I love a world controlled by extremists.

Its not like the kids are going to remember any of this anyway but I bet they remember who won American Idol 3 years ago.

While that's probably true (I would say they probably don't even remember who won AI 3 years ago), it's still a rather scary evolution. They're trying to turn (foundation of) the US in what it never was: a state built out of Christian ideals where state and church intermingle. I would think that anyone who feels strongly about maintaining the 2nd amendement would also be very worried about this.

I'm concerned, but the reality is that what we're being taught when I was a kid is inaccurate as well. Every generation rewrites history in their image. Not to say I'm not opposed to what the Texas board of education is doing, it's just that they're really not the first. What humanity needs is a shaperate... some 3rd party (or several) that keep the world's history. Preferably group(s) that have no interest in altering it to suit their needs.

The real story here is not that Texas is changing history, its that Texas is the biggest purchaser of textbooks therefore they have the ability to chage what they want. This was not the case when California was the biggest and could push a more liberal history. Since Cali is now so deep in debt they are cutting back on their textbooks. My concern is history is able to be changed by the one who buys the most books. Why is this like this?

I agree. I'm not a big fan of government, but perhaps there needs to be some sort of federal oversight of this kind of thing. Education is crucial... it's unfortunate that money can warp that like money warps everything else in the world. I'm surprised we don't have mega-corps changing history to breed a better factory worker.

lol well havent your heard? Why else do you think school kids sit in rows and schools use a bell to signal when class it over or begining? Factory worker brainwashed indeed!

Also, the things Texas is changing is not "technically" changing history. They look like mostly pieces of history that are up to intepretation rather than factual change. Its not like they are changing Presidents or who Hilter was. Those are facts. Adding postive light to McCarthy? That a matter of perspective. I have no idea what it says about McCarthy now? I dont ever remember talking about McCarthy in school. Maybe it says he was a baby killing KKK member and they want to take out that he killed babies. Idk.

I'm pretty sure it won't have been some outrageous claim like that. And McCarthy is/was a scumbag of epic proportions, a nazi in his own right. It'd be hard to say much positive about him or his role in history. As for 'interpretation' of historical fact, i wouldn't know how anyone could think that religion and religious principles were at the basis of the French (and thus American) revolution or indeed played a major role.

If you guys can't see much wrong with this crap than something is wrong. Yes, history is interpreted/written by the 'victor', but this a societal twist to totalitarianism and extremism, not interpretation. Like the (wrongly, too) scratching of the children's book because the author wrote a book on marxism - wtf. There were many great minds involved and/or sympathetic to the nazi regime in WWII, but that doesn't mean we should or did stop reading their work or appeciating their art, does it? Clearly, someone like McCarthy shouldn't be scratched from the historical records entirely, and any positive contributions he delivered to the state in his political career are still what they are. But you'd be hard-pressed to say that he was a positive role model overall.

And cutting Thomas Jefferson (!) from a list of important figures in favor of religious figures because he was adamant about the seperation of church and state? That's not interpretation, that's selective history. I hardly think Calvin was more influential than Jefferson for history, especially from an American pov.

Well two things:
1) Its none of my business and;
2) Its still none of my business.

The truth always finds a way. The importance of such is like a teardrop in the ocean. Besides, the youth is too busy watching animal porn on the internetz so honestly do you think it makes a difference?

To be fair to Nietzsche, his links to Nazism come from his sister who executed his estate after his death. She was a dedicated Nazi. Nietzsche himself however cancelled his friendship with Wagner when Wagner became openly anti-Semitic. There's also little (if any) in his own work that can be convincingly linked to Nazism (for example, the word übermensch may have been used by the Nazis, but the underlying concepts differ like day and night).

oh no, I agree. Nietzsche was not a Nazi or anti-semite. The few things in his works that people used as evidence of his antisemitism were taken out of context. However, as you mentioned, his sister managed to twist his works in favor of the Nazis, who exploited his whole concept of the ubermensch to their own ends. As a result of that, many people associated Nietzsche with Nazism. This had an effect on how people interpreted his ideas.

At any rate, I'm not disagreeing with you, Oxy-Poo. I think this is a problem. However, there's not a damned thing I can do about it, not without going vigilante and hunting these people down to put an end to their pathetic little lives. Which, I'm afraid, I'm not going to do. On the other hand, it's not like the schools I went to didn't teach their own special little things, but I was smart enough to step outside their little paradigms and come to my own conclusions.

I hate when schools teach their ideas of history, but then again I think that is part of where being a parent you should be keeping up with what your child is doing in school and supplement those teachings. The school plays a large role in the education of your child but anyone who is willing to turn their children over to them for the full education should be shot. While not always the case, those who cannot do teach. (Obviously not all some people really do want to teach!)

History has always been written by the victors, so you should always look at history with a grain of salt, but that does not mean you can not piece together the underlining feelings of the population of both sides.