Stephen Colbert grills Eric Foner, the Columbia University history professor and American-history textbook author, about the Texas Board of Education’s recent preliminary approval of changes to the social-studies curriculum.
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6 Responses to ‘What’s Your View of America, Comrade?’
velvis - March 17, 2010 at 3:42 pm
Yeah, lets take Jefferson and others out of history books and then complain when foreign students know more about out history (and every other subject) than our own students do. Oh and then we can blame it on the less popular political party and teachers.
11270815 - March 17, 2010 at 3:54 pm
The Chronicle might want to do a little historical research in its own files for this story. In 1994, a group of scholars led by UCLA historian Gary B. Nash prepared a set of “national” standards of US history, suitable for use in classrooms. The “push-back” against these standards echoes in reverse the lament of 1994: in that case, too much “liberalism” and not enough conservatism. For example, the critics decried the elimination of Daniel Webster, and the celebration of Harriet Tubman. Every 20 years or so, it seems, the textbook publishers are battered by charges of bias and censorship of competing opinions. The history of textbook writing would be worth an article, as would examination of the realities of Texas classrooms, which don’t look anything like the state board of education.
22113683 - March 17, 2010 at 4:01 pm
Very funny–and clever, as Colbert usually is.The problem is that both he and Prof. Foner almost completely distort what the Texas decision *is* and *involves.* It is an effort to restore a *balance* in the curriculum, to *return* Jefferson and Madison and Washington to the textbooks without removing the representative women, blacks, hispanics, etc. Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman yes; but also John Brown and Wm. Lloyd Garrison. Separation of Church and State yes; but also the Judaeo-Christian worldview that shaped our society in its formative stages.It is really sad that the reaction by the Eastern elites is so completely predictable: anybody with a different perspective than theirs is not only wrong but stupid, perverse, ignorant, and evil. Is this really what democracy is about?
jwgilley - March 17, 2010 at 4:58 pm
Colber is amusing and I occasionally watch him but what idoit pretending to be a professor would go on his show to be ridiculed and downgraded. Who is this professor or is he really a stunt man?
7738373863 - March 17, 2010 at 5:21 pm
Underneath the humor and the other distractions of the Colbert interview, the fact is that Texas is looking increasingly like a theocracy, albeit one without a distinct religious hierarchy. Let’s remember that, like Texas, the Caliphate tolerated, within limits, the existence of other beliefs within its borders, but the Caliphate brooked no dissension when it came to the ultimate truths and visions of Islam. My conclusion is that Texas is slowly turning into the very sort of theocracy that we are currently opposing in the guise of the Taliban and Islamic extremism more generally.For a state many of whose early settlers emigrated to escape from the repressive backlash that struck Europe in the aftermath of the abortive revolutions of 1848–which were staged against absolutism, it should be remembered–Texas is disgracing itself not onnly by rewriting history in general, but in ignoring the freedom of thought that helped to give rise to its character.
11211250 - March 18, 2010 at 12:57 pm
If the other 48 states (excluding the mavericks of Texas and Alaska) accept the proposed national educational standards, then textbooks will be geared to the national standards instead of the Texas school board. Support the adoption of national standards!