When you find out that there are millions of people who are being taught that fictitious characters were instrumental to the creation of the United States Of America as a sovereign nation, it doesn't take a strong leap of the imagination to see how the events that took over Washington D.C. in early 2021 (along with permeating the capitols of every state in the union), could come to fruition.
But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. Let's start back at birth ...
Written By: Anton Sawyer
In an attempt to maintain complete transparency, all research and statistical fact-checking for this article, and all articles, can be found at our site's bibliography linked here.
Consider supporting our mission on Patreon
Whether family, faith, or schooling, all of these elements impact who we are, what we are, and our ultimate perceptions towards the world. As we grow, we gain more experience and perspective. But, as a species, we also have a tendency to think that the way we were raised is pretty much on par with how everyone else is. It's this character flaw that has helped such a fact-free world some of us live in to proliferate.
Growing up, I assumed everyone was being taught the same things I was. It seemed that concepts like two plus two equals four were universal. That in 1492 Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue. From science to civics, as the years progressed, I assumed that everyone (in America at least) was all on the same page. Considering that not only in my city but also my fellow school-aged friends and family out of state, were all learning from McGraw-Hill textbooks. Sure the colors might have been different, but I just thought that was aesthetics.
I was wrong.
After having watched the monumental, and completely violent, displays of a large group of my fellow Americans recently, I wanted to go to the roots. See what ideals, philosophies, and academia are being lectured upon in our classrooms across this country. See exactly what is being told to the most impressionable of our citizens.
If you value science, logic, and reasoning, then be prepared for results that are ... less than delightful.
Of course, we have seen the arguments over the last decade about businesses being allowed to refuse service to people because of a religious belief. So we know that in the home there are going to be those that are insulated from any challenges to their fortress of faith. We also know that 70% of people tend to politically lean towards what their parents do. This means that in the home, the family unit is going to be the primary force creating the mental and emotional structure of a person.
But what about the respite towards outside influence that is school?
The place where facts, statistics, and figures reign supreme?
Though I've written before about the US educational system and its place in the world, I found that a big reason for these dips is in the content of what's being taught.
Since the beginning of the century, most presidents have tried to implement some kind of nation-wide educational program to get the US back in the top ranks of the world. President George W. Bush had "No Child Left Behind," and President Obama had "Common Core." Both plans were an attempt to standardize the curriculum in America from coast to coast. The theory is that if someone from North Carolina moves to Nevada, the same information is being taught to all, therefore the child who's moving would be able to transition smoothly. Though there are federal oversights to education, to this day a lot of the minutia towards funding, textbooks, supplies all fall to the state-level.
Whether from state politicians to those in Washington, both of these pieces of legislation were met with opposition from both sides for one reason or another. Whether it was funding, logistics, the implementation, etc. neither one was met with sweeping fanfare.
Now, I'm not saying that either one of those programs was excellent. I was never in full support of either. But when looking at how vastly different the curriculum is, you will agree that something must be done.
I wanted to look mostly at a state that not only had some of the most controversial textbook notoriety over the last 10 years, but also some that had millions of students that would be impacted if the system remains.
In 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, Texas textbooks have all come under fire for various reasons. Most of which are due to infractions between shading history inaccurately, to flat-out lies. Keep in mind that per Josh Rosenau, programs and policy director for the National Center for Science Education, this isn't just happening in Texas.
The issue comes down to the publishers and distributors.
Texas and Louisiana, for example, both get their textbooks from McGraw-Hill. However, when you dig a little deeper, you find that the books are actually being published by Bob Jones University Press and A Beka Press—both of which are Christian educational institutions.
When examining what they teach, it is no wonder that Texas has had so many controversies over the textbooks spanning the last decade. In one instance, Emile Lester, a political scientist at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia, took two months to review seven U.S. government textbooks intended for 12th-grade classrooms. He found a score of inaccuracies in five of those books, including passages that suggested the Ten Commandments had an influence on the writing of the U.S. Constitution and that Moses was a democratic leader who influenced the Founding Fathers. "These textbooks were teaching pretty much the opposite of the truth," Lester said. "You would hope publishers felt their main allegiance be to the education of students, but it was quite obvious that their main goal was to appease members of the State Board of Educators."
Dan Quinn, of the non-profit Texas Freedom Network, has said that since the controversy began, "Some of the publishers have corrected the passages in question, while others have not." McGraw-Hill confirmed to the Texas Freedom Network that it will remove a lesson from one of its books that questioned the role human activity has played in climate change, according to a press release by the advocacy group. Other executives had previously agreed to revise some of the lessons in their textbooks.
When you realize that millions of adults were once children and were raised in their schools to be taught that Moses was a democratic leader or any number of proven falsifications, it should chill you to the core.
As a nation, we have instilled into our younger generations to trust their teachers. That their teachers are telling them facts, the truth.
So when you have someone who may not even be from a religious background, someone who may never have stepped into a church before, being told in history that Moses, Jesus, and all of that is not only real but impacted our nation in such a profound way ... you get people that can be manipulated.
Keep in mind too, this is all in Texas and Louisiana that we are sure of. I don't doubt there are thousands of school districts nationwide teaching the same "facts" floating under the radar.
We've seen the pictures.
We've seen the videos.
We've also seen a ton of news talking heads ask repeatedly how this kind of an insurrection could happen in the nation's capitol?
How could these people go along with such a heinous act?
Everything I have written above has just answered your question.
Follow us on Twitter
Consider supporting our mission on Patreon