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May 11, 2008

Islam in the Classroom: The American Textbook Council 2008 Report

Bad news on the American public education front. The American Textbook Council has put out their 2008 Report: Islam in the Classroom. According to the report, there has apparently been no progress in eliminating the politically correct airbrushing of history and promotion of Islam in the junior and high school level text books since I last reported on it two and a half years ago.

Gilbert T. Sewall, the author of the report reviews the nation's ten most widely used textbooks for junior and senior high seems well aware of the multicultural and politically correct bias that pervades textbooks today.

I encourage anyone concerned with what textbooks the taxpayers are funding for the education of our children to read this report. It critiques several example passages and gives a good idea of the distortions and omissions about history and Islam that are presented in these texts. There are several examples of passages that are deliberately offering very little insight into important geopolitical forces like terrorism, fundamentalism and modernity that affect national security. Also, while Islam is played up and whitewashed, European and Christian history is painted in a harsh light its relevance is downplayed.

Sewall places the blame mainly on the schoolbook publishers and governing boards who too quickly cave in to deflect protests from "pressure groups" such as the Council on Islamic Education. He says that the political climate in education that places heavy emphasis on "diversity" and the catering of students who can't or won't learn history makes it easy for these pressure groups to get away with their version of history. Parents who attempted to block the books at a local level were dismissed as racists. Yes, it's racist to want history accurately portrayed.

According to ATC, California and Texas adopted their textbooks in 2005 which will apparently be used for years to come. What they've done is ensure that millions of children will be trapped using books that offer mediocrity and a soft petaled version of history. More than that, I fear that the multicultural mind-rot offered to our children will discourage critical thinking to such a degree that we will produce a generation that is ill-equipped for the challenges of the future. The slide in education has been taking place already for the last forty years.

What can be done? In my 2005 piece, I said that parents have a high degree of power at a local level in choosing the textbooks for the students. However, clearly, I was wrong. The forces of multiculturalism and politically correct thought is so strong that we see that the voices that stand for truth and accuracy are again shut down as racist. Still, I think it's worth it to continue to challenge school boards locally over the curriculum and textbook matters. Even if the efforts fail, it's important that the administrators know that these textbooks will never go unnoticed and unchallenged.

Home schooling has becoming an increasingly viable option since there are so many online resources available for the home schooling parent. Also, the growing homeschooling phenomena is of increasing concern to the public school system - tax dollars lost and all. If this phenomena continues to grow academics will finally be compelled to change the offending textbooks in order to keep students.

Homeschooling is not an option for most working parents but they can still stay actively involved in what the children are taught in social studies and history. Stay on top of what books are at issue - the top ten are included in the report - and review your child's textbooks. You can find supplemental reading for your child that offers a more accurate accounting of history and world affairs. This might even be an excellent opportunity to teach your child about the multicultural agenda and teach them to question information they receive from books, government and schools. You might not be able to home school your child, but you can still take on the task of helping your child develop critical thinking skills that are so lacking in the educational environment now.

We aren't beaten yet, but we're going to have to get extremely pro-active when it comes to the education of our young. Start now.

addendum:

California, that liberal paradise and consequently, bastion of freedom and self-determination has recently outlawed homeschooling at the appeals level.

Apparently, it does work to take up the fight at the local level in other states besides California:

Posted by Isabel de Castilla at May 11, 2008 6:41 PM

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Posted by: DenisMac at May 13, 2008 9:23 AM

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