As a former teacher (I'm assuming the 'former' part since you're all-hours-of-the-school-day appearance on the forum would indicate you are not in the classroom) I would now be interested in your take on the article I linked a few posts up.

-S-

 

You're right, I'm not teaching now...in fact, I never really looked at teaching as a career. My main interest is in research.

As far as your article goes, my reaction was mainly that the author had as much of a pro-Israel bias as he decries in the textbook materials he's discussing. The website itself appears to be a wholly-owned subsidiary of David Horowitz, who has always struck me as a pro-Israel hysteric.

I'm not in a position to evaluate every claim made in the article, but I don't trust the source. It wouldn't surprise me if ANY attempt to be even-handed in textbooks dealing with the Middle East, no matter how scrupulously fair, would be greeted with hostility by people of Horowitz' stripe. If anything, I would argue that the Arab/Islamic point of view has been consistently and chronically under-represented in curricula.

 

Even if one does not side with Israel, the implications of these Saudi-funded efforts to promote their own Islamic agenda is still a disturbing trend. You don't solve the problem of under-representation by utilizing PLO propaganda and revisionist history. At the very least the government needs to follow the same procedures it uses for Universities at the public school level, which for some reason they don't want to do.

-S-

 

The article refers to PLO propaganda and revisionist history, but I question the accuracy of that assessment, since it emanates from someone with their own axe to grind. Keep in mind, too, that they're talking about college-level texts, where many different points of view are, or should be, presented.

 

The bulk of the article deals with middle and high school level text books. It brings up the university level as an example of what had to be done to stop the spread of the propaganda. And just because someone is a supporter of an Israeli state doesn't make them a liar.

-S-

 

No, it doesn't, necessarily. But even you would have to admit that the dominant culture in this country is decidedly pro-Israel. Do you think there's no bias toward Israel in current textbooks?

The parallel I kept thinking of was the treatment of American Indians. For decades, they were demonized in history books and textbooks. In California, children were taught that Junipero Serra and the mission system brought civilization to California, then populated by naked, ignorant savages. Then, finally, there was an attempt to restore some balance. That wasn't greeted very kindly by, for example, the Catholic Church.

I was an adult before I realized that George Armstrong Custer was a self-aggrandizing, megalomaniacal product of a racist culture, or that newspapers of that period routinely called for the extermination of native Americans, or that soldiers committed unspeakable atrocities, often involving women and children, in places like Sand Creek.

But I'll come back to where I started. I don't trust the objectivity of your source. He offers no examples of pro-Islam bias. We're asked simply to believe him.

 

The mentioning that they were teaching that Islamic explorers 'discovered' America before the west and that these people became Native American chiefs is a bit absurd. The white-washing of Islamic history and current practices is another.

But it's neither here nor there, really. As I said, you don't correct an absence of *correct* Islamic/Arab history by injecting propaganda in to the system. That's not the way to do it. All their material should be open to review and it lists at least a few examples where they would not reveal their text and teaching materials to the public.

-S-

 

Believe me, Shake, if pro-Islam misinformation creeps into a high school textbook, you'll be able to measure the time it takes for it to become a huge cause celebre with an egg-timer.

And that's what makes me think this is a case of bias on the part of the writer of your article, not the textbooks. What he sees as anti-Israel bias, I'm betting, is closer to being even-handed, objective, and respectful of other cultures. He would have the textbook say that Muslims are bent on the destruction of Christian civilization. You might agree, but that doesn't change the fact that it's an incorrect and inflammatory statement.

I'd like to see the quotation, by the way, about the discovery of America. Have you seen it?

 

I don't have time now to really get into this but I think you need to be careful when you claim it is the Islamic/Arabs injecting propaganda into their history and systems. Remember 5,000 year old Egyptian mummies testing positive for cocaine and tobacco?
That researcher and her findings were validated but you don't see any of that being taken in to history or archeology. Most people still think Columbus was the first European to set foot in the western hemisphere even though there is solid archaeological evidence that Leif Erickson actually had a settlement in Canada. You don't see that in our history books.

Before you can claim this is just pure propaganda maybe we should actually look at what they are basing their claims on.

And Kimiko is right. Custer had it coming.

 

Actually you're wrong, I did learn about that in history class. Mr. Durbin, he was a good teacher. Liked to run triathlons, looked horrible in a speedo. I learned about the mummies and the Norseman.

-S-

 

Did you read it in your history book?

 

never the less its nice to see that your armed forces get genral and alround support from your country unlike a certain other country out there fight the war on terror with you guys now. needless to say there is a few gay isalmic rights groups out there, fighting for homosexual islamists rights, however it does appear to be a strongly held believe between islamic sects that equality and diversity can fuck of.

 

Don't know how I happened to miss this one ShakeZula, but we can agree on this one completely. As you may recall I have mentioned before that in order to work in the White House or in many cases to receive appointments from President Bush one must be an Evangelical. They actually screen for it.

Nope, you're still miss placing the we. I've never voted that way and don't own any of the things you're talking about. While I agree we are the most consuming nation on earth I feel all we really need is an awakening and I think we're going to get whether we want it or not. And I've put this up a couple times now but I do hold out for a younger generation calling a bullshit on the way our country is run and the values we place on it.

As far as suggestions. Its education. Plain and simple. We really need to look at the way we educate our youth and what they are educated in. We also need to realize that instead of wanting to hurt people we feel are unworthy, we've got to help them. A chain is only as strong as weakest link. So is a nation.

 

I agree with the education, as more and more articles come out about the dumbing down of our kids. As for the goods, I would assume you have a computer since your on the net, no one is immune on the consumer issue.

 

That, I don't remember, it was more than 10 years ago. But I learned it in the class.

-S-