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Controversies about US Public School Textbooks - 6/14/2008 2:12:57 AM   
pinksugarsub


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Status: offline 		http://edrev.asu.edu/reviews/rev427.htm
 
The article gives a historical overwiew of criticisms of US public school textbooks and their publishers.  Nationalism, racism, sexism, evolution and readabilty are among the topics covered.
 
http://edrev.asu.edu/reviews/rev427.htm
 
This article discusses errors in math and science texts, along with the process by which a textbook reaches the classroom.  It is an eye-opener.
 
pinksugarsub
 
P.S.  TY Level, for the idea for this Op.

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RE: Controversies about US Public School Textbooks - 6/14/2008 9:37:30 AM   
JohnSteed1967


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From: Columbia SC
Status: offline 		Well Go to Germany and grab a text book and see how they deal with WW2. DENIAL, GLOSS OVER. I mean they can't even come to grips with their own past.

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RE: Controversies about US Public School Textbooks - 6/14/2008 12:51:16 PM   
DomKen


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From: Chicago, IL
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quote:

ORIGINAL: JohnSteed1967

Well Go to Germany and grab a text book and see how they deal with WW2. DENIAL, GLOSS OVER. I mean they can't even come to grips with their own past.

?
German students are very well educated on their nations involvement in WWII.
http://www.iearn.org/hgp/aeti/aeti-1998-no-frames/holocaust-ed-in-germany.htm

When the time comes I can only hope the US is so honest about teaching  our young people about the post 9/11 era.

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RE: Controversies about US Public School Textbooks - 6/14/2008 3:25:35 PM   
JohnSteed1967


Posts: 304
Joined: 5/29/2005
From: Columbia SC
Status: offline 		DomKen,

I totally agree, I want to know the truth, the full truth and nothing but the truth. The Bush administration, has given us nothing but lies and half truths since the start.

Just like LBJ and the Gulf of Tonkien (SP?) Its a sure bet that those attacks never happened, and I have seen many documentries on History Channel et.al. that have had the vets that were on those ships, say that they were in their bunks asleep and then they got a message over the loud speaker telling them they had been attacked.

There was no call to battle stations, and none of those vets ever recall hearing one gun shot either as agression or as defense.

Something that tends to be glossed over about this administation. There is a federal law that I believe allows presidental records to be released like every twelve years or so. That during Bush's first year in office that the records for Regan and Bush at the time of the Iran Contra Affair would have been released. The Little Shrub had those records release Blocked.

Wonder the Hell why?? Because it would have shown his father and Reagan as the two biggest crooks that ever held office? Of course that was before his own failure.

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"The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives." -- Admiral William Leahy , US Atomic Bomb Project

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RE: Controversies about US Public School Textbooks - 6/14/2008 3:55:59 PM   
seeksfemslave


Posts: 4011
Joined: 6/16/2006
Status: offline 		Pinksugar: please make your point in the the main body of your post.
I refuse to plough thru' reams of difficult to read small print text  OK?

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RE: Controversies about US Public School Textbooks - 6/16/2008 8:05:21 AM   
calamitysandra


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Joined: 3/17/2006
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quote:

ORIGINAL: JohnSteed1967

Well Go to Germany and grab a text book and see how they deal with WW2. DENIAL, GLOSS OVER. I mean they can't even come to grips with their own past.


I call bullshit on that one.
WW2, The 3rd Reich, Holocaust, and all the other uglies of that time are topics that come up during nearly every grade (starting with the 3rd) in german schools. The are discussed in depth in various subjects, ranging from german class over politics, geography, biology, religion, philosophy, and history class, of course.
There is no denial, or glossing over in schools (that does not mean that you can not find it in other aspects of life).

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RE: Controversies about US Public School Textbooks - 6/16/2008 8:23:54 AM   
philosophy


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quote:

ORIGINAL: calamitysandra

quote:

ORIGINAL: JohnSteed1967

Well Go to Germany and grab a text book and see how they deal with WW2. DENIAL, GLOSS OVER. I mean they can't even come to grips with their own past.


I call bullshit on that one.
WW2, The 3rd Reich, Holocaust, and all the other uglies of that time are topics that come up during nearly every grade (starting with the 3rd) in german schools. The are discussed in depth in various subjects, ranging from german class over politics, geography, biology, religion, philosophy, and history class, of course.
There is no denial, or glossing over in schools (that does not mean that you can not find it in other aspects of life).


....ah, but remember, if what you hold dear and believe to be superior to all others is attacked, then the best form of defence is to attack something else. Sadly for the person who you quoted people here have actually been to Germany........he probably should have gone for a country where none of us have ever been......

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RE: Controversies about US Public School Textbooks - 6/16/2008 8:27:13 AM   
DomKen


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From: Chicago, IL
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quote:

ORIGINAL: philosophy
....ah, but remember, if what you hold dear and believe to be superior to all others is attacked, then the best form of defence is to attack something else. Sadly for the person who you quoted people here have actually been to Germany........he probably should have gone for a country where none of us have ever been......

The funny thing is if he had simply said Japan instead he would have been pretty spot on.

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RE: Controversies about US Public School Textbooks - 6/16/2008 8:36:34 AM   
philosophy


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quote:

ORIGINAL: DomKen

quote:

ORIGINAL: philosophy
....ah, but remember, if what you hold dear and believe to be superior to all others is attacked, then the best form of defence is to attack something else. Sadly for the person who you quoted people here have actually been to Germany........he probably should have gone for a country where none of us have ever been......

The funny thing is if he had simply said Japan instead he would have been pretty spot on.


.......actually you're probably right. As a side point,  in Indiana an attempt was made to make the value of pi as taught in schools to be 4. The law never, in the end, passed....but when US state lawmakers are trying to get things like this on the books it paints a sad picture of their commitment to the value of education or a desire to put the accuracy of US text books above personal profit.....

http://www.inwit.com/inwit/writings/indianapilaw.html

....it's in the guinness book of records under 'most inaccurate value of pi'......

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RE: Controversies about US Public School Textbooks - 6/16/2008 8:55:19 AM   
Alumbrado


Posts: 5560
Status: offline 		You do know that took place in the 1800s and the failed bill was an attempt by an amateur mathematician to show that he had 'solved' the challenge of squaring the circle, resulting in incorrect values for pi...nothing at all to do with censoring textbooks or criminalizing curriculum?

http://arshermeneutica.org/besieged/Legislating_the_Value_of_Pi

< Message edited by Alumbrado -- 6/16/2008 8:58:10 AM >

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RE: Controversies about US Public School Textbooks - 6/16/2008 9:00:36 AM   
philosophy


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quote:

ORIGINAL: Alumbrado

You do know that took place in the 1800s and the failed bill was an attempt by an amateur mathemetician to show that he had 'solved' the challenge of squaring the circle resulting in incorrect values for pi...nothing at all to do with censoring textbooks or criminalizing curriculum?

http://arshermeneutica.org/besieged/Legislating_the_Value_of_Pi


...and also, if you'd read the link provided, he would have cornered the market on maths text books in the US, very lucrative. The bill actually passed a couple of hurdles before getting struck down.
Yes, i know it's an historical factet, just figured it was more relevant (and much more entetaining) than some diversionary dreck regarding German text books.

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RE: Controversies about US Public School Textbooks - 6/16/2008 9:41:16 AM   
Alumbrado


Posts: 5560
Status: offline 		Your article is incorrect on that, and apparently bases that conclusion on a link to an unsupported blurb rife with inaccuracies, and absent attribution for quotes.

It was not a bill to mandate that textbooks revise the value of pi to 4, or anything else, it was a claim to have solved the 'squaring of the circle' conundrum that had already been proven impossible..

And the author would have given his 'discovery'  free to Indiana, while the bill would have had no effect in other states, or on the standardized math textbooks already in widespread use, such as Jseph Ray's series..

Long before Goodwin could have cornered any textbook market, the obvious fallacies would have torpedoed his 'breakthrough'... a breakthrough he could have only reached by using the wrong value of pi. 

"...It seems that Dr. Goodwin had already solved two of the great unsolvable problems of ancient geometry and claimed to have solved a third with his method of squaring the circle. "

Much like other crackpots who have tried to get their perpetual motion machines entered into the public record, this was delusions of grandeur, not conspiracy.

< Message edited by Alumbrado -- 6/16/2008 9:59:11 AM >

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RE: Controversies about US Public School Textbooks - 6/16/2008 9:59:34 AM   
Alumbrado


Posts: 5560
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quote:

ORIGINAL: Alumbrado

Your article is incorrect on that, and apparently bases that conclusion on a link to an unsupported blurb rife with inaccuracies, and absent attribution for quotes.

It was not a bill to mandate that textbooks revise the value of pi to 4, or anything else, it was a claim to have solved the 'squaring of the circle' conundrum that had already been proven impossible..

And the author would have given his 'discovery'  free to Indiana, while the bill would have had no effect in other states, or on the standardized math textbooks already in widespread use, such as Joseph Ray's series..

Long before Goodwin could have cornered any textbook market, the obvious fallacies would have torpedoed his 'breakthrough'... a breakthrough he could have only reached by using the wrong value of pi. 

"...It seems that Dr. Goodwin had already solved two of the great unsolvable problems of ancient geometry and claimed to have solved a third with his method of squaring the circle. "

Much like other crackpots who have tried to get their perpetual motion machines entered into the public record, this was delusions of grandeur, not conspiracy.

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RE: Controversies about US Public School Textbooks - 6/16/2008 11:27:50 AM   
GimpinDenial


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Joined: 4/20/2008
Status: offline 		I believe it was Mark Twain who once wrote:

Never let school interfere with your education.
 
Personally, I learned a great deal on my own, AFTER I dropped out of school when I was 13.

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RE: Controversies about US Public School Textbooks - 6/16/2008 12:51:25 PM   
calamitysandra


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Joined: 3/17/2006
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quote:

ORIGINAL: DomKen
The funny thing is if he had simply said Japan instead he would have been pretty spot on.


Turkey on the Armenian genocide would have worked nicely, too.

I am in no way denying that there are people in Germany who are guilty of deliberate forgetfullness, historical relativism, or even outright falsyfication when it comes to the 3rd Reich, but having gone through the German school system, I could not let that stupid statement stand.

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RE: Controversies about US Public School Textbooks - 6/16/2008 12:59:33 PM   
daddysliloneds


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Joined: 6/28/2006
Status: offline 		no matter what the textbooks say, when it's all said and done, the government decides what they want people to know or not know and will teach just that...

it's when you get older, that you find out the truth most of the times.

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RE: Controversies about US Public School Textbooks - 6/16/2008 1:03:37 PM   
GimpinDenial


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Status: offline 		That's too true..
Like who actually discovered America.....

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RE: Controversies about US Public School Textbooks - 6/16/2008 1:04:06 PM   
NorthernGent


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quote:

ORIGINAL: JohnSteed1967

Well Go to Germany and grab a text book and see how they deal with WW2. DENIAL, GLOSS OVER. I mean they can't even come to grips with their own past.



'Doesn't ring true with me.

I'd say the Germans are still, to this day, struggling to come to terms with the excesses of National Socialism; patriotism is widely frowned upon, and the recent World Cup held in Germany was atypical in terms of an outpouring of national pride.

I studied history at university, British and German history 1870-1945 to be precise; the majority of German historians I encountered didn't marry up with your view.

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RE: Controversies about US Public School Textbooks - 6/16/2008 2:30:37 PM   
Alumbrado


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quote:

ORIGINAL: GimpinDenial

That's too true..
Like who actually discovered America.....


Kennewick man, apparently.

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RE: Controversies about US Public School Textbooks - 6/16/2008 2:58:41 PM   
philosophy


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Joined: 2/15/2004
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quote:

ORIGINAL: GimpinDenial

I believe it was Mark Twain who once wrote:

Never let school interfere with your education.
 
Personally, I learned a great deal on my own, AFTER I dropped out of school when I was 13.


...a little unclear here.....are you suggesting that all schooling after 13 is un-necessary?

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