Right-Wing Texas State School Board To Approve Textbooks

(This public domain photo is of a street in Atlanta in 1864.)

It's time for the Texas State School Board to approve the textbooks that all Texas schools will have to use. It's not science books this time, but history books -- but that doesn't mean the mythology of the right isn't included. In fact the books are rife with it. Some of the things included:

* That the American democracy was based on the philosophy of the Biblical Moses (although there is nothing in the Old Testament about democracy).

* The benefits of free enterprise (without bothering to include any of the drawbacks inherent in that system).

* That the indigenous people of the America's willingly accepted christianity when it was brought by the Spanish to these shores (although the truth is that those people were forced to accept christianity through beatings, torture, and even murder).

* That the Civil War was fought over "state's rights" and not slavery (even though Confederate leaders and states at that time were clear that they had seceded only to preserve slavery. The "state's rights" reason was invented only after the Civil War as an effort to whitewash the actions of those Confederate states, since slavery was no longer viewed as an appropriate reason for their actions).

These are but some of the right-wing propaganda included in the books that are supposed to tell the history of this country. For a more complete list, you can go to the website of the Texas Freedom Network. And if you think students should be taught real history instead of right-wing propaganda, then let the school board know.