Steve Blow:
Turning textbooks into the Good Book
10:05 AM CST on Sunday, March 5, 2006
Did you know that liberal elected officials don't understand biblical principles? Or that all liberals worship man rather than God? I didn't. But it must be true. It's being taught in schools.
It's kind of funny. A front-page news story the other day said
conservatives want more control over textbooks in Texas public schools.
Well, it looks like liberals – those godless rascals – better pay
attention to what's being taught in some private schools.
Now, I realize private is private, and such schools can teach anything
they want. But when does education become indoctrination? And when does it begin to affect us all?
I'm not talking about one or two little schools. This involves
curriculum used by private schools and home-schoolers all over the
nation. Indeed, all over the world. The curriculum is
published by Accelerated Christian Education. And that company
started right here – in Lewisville. Though ACE is now
headed up in Florida, its distribution and other facilities in
Lewisville are valued at more than $20 million on county tax
rolls. So we're not talking about some little fringe operation.
A concerned mom called my attention to the politically loaded lessons.
She was troubled by some of the Texas history worksheets her son was
bringing home. That's where he had learned the
definitions of liberal ("referring to philosophy not supported
by Scripture") and conservative ("dedicated to the preserving of
Scriptural principles"). The mom said she sent him to
a small Christian school for more personal attention. But she
didn't know that would mean such lopsided political ideology. After talking with her, I ordered sets of American and Texas history workbooks from ACE.
The booklets are designed for individual, self-paced work. For the most
part, they offer a straightforward, rather dry, dates-and-names
approach to history. But there are some
definite quirks – like a certain egocentric sense of history.
Care to guess what is "the most marked development of modern
Texas?" Right. "The growth of church schools." Of course. And fill in this blank: "The single most important event in American history is surely ____."
Don't strain too hard. Surely you're not about to say "the Great
Awakening," the religious revival that swept the colonies in the
mid-1700s. In more recent history, the re-election of
Bill Clinton is explained thusly: "To some Americans, a healthy
economy is more important than the moral fiber of their
country." Interestingly, the various investigations of
Mr. Clinton get more than twice the space in the workbooks that
Watergate gets. And Jimmy Carter is described as someone who "claimed to be a Believer." I can almost hear the Church Lady delivering that line, eyebrow arched steeple high.
On the matter of evolution, there is no pretense of balance. "The theory
of evolution has no real scientific basis. ... There is simply no true
scientific support for the theory," according to the ACE version of
American history. (In the interest of balance, type
"statement on evolution" into Google and you will find solid
support from virtually every scientific organization.)
The textbook goes on to set up a false choice between evolution and God.
"Both cannot be right. Is it logical to trust Darwin or God? It is odd
that whenever given the choice of accepting the Bible or some
man-written book, the liberals always reject the Bible and accept the
other book." I had hoped to discuss educational
philosophy with officials from ACE. But after they heard my
questions, I got a polite decline. I'm sure they're nice, well-intentioned folks and all that.
But a question comes to mind: If they teach that God is only on their
side, how is that different from those we fight in Iraq? E-mail sblow@dallasnews.com
Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/localnews/columnists/all/stories/DN-blow_05met.ART.North.Edition2.3e852c7.html
