Monday 17 May 2010

Worst Story - Texas Education

The minute I read this article in the Guardian this morning I knew that no other would come close in its FAIL.

Brief recap - Texas state board of education, mainly conservative christians with, what seems a K spelling, has decided that the current curriculum is too 'liberal'.
My personal favourites of the changes are:
  • The McCarthy witch trials may have been justified
  • Slave trade rebranded as 'Atlantic triangular trade'
  • The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is driven by Islamic fundamentalism
Marvellous.

There will also be an emphasis on the good of free market economics. Because Jesus was all for the rich...

Eric Hobsbawm wrote that nations were created through education and history, that elites create these concepts to keep the masses in their place. While I'm not so sure about the concerted effort of elites to do this, I see validity of his point in the use of the education system to indoctrinate, on both sides. And that is why we must ensure that all sides are represented, discussed and critiqued.

Education should be about empowerment, to enable students to be who they want to, to push through our thinking and to develop new ways of living. This effort by Texas is just about creating clones and is extremely worrying.