This year, history will truly be written by the victors. The always Republican, always-political, State Board of Education, which reconvenes Feb. 17 and represent the second biggest text book market in the U.S., is preparing for a brand new year of gay-bashing, white-washing, and science-hating, all in the name of public education.
When the board resumes its meetings, they are expected to hear several proposed amendments to Chapter 66 of the Texas Administrative Code which regulate the adoption and purchase of new textbooks. Now, with renewed support from our Republican-held Texas legislature, this band of fiercely partisan right-wingers will once again, quite literally, write history by using their huge buying power to pressure publishers into offering books that satiate their appetite for propaganda, and dutifully shield our little boys and girls from anti-Christian, Communist theories such as evolution. This same board that rejected a textbook for mentioning that there is a scientific consensus on global warming managed to purchase by the thousands a competitor's offering - one that discussed the benefits of unnatural weather and climate change (did they mention bigger beaches?), and was underwritten by mining companies.
It may not be possible to completely remove politics from the process, because elected officials such as the 15 members of the SBoE, are inherently political, but it is important to keep in mind that education is not the same as brainwashing.
At the high school level, students should be able to consider all sides of an issue or lesson and make sound decisions. In education, students need to be talked to in a straight-forward manner, without embracing either extreme.
Teachers and books should neither endorse nor condemn pre-marital sex. Unfortunately our textbooks tend to lean towards the latter extreme, sneaking in just enough of a hint of safe-sex language to pass as balanced by the SBoE, but they miserably fail to include such crucial information as, well, how to actually have safe sex: Contraceptive information is not included in the student editions of these books. Teenagers will now turn to other teenagers to get their sex-ed, and we all know how scientifically accurate high-school students are when it comes to sex advice.
For a state that funds so much abstinence-only education, it sure is ironic that it has the fifth-highest teen-pregnancy rate in the country. Sexual education textbooks need to be objective, accurate and free of moral judgments while also including truthful and helpful safe-sex information.
The SBoE has some laughable rules that govern the buying of textbooks in Texas, some of which seem to have been penned by Joe McCarthy himself: "The materials shall not include selections or works that encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife, or disregard of the law."
This means that we should not condone the actions of American heroes such as Rosa Parks, or Texas legends such as Steven F. Austin. If we are trying to teach our kids about U.S. history or Texas history, the one underlying attitude shared by American heroes such as Rosa Parks or Stephen F. Austin would be a distrust of authority and a propensity for protest.
Without our rebellious spirit, we would still drink from separate water fountains and attend El Universidad de Mexico en Tejas. History should be taught to teenagers without needlessly distilling moral lessons from historical events.
Let's not incite riots or intentionally provoke civil disobedience, but turning schoolchildren into submissive drones isn't any way to educate them either. We should treat our students with respect and teach by presenting material objectively, without forcing our moral judgments on them, and they will in turn treat authority figures and elders with the respect that they deserve.
Greenleigh is a government freshman.
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