Textbook critic Mel Gabler dead at 89
Associated Press
LONGVIEW— Mel Gabler, who reviewed public school textbooks for more than 40 years and testified before state regulators on their contents, has died. He was 89.
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Funeral services were scheduled for Wednesday afternoon at Mobberly Baptist Church, with burial to follow in Memory Park Cemetery.
Gabler, who died Sunday, was a conservative who emphasized accuracy and a Christian perspective in his critiques of children's schoolbooks. With wife Norma, he started reviewing classroom textbooks for accuracy and content after finding errors in one of their son's texts in 1961.
The Gablers founded a nonprofit Christian-focused group, Educational Research Analysts, to examine textbooks under consideration for adoption by the Texas State Board of Education.
"There's no way of knowing a total impact of it, but certainly publishers have had to exercise a lot more editorial responsibility than they would have if Mr. Gabler had not done the work he did," Neal Frey, a senior textbook analyst for the Gablers' group, said.
The Gablers met repeatedly with state board members and textbook publishers. They tallied an annual roll sheet of the number of factual errors found in history, math, science and other books each year.
The state in 1992 fined textbooks publishers about $1 million for hundreds of errors the Gablers found in 10 U.S. history books after publishers and the state had approved them. The couple had earlier questioned why, in one history book, movie star Marilyn Monroe received six pages while the United States' first president George Washington had only a few paragraphs.
Grace Shore of Longview, a former education state board member, said she didn't always agree with the couple, but "I think all of us looked at things more carefully because of the Gablers."
"They were the first, as far as I know, to try to get the textbooks to be better," she said.
Mel Gabler, an Air Force veteran, worked at Exxon for 39 years before co-founding the Longview-based analyst group with his wife of 62 years. She survives him along with sons James Gabler of Phoenix and Paul Gabler of Houston.
Uh...I don't get why we should be celebrating this guy's death. Seems to me that he was providing a service and had soem valid critiques like why indeed did Marilyn Monroe receive 6 pages and Washington only a few paragraphs. Sure he may have been looking for a Christian emphasis in some of the things he did but does that make some of his critiques any less valid?
Wherever you go, there you are.
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Stravo wrote:Uh...I don't get why we should be celebrating this guy's death. Seems to me that he was providing a service and had soem valid critiques like why indeed did Marilyn Monroe receive 6 pages and Washington only a few paragraphs. Sure he may have been looking for a Christian emphasis in some of the things he did but does that make some of his critiques any less valid?
Considering that his critiques were more like this
Fundie Asshole wrote:When a student reads in a math book that there are no absolutes, every value he’s been taught is destroyed. And the next thing you know, the student turns to crime and drugs…
Crime, violence, immorality and illiteracy...the seeds of decadence are being taught universally in schools
Then yes. (and yes, that is an actual quote).
The problems with the textbooks included
open-ended questions that require students to draw their own conclusions; statements about religions other than Christianity; statements that they construe to reflect negatively on the free enterprise system; statements that they construe to reflect positive aspects of socialist or communist countries (e.g., that the Soviet Union is the largest producer in the world of certain grains); any aspect of sex education other than the promotion of abstinence; statements that emphasize contributions made by blacks, Native American Indians, Mexican-Americans, or feminists; statements which are sympathetic to American slaves or are unsympathetic to their masters; and statements in support of the theory of evolution, unless equal space is given to explain the theory of creation
Noting that the USSR produced shitloads of grain is an eviiiiiiiiiil promotion of Communism? Yes, this retard was a stain on the education system. Dunno if I would have wished death on him, but maybe blindness.
Manic Progressive: A liberal who violently swings from anger at politicos to despondency over them.
Out Of Context theatre: Ron Paul has repeatedly said he's not a racist. - Destructinator XIII on why Ron Paul isn't racist.
SirNitram wrote:Noting that the USSR produced shitloads of grain is an eviiiiiiiiiil promotion of Communism? Yes, this retard was a stain on the education system. Dunno if I would have wished death on him, but maybe blindness.
I didin'w wish death on him. I was merely stating that he finally croaked.
Ah, my apologies then. I had never heard of this guy before and went with what the article wrote about him - distinctly light on other examples of his critiques I might add.
Wherever you go, there you are.
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SirNitram wrote:Noting that the USSR produced shitloads of grain is an eviiiiiiiiiil promotion of Communism? Yes, this retard was a stain on the education system. Dunno if I would have wished death on him, but maybe blindness.
I didin'w wish death on him. I was merely stating that he finally croaked.
Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin
More a comment on Stravo's statement. Didn't mean to seem like I was accusing you.
Manic Progressive: A liberal who violently swings from anger at politicos to despondency over them.
Out Of Context theatre: Ron Paul has repeatedly said he's not a racist. - Destructinator XIII on why Ron Paul isn't racist.
Stravo wrote:Ah, my apologies then. I had never heard of this guy before and went with what the article wrote about him - distinctly light on other examples of his critiques I might add.
Fundie Asshole wrote:When a student reads in a math book that there are no absolutes, every value he’s been taught is destroyed. And the next thing you know, the student turns to crime and drugs…
Crime, violence, immorality and illiteracy...the seeds of decadence are being taught universally in schools
. . .
open-ended questions that require students to draw their own conclusions; statements about religions other than Christianity; statements that they construe to reflect negatively on the free enterprise system; statements that they construe to reflect positive aspects of socialist or communist countries (e.g., that the Soviet Union is the largest producer in the world of certain grains); any aspect of sex education other than the promotion of abstinence; statements that emphasize contributions made by blacks, Native American Indians, Mexican-Americans, or feminists; statements which are sympathetic to American slaves or are unsympathetic to their masters; and statements in support of the theory of evolution, unless equal space is given to explain the theory of creation
Good ol' Mel Gabler. Doing his bit to ensure the rise of a Texas electorate dumb enough to vote in George Bush and Tom DeLay.
When ballots have fairly and constitutionally decided, there can be no successful appeal back to bullets.
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People pray so that God won't crush them like bugs.
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Oil an emergency?! It's about time, Brigadier, that the leaders of this planet of yours realised that to remain dependent upon a mineral slime simply doesn't make sense.
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Texas has approved the regular (non-AP) Biology books of three major publishers for 2004 local adoption. State law requires them to present scientific strengths and weaknesses of scientific theories. We analyzed how closely they conform to this rule in their treatment of evolution.
Fair
Biology: The Dynamics of Life (Glencoe, 2004)
* Evolutionary, but lower overall intensity of evolutionary dogmatism; generally fewer redundant affirmations of the truth of evolution; occasional greater tentativity of evolutionary interpretations
* Superior photos and text narrative on human fetal development, including how soon a baby shows human characteristics
* Reading level seems a little easier.
Poor
Prentice Hall Biology (Prentice, 2004)
* Incoherent Time Line of Evolutionary Events
* Contradictory Conclusions from Identical Data
* Uncoordinated Discussion of Archaeopteryx
* Chaotic Definitions of "Convergent Evolution"
* Conflicting Statements on Phylogenetic Relationships
* Protection of Students from Controversy over Fossils
* No Critique of the Endosymbiotic Hypothesis
* Neglect of Weaknesses in Miller-Urey Experiments
* Rhetorical Art over Inductive Empiricism
* Presentation of Evolutionary Theory as Fact
Worst
Holt Biology (Holt, 2004)
* No Mention of Shortcomings in the "Bubble Model" Theory
* Censorship on the Endosymbiotic Hypothesis
* Exclusion of Defects in Evidence from Homologies
* Silence on Difficulties with "Convergent Evolution"
* Systematic Concealment of Discrepant Phylogenies
* Expurgation of Controversies on the Fossil Record
* Evasion of Scientific Flaws in "Coevolution"
* Multiple Conflicting Definitions of Evolution
* Emphasis on Teaching Students What to Think, Not How to Think
Poorest edited
Highest combined total of factual errors and technical defects
The Departed wrote:...statements that emphasize contributions made by blacks, Native American Indians, Mexican-Americans, or feminists; statements which are sympathetic to American slaves or are unsympathetic to their masters...
He's dead? Good!
The obvious tragedy here is that he lived for 89 fucking years!
I once heard about the oldest working Senator (a racist asshole) being 98. That was a few years back, is he still alive and working?
Strom Thurmond. No, he died recently.
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