Mary Lord reports in US News about Remaking history: The latest skirmish in the Texas textbooks wars could decide what kids will read across the nation
What would you call a history textbook that highlights the bravery of African-American sailor Dorie Miller at Pearl Harbor but leaves out Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen? How about an economics text whose cover shows the male statues atop the New York Stock Exchange looking remarkably, er, clothed? Texas has a word for them: approved. And books like these could be coming soon to a classroom near you.It's been so successful so far, let's do more of the same!
Last week, after months of line-by-line scrutiny and impassioned public debate, the state board of education selected the history and social studies texts it would buy for its 4.2 million public-school pupils. Because Texas accounts for a hefty 8 percent of America's $4.5 billion textbook market, whatever flies in the Lone Star State usually lands on desks nationwide. Winning Texas "is the first step to becoming a bestseller," says Gilbert Sewall, director of the American Textbook Council, a New York-based nonprofit research group. Only California, largest of the 22 "adoption states" (where textbooks are approved on a statewide rather than local basis), spends more, but it doesn't vote on books for the crucial high school market.
Critics say the heated politics behind the Texas textbook wars end up shortchanging American schoolchildren. Top sellers don't necessarily make riveting reading. That's because the selection process too often forces publishers to sanitize content and avoid words or concepts that might offend "a score of heavy-duty, aggressive special-interest groups," contends Sewall.
...for subjects like social studies; 4 in 5 of the nation's middle and high school social studies teachers neither majored nor minored in history. No wonder American students score lower on history tests than in any other subject?including math. Fewer than half of high school seniors demonstrated even basic knowledge of U.S. history on the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress. Now there's a fact for the textbook warriors to chew on.
