Help: Does anyone know about "Teacher Created Materials, Inc."

[Bonobo]

My daughter brought back some very Christian-oriented sounding text in her history book about Rome and the publishing company is "Teacher Created Materials". Some of it was really sick-making and belongs in a Sunday school textbook not publci school. I want to do some research.

Does anyone know anything about these guys or anywhere I could look to read up on some critical analysis of their textbooks?

Many thanks in advance from a concerned parent.

[msongs]

1. here's their website: no overt "proud christian" propaganda...

but ya never know.

http://www.teachercreatedmaterials.com

Msongs

[Book Lover]

2. What does the text say?

As a student of Rome, I'm curious.

[Bonobo]

6. Here is one passage:

This is on a 3-page handout for 7th graders entitled "Emperors of the Pax Romana and Beyond"

"...Augustus ordered all citizens of the Empire to return to their place of birth to be counted and taxed. The Bible says that a "decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed". It was this decree that caused Mary and Joseph to leave their home in Nazareth and return to Bethlehem where their son Jesus was born."

I guess I was just surprised that suddenly Jesus leaped up out of nowhere in a history section about the Roman Empire. I don't really see that Jesus (if he existed) had much to do with Roman History.

Certainly Mary and Joseph are not regarded as historical figures now, are they?

[Book Lover]

12. Whew!

I'm sorry I even questioned you! That is pretty unquestionable. I hope you get satisfaction.

[shaniqua6392]

3. I looked it up a bit for you.

They seem to have a secular line of materials sold on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. But if you search for "HOME SCHOOL" materials and textbooks, you will see that they carry a whole line of Christian based publications for them. Your child's school must have known what they were purchasing. Try some of the sites like Amazon that would have reviews that people post regarding the books. I looked at a few and they do seem to be well regarded by reviewers. Hope that helps.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

5. Wow that would make sense then, since almost all homeschoolers are Christians

and want to shelter their kids from reality. However, if this company has 2 types of books, Christian and secular, they need to be very specific about it so that what happened doesn't happen. No one has the right to proselytize to someone else's child without the parent's permission.

[Bonobo]

7. Thank you. Yes, the lines are blurred, blurred.

Last year I had a similar encounter with a map from one of their books called "Religions of the World".

On it, in addition to all sorts of mistakes about Islam, they had listed for Japan that Shinto was a type of Buddhism... other weird mistakes that had a distinctive Christian-feel to them.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

9. Geez what a messed up editorial! nt

[Maat]

14. HeeHee. I'm a liberal, hippie-mom homeschooler ...

just because my kid does SO much better working with me than in the conventional classroom. I do meet semi-monthly with an Educational Facilitator (a fully-credentialed teacher), who takes work samples, helps me in any way possible, and makes sure that we are meeting state standards. She also makes sure that we are meeting the workload plan we set. So, homeschooling, particularly through a charter school, is pretty regulated. Believe it or not, we have a homeschooling group on DU. I'm not trying to be mean or argue, and I know that you weren't being insulting, I just thought I'd point out that there are homeschoolers who are very much connecting their kids with reality and teaching them well (and teaching them evolution)(End-of-rant; thanks for listening).

I'm also a law school graduate, and proud monthly donor to Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and you're right. This was clearly done in violation of the law (not sure the parties know it, though, but I would complain).

[Bonobo]

8. Thanks for the help!

[ChazII]

11. I have quite a bit of their materials

for my classroom and none of them are religious. My books are for thematic units.

[Maat]

15. Ditto.

I'm just a homeschoolin' mom (through a charter school, with the aid of a fully-credentialed teacher/educational-facilitator); but, I agree with you. I've used the thematic units many times without problems.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

4. I searched and searched and could find nothing.....

.... Was it completely Christian?

[rucky]

10. I've used them before...

Doing a unit on "Bud, Not Buddy" their literary companion materials are awesome. never seen their textbooks before, though.

[Maat]

13. I use them constantly .... for completely secular materials that ..

meet California state standards.

Now, they do have religious lessons that I avoid; but, I'm not used to seeing them in a religious context. I just subscribed to their $50/year service. I have access to virtually any 5th-grader topic you can imagine (what's typically in their curriculums). They also have a wordsearch generator (where I choose the words). They are fantastic (BUT, like I said, I've avoided their religious materials - as should any school receiving public funds).