Texas schools board rewrites US history

[Illuminatus Primus]

And god bless oilmen -- they gave us independence from the schedules of trains, made aviation possible, and enabled the backbreaking work of stokers to be eliminated.

Got to love American social narratives -- give credit to the broken-backed manual laborers, skilled workers and technicians, brilliant and clever petrochemists and resource geologists? Nope! They're not sexy cowboy good old boys who sat in offices with cow horns on the wall, smoking cigars while distantly financing the efforts and receiving all the returns of the effort, because God Knows it was the sudden advent -- never before in history! -- of cowboy assholes with lots of money, not innovative and ingenious scientists with brand new discoveries that unlocked the potential of the petrochemical era.

[Simon_Jester]

The curriculum is written in generalities and on its own could be taught a hundred different ways depending on the teachers beliefs and methods. Presumably there is an official marking scheme which is what will determine if this whoha means anything or not since its the marking scheme which will dictate what viewpoints are given preference, i.e.
E) identify the causes of the Civil War, including sectionalism, states' rights, and slavery, and the effects of the Civil War, including Reconstruction and the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the U.S. Constitution;

Unless a marking scheme says otherwise you would tend to go with the written order which places slavery in third place for causes of the Civil War.

Yeah. This is the tricky part.

When you've got so many curriculum standards that say "students will be able to explain the implications of X," when right-wing hobbyhorses are allowed into the curriculum and left-wing ones are not... add that up and you're giving the teachers a wink and a nod to inject their political biases into the system. Worse yet you're giving the textbook writers a wink and a nod to do the same thing. As long as they include both Abe Lincoln and Jeff Davis, they're following the standards, and it doesn't matter so much if they make Jeff out to be a hero and Abe out to be a scoundrel.

[Samuel]

Also remember...that the Black Community, particularly the old civil rights people; virulently hate the attempts by the Gay community to draw parallels between the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and the gay rights movement of the modern era.

So....lets see...who do we appease; the 12% of the composite US population who is black; or the 1.51% that is GLBT?

GLBTs will be tossed under the bus in any kind of prioritization; except in certain places like San Francisco.

Sad, but fact of life.

The irony is the Irish had the same relationship with the blacks (despised minority at the bottom, made it up and doesn't want to be compared to them). It would be a great way to see how the country always has an "in-group versus outgroup" mentality and how it is harmful against our efforts to fight against our true enemies- immigrants the Chinese.

Of course, as you said, they are too stupid to realize that because they weren't taught it in the first place. Why are the people who set the standards elected instead of appointed?

[Covenant]

Random fact-checking question re the Irish comment. I've often heard this, and on the other hand, often heard it claimed to be an urban legend. Aside from European scorn of the Irish, was there actually a widespread dislike of them or was it just of Catholics in general?

I only ask because I've found this bit of trivia hard to pin down, and while it's not that important in the grand scheme of things (there's plenty of other non-color related bigotries to point to when making a point about group dynamics) I keep getting different reports of it.

Feel free to PM, I don't want to make a tangent that derails the topic.

[Elfdart]

Random fact-checking question re the Irish comment. I've often heard this, and on the other hand, often heard it claimed to be an urban legend. Aside from European scorn of the Irish, was there actually a widespread dislike of them or was it just of Catholics in general?

I only ask because I've found this bit of trivia hard to pin down, and while it's not that important in the grand scheme of things (there's plenty of other non-color related bigotries to point to when making a point about group dynamics) I keep getting different reports of it.

Feel free to PM, I don't want to make a tangent that derails the topic.

It was widespread until large numbers of blacks moved to northern cities, as well as Italians and other immigrants who didn't speak English. The Irish were white and spoke English, so they were "better" according to the those who made such judgments.

[Thanas]

It pretty much happened to all immigrant populations. The Italians and Germans were also quite vilified when they first arrived. Hence you have the Italian Quarter and the German quarter in New York, for example.

[Elfdart]

One of the reasons so many Germans moved west was because they weren't welcome in the East. Some of it was ethnic prejudice, but there was also hostility because so many were refugees from the 1848 revolutions (more so, the backlash). The last thing right-thinking "real" Merkins wanted was a bunch of German bookworm troublemakers stirring things up. Quite a few ended up in the Hill Country between Austin and San Antonio, which is why so many small towns, streets and neighborhoods have German names -and why rednecks consider Austin a sinkhole of communism and Teh Ghey.

[Thanas]

One of the reasons so many Germans moved west was because they weren't welcome in the East. Some of it was ethnic prejudice, but there was also hostility because so many were refugees from the 1848 revolutions (more so, the backlash). The last thing right-thinking "real" Merkins wanted was a bunch of German bookworm troublemakers stirring things up. Quite a few ended up in the Hill Country between Austin and San Antonio, which is why so many small towns, streets and neighborhoods have German names -and why rednecks consider Austin a sinkhole of communism and Teh Ghey.

To be honest, there is also the small matter of the American "Come over" propaganda being centered on land, which was ideal because due to the population explosion a lot of children of farmers were on hard times.

As for 48ers, I believe they ended up rather well. For example, see the German troops in the Civil war and Carl Schurz.