Thursday, April 30, 2009

Another instance of teaching fiction as history

Last week I posted a link from my archives about how public schools often teach a fictional account of history. Joanne Jacobs has a post that shows this trend continues - Textbooks push the softer side of Islam:

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Textbooks are pushing a PC version of Islam, reports the American Textbook Council in a study of the most commonly used junior high and high school texts. “Jihad,” commonly defined in the ’90s as “sacred” or “holy” struggle or “holy war,” was a struggle “to do one’s best to resist temptation and overcome evil” in Houghton Mifflin’s junior high textbook. That wasn’t soft enough. By 2005, the company “apparently had removed jihad from its entire series of social studies textbooks,” the report finds.
Writing in the Christian Science Monitor, Gary Bauer complains that textbooks are “intentionally vague” about sharia law, “the Islamic code that can be used to subjugate women and deal death to wayward believers.”

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There is a clear double standard in reporting the history of Christianity and Islam, from the report Gary Bauer writes:

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One book describes the Crusades as “religious wars launched against Muslims by European Christians.” But when Muslims attacked Christians and took their land, the process is referred to as “building” an empire.
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With homeschooling you can give your children a much more accurate understanding of history.


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3 comments:

ChristineMM said...

This topic of issues of teaching Muslim incorrect or skewed info in textbooks today is a topic in From Crayons to Condoms in which they name specific texts and the issues. THey also discuss the isues with how things are reviewed for accuracy.

You should read the book, a fast yet scary read. It is a bunch of submissions from parents of schooled kids telling about issues they have with their children's education. The stories are edited well. The most radical thing in the book is about abstinence teaching in schools, the rest IMO would be accepted easily by even 'mainstream' American parents.

Luke Holzmann said...

Oh, it's not fiction... it's just carefully worded accounts [laughing].

Ugh. No wonder it's so hard to find the reality behind so many things.

~Luke

Henry Cate said...

Christine, thanks for the book suggestion. It looks interesting, in a sad sort of way. I've requested it from our library.