Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Textbook Publishers Learn to Avoid Messing With Texas

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community
I have stated any number of times that there is a social purpose to education over and above a merely economic purpose. This article describing the influence of conservative groups in Texas over the selection and content of textboks is ample illustration of that point. But it also raises the question of the sort of social agendas that ought to be promoted in schols. In this article lobbyists frankly admit promoting an agenda I would find disturbing, one where "books were criticized as 'anti-technology,' 'anti-Christian' and 'anti-American,' and for saying there was scientific consensus that global warming was changing the earth's climate." These are things I think should be matters of choice, not the content of an education. On the other hand, argue the lobbyists, the changes to textbooks are examples of "democracy in action."

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Nov 21, 2024 6:34 p.m.

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