Slave trade? No. Atlantic Triangular Trade? Yes.
Posted by drocolate on May 25th, 2010
Before I get into my issues with the Texas Board of Education and their quest to dumb up future generations of Texans, let me say that I really do love Texas. Despite the fact that I’m constantly shitting on the governor (but not on his hair… it’s so perfect) and poking fun at the state, I only do it because I really do love Texas and want only the best for it.
And the best does not include this shit.
Ok, disclaimer over. Let’s jump into this thing.
First, some background…
So, as we all know by now, Texas is special. They do things the way they want to do things, and if you don’t like it Chuck Norris will take you out into the woods and tell you that you have A.I.D.S. The latest example of this trailblazing attitude revolves around education, and more specifically social studies. A while back the Texas Board of Education decided that it was time to take a look at the history that we are presenting to our kids. They went through everything and made some changes.
It’s some of these changes that have a lot of people (including me) up in arms.
So what are the proposed changes?
Here are a few highlights:
- You know that Thomas Jefferson dude? Yeah? Well his part is being downsized. Because of his belief in the separation of church and state, the ultra conservative Texas Board of Education doesn’t want to give him as much love as they once did.
- Capitalism will no longer be referred to as “capitalism”. Now it will be known as “free enterprise system”, which is quite a mouthful and will be much harder to write on the small cheat sheet students slip into their pen caps.
- Students will now be required to learn about the negative side of Title IX and affirmative action. Example passage from a future textbook: “Thanks to affirmative action, Jerry Jones is required to interview black candidates for head coaching jobs. This prolongs the entire offseason schedule, which is a hassle for one of the greatest Americans ever — Jerry Jones.”
And the best of all:
- The slave trade will now be known as Atlantic triangular trade. Please note the keyword that is missing from that new name. Yeah. Sad.
So why does this matter?
Well, first, it matters because we’re going to start shuffling kids through the school systems with what seems to be a slightly weaker education. And, because Texas is one of the biggest purchasers of textbooks in the country, these foolish changes will probably leave Texas quickly in the form of mass-produced social studies textbooks. An ignorance pandemic will most likely follow and in about 50 years no one will readily know what the slave trade is unless you tell them that slaves were one of the points in the Atlantic triangle.
So am I overreacting to all of this? Maybe. But that’s really just because I love Texas and I expect more. I expect some common sense.
And on this issue, that, like so many things in future textbooks, has been completely omitted.
