Topic: Dear Texas: Please Shut Up. Sincerely, History
yellowrose10's photo
Sat 03/20/10 11:13 PM

Its all about balance, if you teach rock and roll and country, teach r &b and hip hop. PErsonally , I believe those lessons should be in elective 'music' classes but I have no problem with them being offered. As to the rest,, the required classes should be those things students will NEED to compete,, Reading , Writing, Arithmetic,, and now Id even add computer technology.

I never thought history should be mandatory but if it is, the books should be a bit less slanted and more balanced towards the contributions of more than just one group.


I agree. Although I can see history as important to know how we became what we are (good or bad) and to, hopefully, not repeat it.

(sorry I'm still giggling over Quiet's Dear history post) laugh

mrgary48's photo
Sun 03/21/10 07:33 AM
if i ask someone where there from. and they say Texas. i deduct iq point. after all they did have George w bush as governor. enough said.

Quietman_2009's photo
Sun 03/21/10 07:47 AM
when I meet someone and I tell them I'm from Texas and they say something as stupid as that I just kick their azz

mrgary48's photo
Sun 03/21/10 07:49 AM
sounds like a plan. as they say in Alabama. come get some.

Quietman_2009's photo
Sun 03/21/10 07:56 AM
I think not. I'm not the one bad mouthin Alabamians

You took it upon yourself to come into this thread and insult Texans so don't be surprised when the Texans tell you to fook off

mrgary48's photo
Sun 03/21/10 07:58 AM
you Texas will do as good as your college football team. talk a good game. but in the end bama wins. Texas loses.

mrgary48's photo
Sun 03/21/10 08:00 AM
oh i forgot one thing. Texas governor rick perry. executed an innocent man. then tried cover it up to get elected.

RandomX's photo
Sun 03/21/10 08:29 AM
Hell Bent On Achieving Balance in a Liberal slanted Education system...thank u very much

RandomX's photo
Sun 03/21/10 08:30 AM
Flamer...Ban him please....for ALL our sakes

mrgary48's photo
Sun 03/21/10 08:32 AM
think different between a republican and a democratize. democrats care for the poor. republicans care about their rich buddies. republicans love starting wars. but not to good at fighting in them. as i can see. only one republican in senate now has fough in a war. john McCain.

RandomX's photo
Sun 03/21/10 08:48 AM

think different between a republican and a democratize. democrats care for the poor. republicans care about their rich buddies. republicans love starting wars. but not to good at fighting in them. as i can see. only one republican in senate now has fough in a war. john McCain.


Rich people create Jobs(So Poor people can be Middle class)......What do poor people do but Suck the government dry? Lets just be INTELLECTUALLY honest shall we? So who do we take care of The PRODUCERS or the CONSUMERS? I say producers because thru out HISTORY producers are the one that have made our country GREAT

mrgary48's photo
Sun 03/21/10 08:51 AM
republicans or rich folks start wars. but to much of a coward to fight in them. case and point George w bush. and Cheney. both avoided the Vietnam war. cause there cowards.

RandomX's photo
Sun 03/21/10 08:57 AM

republicans or rich folks start wars. but to much of a coward to fight in them. case and point George w bush. and Cheney. both avoided the Vietnam war. cause there cowards.


Blah Blah Blah Republicans are Cowards Blah blah blah get new Martial Gray.

Absentee Ballots have Shown MOST Military personnel ARE conservative so to call our Men and women Cowards really sad

EquusDancer's photo
Sun 03/21/10 09:17 AM




Dancere - I've gotten the Dallas comment too. And having had some fascinating conversations with folks from other countries, our world history sucks just as badly as our US history. And that's not even getting into the sciences.



I was floored by the prejudiced view of what US and Texas really are when I lived in Europe ...

The entire opinion was according to the telly, film and propaganda ...

EVEN in the posh lifestyle I found in Norway, and other well~heeled northern Europe townes?

They ALL thought every individual to be extremely wealthy and to be totin' Magnums ala~Clint Eastwood ...

Law enforcement types were the worst ...

They'd raise their eyebrows as if Europe was a ghetto waste land and query how in the h!ll I could live in Europe when I could be in good ole US of A ?

whoa ... Talk about revisionist ... Life according to hit telly series and Hollywood!


And have horses! LOL! Everyone in Texas is supposed to have horses and do the cowboy thing. I love talking to the horse folks over there, because of the instant curiousity factor of the western saddles. Of course, since I don't ride western, and heck, don't even need a saddle to go round up the cows, I did way better. Bareback all the way! Whoo! English saddle when out trail riding, or doing something new that I want the added balance for.

EquusDancer's photo
Sun 03/21/10 09:31 AM


Hmmm, goes to show it's not a good idea to miss days...

Thomas - I don't know about yours, but my schools never taught about Christmas. It was a holiday that the kids got excited about because of the food and parties and then 2 weeks vacation. Well, except for the Jehovah's Witness kids who were stuck in other rooms during parties. Very exciting, but no teaching about the meaning required. There was a fun little concert thing going on, too. I can absolutely guarantee that Jesus's, Mithra's, or the Winter Equinox wasn't known or cared about, except in private matters of the family. It's only recently that that has become an issue.

As for the rest of it, while there needs to be some rewrites over the years, there also needs to be updates and corrected information. However, I don't see the point in removing Thomas Jefferson or some of the other things.

The reason I posted was the fact that because Texas is the largest buyer of textbooks, Texas's crazy antics WILL filter down to the other states. Are the other states wanting to agree that this is okay?

Of course, in the end, it probably doesn't matter. We want to gripe about the crappy public school systems, and yet do nothing to fix them. I got more history lessons from my parents and the books they have then was ever taught in school. And now that Texas and other states (?) are teaching to exit tests, it really doesn't matter, because one is only getting the info for the test, not the real history itself.

Dancere - I've gotten the Dallas comment too. And having had some fascinating conversations with folks from other countries, our world history sucks just as badly as our US history. And that's not even getting into the sciences.




Why you are in such a huff and puff over what???Nobody is re-writing history slaphead Finger pointing,cussing,and calling the Texas school board a bunch of right wing nutjobs only makes you look like the nutjob because apparently you believe we should leave out many important dates in history that are hugely important to this country.We have had Christmas in this country since it was founded.It is celebrated by every town in every country is the United states.It is the most celebrated season in the world.So why you feel like this needs to be left out and calling people idiots who leave it in is beyond me.Nobody is re-writing history.They are simply writing about what is already there.It seems to me the liberals are the ones who want to re-write history.The chages made were FACTS unlike what the liberals are proposing.

As far as you liberals and the changes you wanted....No longer calling Americans-Americans but Global citizens???My God what a stupid idea.I can just imagine traveling overseas and the customs agent asking you if you are a American."No I am a Global citizen". slaphead

Is learning about hip hop music something we need to spend days teaching our children about?

Chapter one:Pimping and hoeing.

Chapter two:40 OZ. and Big booties.

Chapter three:Gangbanging and drug dealing.

Chapter four:Slapping bit**es up.

Chapter five:F**k the police.

Thanks but no thanks.


You can't change history.No matter how much you fume and hate it will never change.I ow how much you would just love to grab a text book and write all sorts of anti American,America is the source of the worlds problems,America has never done anything good,blah,blah,blah.You would even want to take away our Constitution,bill of rights,and even the ability to call ourselves Americans.You certainly don't want any references of any sort towards Christianity but of course any other religion is fine.


I got a addition to our history books...

Liberalism-The Anti Americans in America.




Thomas, I also have no problems calling myself an American. I get incensed listing to black Americans call themselves African-Americans or Mexican-Americans doing the same thing. You're either an American first, and then your culture, or not. I'm an American, then a Texan, then a Scots and Manx woman. In that order. I don't run around claiming to be a Scots-Manx-Texan American. Word order is important. I haven't given up my Scottish/Manx history for it, but I have honored both my grandparents who made the decision to immigrate here.

Sadly, I'm seeing the conservatives wanting the make the changes here, not the liberals. You might re-read the article again. It says the books are wanting to be changed saying the Native Americans were happy to give up their land (one of the examples), and let us take over. That's not a liberal viewpoint. That's a conservative one. The people back then were the ones who pushed the whole Manifest Destiny thing, and that's exactly what they want to re-emphasize now.

In all honesty, I apparently don't know the liberals you know. The ones I know don't seem the think the way yours do. Granted, the want a more balanced view on the whole religion thing, but I don't personally see anything wrong with that. However, since I tend to fall towards moderate, rather then conservative or liberal, that might be a factor.

EquusDancer's photo
Sun 03/21/10 09:46 AM
Quietman. For as great as this state is supposed to be, do you really want to see us ranked at 25 (per 2006-07 consideration)???

For those in other states, do you really want to see Texas being the one to influence your education system, when it's ranked at 25?!?!!??

http://www.morganquitno.com/edrank06.htm


Quietman_2009's photo
Sun 03/21/10 10:18 AM
I don't really care. I dont have kids. If I did, the schools out here are pretty good. They still have dress codes and rodeo teams and teach real history without liberal or conservative activists trying to indoctrinate our kids.

most folks here in Texas West think the folks in Austin are a bunch of city folk idjits and imported yankees claiming to be Texans and whining because Texas isn't more like California.

no photo
Sun 03/21/10 10:42 AM
What are the actual facts here? The text is inflammatory, derisive, and obviously exaggerated to such an extreme as to be worthless in an effort towards objective understanding. I suppose it makes for a fun read for people who agree with the author and enjoy the derision.

It says the books are wanting to be changed saying the Native Americans were happy to give up their land (one of the examples), and let us take over.


Well, so the sfgate article says. I'd like to see the text in the actual books before believing this.

The whole pro-texas and anti-texas exchange seems silly to me. Texas is *huge*; as Quietman points out, it contains widely divergent subcultures.


metalwing's photo
Sun 03/21/10 11:07 AM

What are the actual facts here? The text is inflammatory, derisive, and obviously exaggerated to such an extreme as to be worthless in an effort towards objective understanding. I suppose it makes for a fun read for people who agree with the author and enjoy the derision.

It says the books are wanting to be changed saying the Native Americans were happy to give up their land (one of the examples), and let us take over.


Well, so the sfgate article says. I'd like to see the text in the actual books before believing this.

The whole pro-texas and anti-texas exchange seems silly to me. Texas is *huge*; as Quietman points out, it contains widely divergent subcultures.




The writer of the article freely admits that it is grossly exaggerated and is obviously satire. He also admits that he doesn't really know what the actual proposed changes are. His main point, IMO, is that Texas is influencing much of the rest of the US by having a large purchase contract with the book publishers. This event has been going on since I was a child about every four years. Minor changes create news and controversy and get lots of publicity in Texas.

The problem with the school system in Texas (as told to me by my teacher buddies) is the lack of disciple in the schools, not the material taught. Children misbehave and get away with it on a regular basis in the large cities but not in the small towns. Only a small amount of the books actually get taught.

Quiet is right, Austin is not viewed well by most of rural Texas and the Austin attitudes do not represent the state as a whole. Some think Texas should be more like California while most don't understand why California doesn't want to be more like Texas.

The education received by most rural Texans is vastly superior to that received by inner city schools and the stats are slanted because of it.

msharmony's photo
Sun 03/21/10 11:30 AM
I Dont know enough about Texas to compliment or belittle it and still not sure why it was singled out here. I just wanted to make a point though, in response to the post about producers.......

Dear sir we are ALL producers and consumers(producers earn money so they can SPEND it and consumers have to have PRODUCED in order to earn money to consume) ,, as long as we have a job. The difference is in the monetary VALUE given to some producers over others....which is a sad thing in my opinion.