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FLORIDA DEPT. OF EDUCATION ADOPTED NEW TEXTBOOKS ELIMINATING U.S. HISTORY PRIOR TO CIVIL WAR
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FLORIDA DEPT. OF EDUCATION ADOPTED NEW TEXTBOOKS ELIMINATING U.S. HISTORY PRIOR TO CIVIL WAR FOR GRADES 9-12
3/09/11
As the Texas Dept. of Education attempted, the Florida Dept. of Education is reported to have now succeeded in adopting History textbooks for grades 9 through 12 that include no instruction related to this country from the time of its settling, its Revolutionary War, its Declaration of Independence, its Constitutional Convention, its adoption of a Constitution which established a constitutional republic, its codifying of common law into the U.S. Code, or any other historic events prior to the Civil War. This omits all history of our founding fathers and the fact that this nation was founded on Christian principles.
Most people don't presently know that early colleges established in this country, such as Harvard, were founded to train young men for the ministry. And most people don't know that much of the American textbook publishing industry was bought out/taken over as much as ten years ago by two British conglomerates, Thomson and Pearson. There are four or less U.S. textbook publishing companies/manufacturers left in this county. They have been either bought out and shut down to eliminate competition or bought and continued to be operated under the same company names with offices still in the U.S., often with School Districts all over the country not knowing that ownership was no longer American or that content of the textbooks was undergoing subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, changes that have now become more bold in attempts to re-write American history. And today we learn that, in Florida, we now have this astonishing and unacceptable omitting of an entire and most important part of America's early history in high school textbooks.
It is difficult to believe that this has happened in Florida, under the radar and right under our noses, and we didn't learn of it when the FLDOE Textbook Adoption Committee sat as a formal committee, in early Fall of 2010, to allow publishers representatives to present and defend their new textbook programs before the Committee for their approval. Following approval by the Committee, the books were then placed on the state-adopted list, included in the School Textbook Depository's Catalogs, and allowed to be sold to public school districts throughout the State of Florida, as well as private schools in the state. School districts' Social Sciences and Humanities Administrators, department chairs, and textbook committees in the schools are part of the school district level adoption of textbooks. They have had their complete samples of those new textbook programs (textbooks, instructors' manuals, workbooks, compact disks, video-cassettes, audio cassettes) since right after the the FLDOE Textbook Adoption Committee approved them. All had access to the new textbooks prior to the FLDOE textbook adoptions, so they would have plenty of time to review them. Also, publishers representatives had, since adoption of the textbooks for the state-adopted lists, been holding workshops, seminars, conferences, trade shows and dinners for subject area administrators, department chairs, and teachers for further opportunities to fully explain, demonstrate and sell their textbook programs to as many school districts as possible. But, where were the parents of the school students who will be using those textbooks?
It is important that we learn whether parents were included in the review process, since this is such a dramatic and revolutionary change in the content of what is to be taught to Florida's students in their history classes. There has to be a more open process in the school textbook adoptions, with students' parents and the rest of the public having access to those textbooks well before they are adopted for use in the public schools that are paid for by Florida taxpayers.
There was a special program on "60 Minutes" about 9 or 10 years ago about the factual errors in public school textbooks in this country, which specifically mentioned Prentice-Hall, a well-known textbook publishing company in the U.S. Prentice-Hall was an American textbook publisher that had, before that time, already been bought by a British conglomerate but was---and, I believe, still is---operating and publishing their textbooks under their name and still has a corporate office located in the U.S. Most teachers don't know they are not still an American company. And, as in many other industries, wealth is transferred out of the U.S. economy to other countries through their sales to public school districts all over this country, as well as sales to some private schools/school systems. This is true also on the college level.
These textbook adoptions by entire school districts, and there is one school district in each of the 67 counties in the State of Florida, can bring in huge amounts of money to the publishers who get the district contracts for the textbooks, depending on the size of the school district and its student population who will be using those textbooks.
There is no need or excuse for the public and parents to be kept in the dark about the textbook adoptions process in any subject area taught that requires a textbook. And there is no reason why all textbooks up for adoption, which would include the ones ultimately adopted, cannot be put online for public review a reasonable amount of time in advance of the formal adoption process. Looks as if we will be needing public watchdog groups to review the textbooks, the entire adoptions process, and demand a seat at the table in the decision-making process. We need get this ridiculous statist decision reversed and take back the educational process in Florida from the liberals who have hijacked it and turned it into a social and politically-controlled experiment that is dumbing down the educational level of American students in public schools and undermining our history, culture, morals, ethics, traditions, and basic values. Reversing all the damage already done and taking back our schools must be one of our highest priorities.
J. R. Cottingham
Reference:
A Coalition of Florida Tea Party and 9/12 Groups are back in Tallahassee Thursday March 10, 2011 to make sure our voices are heard this first week of the legislative session!
Did you know that the Florida Board of Education has approved a curriculum that would NOT teach any American History prior to the Civil War for grades 9-12?
That means: NO American Revolution, NO Founding Fathers, NO Declaration of Independence, NO Constitution! This is outrageous!
There will be a special press conference at 3:00 PM organized by the Florida Textbook Action Team and ACT! for America to DEMAND our lawmakers make certain our kids learn the complete, awesome history of America!
Press_conference_text_book_FDOE.txt
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Comment
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Comment by J.R. on March 11, 2011 at 10:38pm
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Eric, it never occurred to me that you were correcting my post. But, if I miss-state or misrepresent anything, I want to be corrected so I can make it right. And, you're correct, American Government is, and necessarily must be, a separate course, even though much of it is taught in a historical framework, beginning with the Constitution that is the foundation of all of it. Preliminary to the American Government course is Civics, which is usually taught in 9th grade. The inaccuracies and misrepesentations in textbooks should be of concern to all of us, because they are not there by chance, they are there by design. This is where our history is being re-written, little by little over time... sort of a drip... drip... drip... re-writing of it, along with the drip... drip... drip... of indoctrination about the environment and green energy... and the instilling of the idea that competition is a bad thing and nobody's feelings should be hurt by receiving a bad grade they earned. I'm sure you get my drift. The social laboratory that is the school students attend is no longer designed to provide them with a solid education in the basics upon which they can proceed to further inquiry and a well-rounded education. That doesn't feed the needs of a socialist society and government. The truth as we know it doesn't enter into the picture. Until we are able to turn around the direction the K-12 education system has taken since the late 1960's, we have no choice but to correct every inaccuracy we see. What worries me is the inaccuracies we never see and cannot correct. It's so great that you are a father who is deeply concerned about the education your children are receiving. In my years of teaching, I was lucky enough to meet many parents like you. Unfortunately, the majority of parents I never heard from unless I contacted them. Other than doing away with the U.S. Dept. of Education and providing vouchers for school choice, I don't see a solution to the problem. Should that come about, it would at least eliminate the avaricious labor unions and the liberal progressives who, together, are totally destroying the American education system.
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Comment by Eric Ingram on March 11, 2011 at 8:42pm
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Hi J.R.,
When I said that "it" was "partially corrected" I meant the issue, not your post. I just didn't want you to think that It was my intention to contradict you on this. As far as the re-arrangement of the curriculum is concerned, I agree with you completely. If early American history is combined with American Government, then there will not be ample time to cover the necessary material. In college, U.S. History is broken across two semesters before 1877 and after. American Government is a separate course entirely and in my opinion this division of the curriculum gives ample time for a functional working knowledge of both subjects. This also represents 135 hours of classroom instruction. Much less than that and you have to start cutting corners. The misrepresentations and inaccuracies which exist in the texts concern me even more. Short of supplementary instruction at home I haven't come up with a suitable solution for my children. After a bit it becomes tiresome having to tell them not to believe everything they read. In my opinion, children shouldn't have to parse the credibility of their teachers and textbooks.
regards,
Eric
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Correction: Precedent setting court case corrected to read "Marbury vs. Madison."
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Thanks for your comment, Eric. As a former teacher of American Government to advance-placement seniors in high school, I can say that we first taught the U.S. Constitution and all Amendments, as well as the major precedent-setting early court cases like Marbury vs. Maryland, Plessy vs. Ferguson, and the later Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. Other than the Constitution and early court cases, our textbook covered very little of the early history of the founding and development of this country. On the high school level, all of that has traditionally been taught in high school American History classes as a discrete subject, usually in eleventh grade. So, teaching that in government classes would be redundant and take away from teaching students about the lawful roles and functions of various areas of state and federal government they need to know in order to become productive citizens in society and within those levels of government. This way, they learn what all levels of government are supposed to and how to tell if their government isn't functioning properly according to its required role(s).
I also used this course to teach my students how to do research and write research papers I required they write on various government topics so they would be well-prepared to do so in college.
I'd like to have a copy of the new approved American Government textbook to review it myself. Seems to me, if they included American History in that same textbook, beyond what I mentioned above, that wouldn't leave enough time to teach both American History and American Government and do justice to either.
I might note, also, that Gov. Scott came out first on the wrong side of high-speed rail, but later corrected that position. Maybe his training wheels aren't quite all the way off yet. But we love and support him and won't hold that against him.
Further, from having worked for two years in 41 FL counties for a national school textbook publisher that publishes social studies books, among books in many other subject areas, I know a good bit about what's in them and have been through the entire textbook adoptions process, including being the publishers rep to the FLDOE, assisting with presenting and defending textbooks before the FLDOE Textbook Adoptions Committee, and working with the FL School Textbook Depository that is here in Jacksonville regarding inclusion and placement of our approved textbooks in their catalogs, an so on.
I admire your efforts in researching this and hope you will continue to do so and keep me informed. And, if this early information that's been published is incorrect, I will be the first to rejoice and let everyone know.
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I am including in this post a response I received from Governor Scott's office regarding curriculum changes. While the changes in the textbooks I still find somewhat objectionable, it would seem that this is partially corrected. message continues below:
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Dear Mr. Ingram:
Governor Rick Scott has asked our office to respond to your correspondence regarding American history in Florida’s schools. We would like to thank you on behalf of the Governor and assure you that he appreciates your interest and commitment to educational excellence.
The following courses, based on Florida’s Next Generation Sunshine State Standards for Social Studies were approved in March of 2010 by the State Board of Education.
For High School:
United States Government - http://www.floridastandards.org/Courses/PublicPreviewCourse633.aspx
United States Government Honors - http://www.floridastandards.org/Courses/PublicPreviewCourse634.aspx
Economics - http://www.floridastandards.org/Courses/PublicPreviewCourse575.aspx
Economics Honors - http://www.floridastandards.org/Courses/PublicPreviewCourse577.aspx
United States History - http://www.floridastandards.org/Courses/PublicPreviewCourse1723.aspx
United States History Honors - http://www.floridastandards.org/Courses/PublicPreviewCourse590.aspx
World History - http://www.floridastandards.org/Courses/PublicPreviewCourse662.aspx
World History Honors - http://www.floridastandards.org/Courses/PublicPreviewCourse663.aspx
While the present United States History standards timeline does begin with the Reconstruction period, it might be helpful for you to know that the United States Government course does address the Founding Fathers, the founding period in United States History, and a study of the important documents of this period. This course is required instruction for high school students in Florida.
We hope this response has been helpful. If the Bureau of Curriculum & Instruction can be of further assistance, please feel free to contact
Ann Whitney, Director of Humanities at (850) 245-9965 or by email at Ann.Whitney@fldoe.org.
Sincerely,
Teresa Sweet, Chief
Bureau of Curriculum & Instruction
TS/aw/s
*******************************************************************************
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Eric
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Patricia, I totally agree. The decline in our education system began with establishment of the U.S. Dept. of Education during a Democrat administration and it's gone steadily downhill ever since. Sovereign states did a much better job on their own educating our children, when they had no monolithic federal bureaucracy pushing a cookie-cutter, one best way mentality on the entire system and using grants with mandated strings attached that obgligated the states to do things their way to get the money. Just look at the failed educational systems of Cuba the old Soviet Union, where indoctrination and mind control have produced wholesale groupthink. There's a better way and it will take a massive effort to reverse the damage that's already been done. A negative collective effort got us to this point; a positive one can return us to quality education. Enter, Tea Party, stage right...
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Comment by Patricia M. McBride on March 11, 2011 at 5:33am
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This has to be reversed. If young people lose any sense of their history, we will be ripe for people like Obama to succeed in turning us into a socialist nightmare. In fact, one course on the constitution I found tries to paint the constitution as exactly what it isn't, a document that provides the rules for providing all to all. These unions, led by their avowed communist leaders, must be broken and teachers who either can't or won't teach children the truth about our country and everything else, must be gotten rid of.
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As I have said before, if the educational system has become this broken, it is time to DEFUND IT! We have been throwing more and more money at the "system" to "fix" it for far too long. It is time to stand up to the union thugs and fix the problem. This means FCAT testing to ensure standards, merit pay raises, and dismissal for non performance. Better yet, I favor a voucher system where I can send my children to schools which teach values consistent with mine and the teachers waiving around signs citing values consistent with Marx and Engels can drive to Key West then swim to Havana to teach school! Enough is enough!
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