A new University of Texas/Texas Tribune survey shows just how destructive a politicized right-wing curriculum can be. A large number of Texans polled said they still don't believe in evolution and are convinced that humans and dinosaurs co-existed....
Every now and then, some well-meaning Oregonian will ask me why I hate Texas. Well, as if living there for ten-plus years (3277 days...not that anyone's counting) doesn't give me enough credibility in this regard, now I can point to this gem: Texans have been edumicated to be brain-dead Right-wing stooges. Surprising how effective politicizing a state-wide curriculum can be, eh? Yep, when you teach children to think critically, you invariably end up with a collection of disobedient, drug-addicted Liberals. If you teach children that Jesus is Lord and Savior, indoctrinate them into believing that the Prince of Peace was a Republican...well, you get Texas. Welcome to a place collectively stupid enough to elect and re-elect both George W. Bush AND Rick Perry. Two emptier suits in the Governor's Mansion would be hard to find. If you believe that voters get exactly the quality of representation they deserve...well, who knew that Texas deserved so little?
You have to know that your states' edumication system is completely and thoroughly FUBAR when....
- 51 percent disagree with the statement, "Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals."
- 38 percent agree with the statement, "God created human beings pretty much in their present form about 10,000 years ago."
- 30 percent agree with the statement, "Humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time." Another 30 percent said they "don't know" whether the statement is true.
Apparently, anywhere between one-third and one-half of Texans are irredeemable intellectual black holes. Thanks to the Right-wing Christian ideologues who inhabit the State Board of Edumication, Apparently, the role of teacher in Texas is to reinforce what childrent are taught in Sunday School. 'Course, if you teach kids to think for themselves, they eventually ask all sorts of inconvenient and incomfortable questions. Better they learn the value of obedience and the importance of prayer. At least then parents will know that their kids will grow up to be good Christians and even better Republicans...just like themselves. While I poke fun at Texas' indoctrination edumication system, in reality there's really nothing funny about it. The wackjobs on the State Board of Edumication are far more concerned with ideology and religious rectitude than they are in creating the next generation of leaders and thinkers. Teaching children to think for themselves is such a messy, unpredictable undertaking. Far better to teach them to obey authority and fear God. Critical thinking is for godless Liberals, anyway.
Even worse, because Texas is by far the largest market for textbooks in the country, as Texas goes so goes the rest of the nation. Textbook publishers are like any other business in that they value economies of scale, so they're not going to be favorably inclined towards producing one textbook version for Texas and another for the rest of the country. If children are being indoctrinated in Texas, there's a pretty good chance that something very similar is happening in a school near you- perhaps even to your own children.
Is our children learning? Well, if you're asking the question in Texas, they're clearly not learning as much as they're being indoctrinated. Then again, when your goal as an educator is to churn out the next generation of Christian soldiers, Texas really IS God's country.
