textbooks in general because only experts write them, doesn’t it follow that what some would consider to be ‘left’ might really be educated, objective, erudite interpretation of scholastic material?
“Any decent textbook aspires to reveal the big picture and assist students in nurturing nimble and curious minds that will sooner or later deliver them to become their own arbiters of what is true, what is partially true, what is true but not fully true and so on.”
Mike Gould of Holly believes partisan politics and political correctness have “insidiously injected themselves into the textbooks, altering our children’s education. This was exacerbated by our president during his inaugural world tour, when he downplayed America’s exceptionalism, and instead, apologized for its being arrogant and dismissive.
“This poses one of the greatest threats to our liberty, and to America in that by subtly changing history, future generations won’t have the same understanding and appreciation of the inalienable rights enumerated by the Constitution. These aren’t footnotes in history written by old white men, but living documents that craft the very foundation of who we are as a nation.”
A Rochester teacher who called himself Another John has spotted an item in the textbook he uses.
“In talking about the way the Americans reacted to the rebellions in the Philippines in 1899, it states, ‘The United States forced Filipinos to live in designated zones, where poor sanitation, starvation and disease killed thousands.’ The book also states that approximately 200,000 people died due to this,” he said. “Lots of historians actually refer to this as the Filipino Genocide, and estimate that as many as 1.4 million people may have died as a result of the U.S. practices. I also think it’s interesting that the book uses ‘designated zones’ instead of concentration camps, which is essentially what they were.”
Patrick Turner from Commerce Township wrote, “Having just graduated from MSU with a degree in social studies secondary education, this is an issue I have dealt with at length personally and in my recent undergraduate studies.
“Yes, I do believe history textbooks have been written to reflect a certain political point of view. In my own teaching, I am constantly searching for sources outside of school-mandated textbooks in order to provide balanced and (relatively) accurate sources for historical events.
In referring to Texas’ new curriculum, Turner quoted a New York Times article that said “conservative policymakers have created new curriculum standards that stress the superiority of American capitalism, questions the founding fathers’ commitment to a purely secular government and represents Republican political policies in a more positive light.”
“I won’t comment on whether or not their views are justified, but I ask whether or not it is fair to believe that slanting textbooks more right or left is something that will benefit our children’s education.
“Throughout history, there have been no ‘black and white’ issues, only shades of gray that must be critically analyzed. The rote spoon-feeding of ideals into students’ heads should have no place in the American education system.”
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[...] The Oakland Press utilized a town hall meeting – something that has become a regular occurrence for the Michigan site – to solicit ideas for the Ben Franklin Project. As a result the OP team decided to start a story on textbook bias to see who pens the books used to teach our children. [...]