Who is educating our children? For most of us, the answer is: Houghton Mifflin, McGraw-Hill and Pearson Education, who produce 75% of public-school textbooks. This places a weighty burden of responsibility on these three publishers. Certainly, like most businesses, they contend with profit motive, low-budget, under-qualified contractors and special-interest groups. What if they reproduce mistakes? What if their interpretations of history or science are unintentionally biased? Worse yet, what if they are intentionally biased, exploiting their unique inroad to the young minds of America?
Authors Gary Tobin and Dennis Ybarra of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research believe that is precisely what these publishing companies are up to, specifically giving unequal treatment to religion, favoring Islam over Christianity and Judaism. In their recently published book “The Trouble with Textbooks: Distorting History and Religion,” they detail their review of 28 of the most widely used social studies and history textbooks in the United States and the errors and bias they discovered.
So who is really educating our children? Whether you agree or disagree with Tobin’s and Ybarra’s findings or with the purported bias, it is most certainly a question worth asking and, more importantly, worth answering.
Principle Based Evaluation: We must never abdicate the responsibility for our children's education to others by the simple failure to invest time in being involved.
Follow this link to read more: “Authors Warn That Many Textbooks Distort Religion”
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,506773,00.html
James Morey
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Rigid Anti-Rigidity In the news today is the story of a New Hampshire court case wherein a 10 year-old home-schooled girl is being forced to attend public school. Even though the court acknowledges that the girl is “well liked, social and interactive with her peers, academically promising, and intellectually at or superior to [her] grade level” they state that her Christian faith is a “bit too sincerely held and must be sifted, tested by, and mixed among other worldviews” and that “the impact of [her religious] beliefs on her interaction with others” was a factor in their decision. It is ironic to me that the key word here is “rigidity” and that the court seems to be rather rigid about the girl’s rigidity of faith. Of course anyone who has attended public school in the last 30 years (or so) or who has been aware of the on-going fight over Intelligent Design will easily recognize that the courts themselves have a rather rigid view on the absolute place of evolution as the only allowable explanation of origins. And they are very unyielding to discussion on that point. Any mention of Intelligent Design (let alone biblical creation science) in the classroom is met with harsh rebuff and discipline. But, as Intelligent Design proponents will quickly point out, evolution itself is a framework of worldviews. So it seems that, on one hand, the courts (and public schools) are rather rigid about the need for one’s worldview to be “sifted, tested by, and mixed among other worldviews” and rather rigid, on the other hand, that this not take place under any circumstances. Apparently, the state does not agree that we parents be actively involved in our children’s education and leave this up to them. Sources: OneNewsNow.com and the Alliance Defense Fund. |
Ramah Walker
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An Observiant Student Being a student myself I have noticed many agenda ridden books in the midst of my twelve years of school. Although it didn’t even faze me through elementary and junior high, it has woken me up as I study. Even going to a Christian school these things have been brought up in class. I am so grateful that I get to have a Christian curriculum. These books have given us a good perspective of our Christian history in our nation. There was one problem I did have. In an Earth Science book that is taught at our school there was a line that bothered me so. Although it brings up many other issues, I will still quote it. “Some environmentalists fear for the future, but for the wrong reasons. They do not want the earth to be destroyed. Yet the earth will be destroyed in a manner more terrible than their worst fears – not by pollution but by a sudden judgment of God…Only a fool will give his life to save the earth.” Yes we don’t have to be as extreme as some environmentalists, but we are here to steward the earth instead of just give up on it. The earth is a beautiful place that the Lord created and we must not give up on it. There is so much more that can be done to help our current home to be beautiful. But this issue shows that it isn’t necessarily just the public school books that are filled with agenda, but it is all types of books. An author will feed us anything he desires us to believe. |
Morgan Prospek
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Take Action! I completely agree that the textbooks kids are reading these days are full of secular bias and I desire to see this changed. However, this raised a few questions in my mind: How do we change who is educating our children? We can't just stop buying these companies' textbooks, eliminating them completely from school curricula. Proverbs 22:6 states, "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Does this imply it is solely our responsibility to train our children or should others be allowed in the learning process to strengthen their critical thinking skills and help them grow? I believe rather than considering removing these books from school curriculums, we need to begin to put our beliefs into practice, creating publishing companies and writing books in order to educate children in a deeper understanding of God's order, creation, and beauty, and instruct them in His Word. Rather than only resisting the system we currently have, we should step up and do something about it! |
Jessica Rankin
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Public Education As a student who wants to become a teacher, education right now is something that I have been looking into, and I agree with the research given above.. In the article referenced above, it talks about how teachers teach say that Jesus was a young Palestinian! Also, in the glossary of "World History: Continuity and Change." It says that Moses "claimed" to have gotten the Ten commandments from his Hebrew God, then later states that Mohammed received revelation from God. It is clear how Islam is promoted and Christianity is not! In his book on public education, Marlin Maddoux talks about how the public school system in America is more about indoctrination than it is just teaching. He specifically addresses Islam being greatly promoted, but this is true for all religions except Christianity. Public schools are being tolerant to all religions except Christianity. As one who wants to become a teacher, facts like this greatly concern me and I feel a calling to see this area reformed! Education is meant to glorify God, not other religions. Book referenced above: "Public Education Against America: The Hidden Agenda." Marlin Maddoux Article referenced above: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,506773,00.html |
