It will probably not surprise you to learn that getting anything done about textbooks is an uphill battle.
First of all, there was a huge stink about Round One of this whole thing, when they tried to take all the civil rights figures out of the books, and we got that more or less stopped. But now Barton is still at it, and the public is kind of over the whole issue. No one wants to care about it anymore. Teachers care, but unsurprisingly no one gives a fuck what we think. It's a lot easier to rally around "They're taking MLK out of the history books!" than "The ways in which they are teaching about MLK are creepy and racist!" because most people who actually care about education in Texas are, well, creepy and racist. We have tons of parents and school board members fighting to get prayer in and evolution out, so a lot of time is spent combatting those people.
Also, teachers are extremely fireable in Texas. We don't have tenure or union support or anything (I give you this gem for your perusal), so it's not easy to organize, especially in districts that are heavily conservative. So even if we did stage a boycott, it would probably be Austin, as you mentioned, and maybe a couple other cities, and nowhere else, and since textbooks are chosen at a state (not a local) level, it's fairly futile. I know a lot of people (myself included) who have written to our reps, but I don't know that that will have much effect.
I doubt the publishers can be pressured. Every liberal state or district in the union could stop buying their books, and they'd probably still make more money off Texas, so they're going to do what they're told, especially with the economy tanked.
Also, I would like to really impress upon you how incredibly terrible and irrelevant our textbooks already are. We are talking schools that haven't gotten new science textbooks in nearly a decade, schools that can't afford a textbook for every student, schools that don't allow kids to take their books home because they can't afford new ones if they lose them, etc. I know teachers who don't assign homework because they aren't allowed to send books home. Books that still endorse the Thanksgiving myth and talk about how African Americans are better off because of slavery. Not to mention that most educational research indicates that textbooks are pretty much the worst way to teach anything anyway. But anyway. My point is that, as horrible as what Barton is proposing will be, it is not as if he is adulterating a pure and unbiased source of information. He is heaping shit onto an already large pile of shit. Which is no reason not to fight it, obviously. I'm just saying that the textbook problem has become something most sensible people won't touch with a ten-foot pole, leaving us vulnerable to twits like Barton.
This all sounds very apathetic and defeatist on my part, I guess. I don't mean to say that nothing can be done. It's mostly that no one knows how to get anything done.
If you come across any action that can be taken, let me know, yeah? I will spread it around. But as it is, I'm honestly a bit lost as to what can be done.
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Date: 2010-01-08 12:59 am (UTC)First of all, there was a huge stink about Round One of this whole thing, when they tried to take all the civil rights figures out of the books, and we got that more or less stopped. But now Barton is still at it, and the public is kind of over the whole issue. No one wants to care about it anymore. Teachers care, but unsurprisingly no one gives a fuck what we think. It's a lot easier to rally around "They're taking MLK out of the history books!" than "The ways in which they are teaching about MLK are creepy and racist!" because most people who actually care about education in Texas are, well, creepy and racist. We have tons of parents and school board members fighting to get prayer in and evolution out, so a lot of time is spent combatting those people.
Also, teachers are extremely fireable in Texas. We don't have tenure or union support or anything (I give you this gem for your perusal), so it's not easy to organize, especially in districts that are heavily conservative. So even if we did stage a boycott, it would probably be Austin, as you mentioned, and maybe a couple other cities, and nowhere else, and since textbooks are chosen at a state (not a local) level, it's fairly futile. I know a lot of people (myself included) who have written to our reps, but I don't know that that will have much effect.
I doubt the publishers can be pressured. Every liberal state or district in the union could stop buying their books, and they'd probably still make more money off Texas, so they're going to do what they're told, especially with the economy tanked.
Also, I would like to really impress upon you how incredibly terrible and irrelevant our textbooks already are. We are talking schools that haven't gotten new science textbooks in nearly a decade, schools that can't afford a textbook for every student, schools that don't allow kids to take their books home because they can't afford new ones if they lose them, etc. I know teachers who don't assign homework because they aren't allowed to send books home. Books that still endorse the Thanksgiving myth and talk about how African Americans are better off because of slavery. Not to mention that most educational research indicates that textbooks are pretty much the worst way to teach anything anyway. But anyway. My point is that, as horrible as what Barton is proposing will be, it is not as if he is adulterating a pure and unbiased source of information. He is heaping shit onto an already large pile of shit. Which is no reason not to fight it, obviously. I'm just saying that the textbook problem has become something most sensible people won't touch with a ten-foot pole, leaving us vulnerable to twits like Barton.
This all sounds very apathetic and defeatist on my part, I guess. I don't mean to say that nothing can be done. It's mostly that no one knows how to get anything done.
More about the instructional materials adoption process here: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/textbooks/adoptprocess/
If you come across any action that can be taken, let me know, yeah? I will spread it around. But as it is, I'm honestly a bit lost as to what can be done.