School Board Members Attack Textbook Over Global Warming and Iraq War

[JPZenger]

The following is an article from today's Reading Eagle about 2 members of the School Board of the Oley Valley School District, east of Reading PA. They are attacking a proposed AP history textbook (which is widely used) because it discusses global warming like it is a fact and criticizes the Iraq War. They want it replaced.

http://www.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=140065

"The book, "American History: A Survey," by Colombia University professor Alan Brinkley, has been proposed for use by an AP class at Oley Valley High School. School board member John C. Bieber said at a meeting that he was concerned that the book states there was a consensus about global warming and that it refers negatively to the war on terror as President George W. Bush's war.

Board member Carl J. Kubitz Jr. said he worried that there wouldn't be discussion in class about both sides of the issues. "We're buying a book that's providing only half of the story," he said.

When advised of the concerns in Oley, Brinkley defended his text. "There clearly is a broad consensus among scientists and among Americans generally that global warming is real, and it is certainly appropriate to report what people believe when one writes history," Brinkley said.

He also stood by what he wrote about the war on terror. "I am not aware of anything I've said about the war on terror that is significantly different from what most accounts claim," he said. "The war on terror was clearly controversial over the last eight years, and that is certainly something students should know."

[Ian David]

1. If you're a Progressive and live in Texas, run for your local school board.

Otherwise, shut the fuck up when the rest of the country says they WANT Texas to secede.

[donco6]

2. There's plenty of ignorance everywhere.

Just look at Colorado Springs.

[rockymountaindem]

3. I can't remember ever having any problems like this when I went to school there

Class of '03.

[Ian David]

5. Point is that like 1/3 of all textbooks are used by Texas so they are all wrtitten to TX standards.

When Texas insists that textbooks be stupid, the publishers make ALL of America's textbooks stupid, which turns ALL of our children Texas-ignorant.

[blogslut]

4. Granted, a good many of the nation's textbooks come from Texas

However, this story is about Reading, PA. And while running for one's local school board is an admirable thing, the textbook approvals are decreed by the Texas board of education. We need sane, fact-based candidates to run for the Texas board of education.

[struggle4progress]

7. The problem is not "textbooks from Texas" -- the problem is that Texas is a large chunk of

the textbook market, so rightwing pressure in Texas actually affects the content of books sold elsewhere

[Wednesdays]

6. K&R

:kick: