What's our most precious resource? Is it oil? Precious metals? Agriculture? Pristine wilderness? To some degree, all of the aforementioned is true.
However, there is one resource we take for granted - the children. Our children are our most precious resource. Every teacher, professor and politician in the land agrees to that. Second only to mom and dad, the educators mold and shape the minds of our children. However, our educators and politicians don't agree on what should be taught in the history curriculum at the elementary, secondary and tertiary levels.
Case in point: during my research into the history textbooks being used by the Tempe Union High School District, I learned that Marcos de Niza and McClintock high schools are using a history text titled World History: Patterns of Interaction.
Why is that important? Don't all history textbooks present American history in an accurate and favorable way? Don't they all teach of the unique and exemplary character of the freedoms and liberties prescribed in the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution? In a word: "no."
Among other things, the textbook in question gives preference to the Muslim religion. The authors "incriminate most major Western things (e.g., European feudalism, Christian conquest, British and French imperialism, European slavery) while omitting, minimizing or distorting similar unpalatable truths about non-Western things (e.g., Asian feudalism, Islamic conquest, Non-Western imperialism, African and Islamic slave trading)." This quotation is from a white paper titled A Case Study in Islamic Apologetics in American Public Education, published by Dr. Terri K. Wonder, April 30, 2010. The tract can be found at http://www.redcounty.com
For your own amazement, you may want to print a copy to read at your leisure. It'll change your outlook on history textbooks and the indoctrination system. Pardon me, I meant the education system.
Since your school boards control the textbooks which are used, you should get know them very well.
Don Kennedy is graduate of Dartmouth College with a degree in sociology. He has been a resident of Ahwatukee Foothills since 2002.
