Virginia Textbook wrong.......

[Fujikoma]

Oh for the love of fucking Christ!! What kind of douche takes HIM out of a textbook?...

Welp, no longer sad about dropping out. High school history classes (at least, from my limited understanding) were flawed anyway.

I'll admit, I had to go over some quotations from Jefferson... I really need to get around to filling those gaps soon, while I have the resources. Still, while going over his quotes I noticed some themes about debt, bankers, inflation... Probably a coincidence, but possibly the beginning of another phase in a sinister project to enslave us all... And reading through one of these articles, it really upsets me that they're using the second amendment as an excuse, I mean, WHAT?...

I was just reading a wikipedia article on the Texas education system, where it briefly explained the concept of an independent school district... How can the whole state just say "Let's drop Jefferson!", if the school districts are independent? Did I misunderstand something? (likely, some of the typos confused me)

But yeah, like Jerry said, at least Virginia is looking at it... I should read the article, but I will do so after I get some sleep. Will search for more articles on the whole textbook thing tomorrow.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Oh for crapping out loud!

Well, at least Virginia cares that their textbooks are wrong. Unlike some other states. *cough*Texas*cough*

Just curious to know what has given Texas such a bad reputation (besides me, anyway). Links, please?

Google "texas".

fixed

[Adios]

This is now an unlimited Virginia Fail thread.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/01/04/exp.mxp.seisure.dog.school.wusa.hln?hpt=T2

School refuses to allow epilipsy sensing service dog in.

[AFK]

Isn't the Fourth amendment supposed to protect us from this kind of shit? 

[Adios]

Isn't the Fourth amendment supposed to protect us from this kind of shit? 

You are so last century.

[Suu]

This is now an unlimited Virginia Fail thread.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/01/04/exp.mxp.seisure.dog.school.wusa.hln?hpt=T2

School refuses to allow epilipsy sensing service dog in.

As important as I know those service animals are and how well-trained and focused they are, unless the kid goes to a remarkably well behaved school, typical kids may distract the dog from performing it's services. I'd kind of be worried about that. More for the safety of the epileptic student than anything else.

[Adios]

This is now an unlimited Virginia Fail thread.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/01/04/exp.mxp.seisure.dog.school.wusa.hln?hpt=T2

School refuses to allow epilipsy sensing service dog in.

As important as I know those service animals are and how well-trained and focused they are, unless the kid goes to a remarkably well behaved school, typical kids may distract the dog from performing it's services. I'd kind of be worried about that. More for the safety of the epileptic student than anything else.

Sure, lots better to let the kid have a grand maul in the classroom.

[Suu]

This is now an unlimited Virginia Fail thread.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/01/04/exp.mxp.seisure.dog.school.wusa.hln?hpt=T2

School refuses to allow epilipsy sensing service dog in.

As important as I know those service animals are and how well-trained and focused they are, unless the kid goes to a remarkably well behaved school, typical kids may distract the dog from performing it's services. I'd kind of be worried about that. More for the safety of the epileptic student than anything else.

Sure, lots better to let the kid have a grand maul in the classroom.

That's not what I'm saying, it's just an odd catch-22.

On one side of the story, this kid could have a severe seizure without the dog. On the other side, the other kids in the class could distract the dog from caring for the child. Either way, kid get's screwed.

[AFK]

Ain't life grand? 

[Adios]

Ain't life grand? 

Beats the alternative.

[AFK]

Most days, yes. 

[Phox]

Most days, yes. 

Indeed.

[Cramulus]

This is all very interesting.

First off, I couldn't see the video in the OP due to nannywall, but I found this article about it.

The author of the text defended her work by explaining she had conducted her research online, citing works published on the Internet by members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. According to The Post, the group dismisses the role that slavery played in the Civil War, instead characterizing it as battle over states' rights

this is why textbook publishers hire fact checkers to verify this stuff! Right now there is a stack of 300 pages of reprint corrections sitting on my desk. When you create something as large and dense as a textbook, you make a lot of mistakes. And then you have at least six editorial passes to catch all the mistakes. So either

(a) they were rushing the book out and did not fact check, in which case it's a bad publisher, or
(b) they were writing the book for a very specific market

The publisher, Five Ponds Press, is located in Connecticut. This probably means that the editorial staff is a bunch of very liberal ex-school teachers who resent writing for a conservative market. (30 miles south, that's exactly what the editorial staff at my company looks like, as well as most educational publishers actually)

When you create a textbook, the main guiding framework is the state's education standards. Some states have education standards which dictate what facts the children learn, and when. Sometimes these standards conflict - maybe Florida thinks kids should learn about the water cycle in 4th grade and California thinks they should learn about it in 2nd grade. This forces publishers to prioritize facts based on which states have the biggest education budget. - At my company we have to do this all the time. Our books don't cover any controversial topics like Evolution, Halloween, or the separation of church and state. This is so we can sell these books in as many states as possible.    /tangent

These books were made specifically for the Virginia state standards, which have asked publishers to treat the civil war (among other things) in a certain way. The editors chose facts that would resonate well with the state standards and the buyers at the schools. I'll tell you what this looks like: there's a big meeting at the publisher's office. The sales guy talks to the editorial director and all the editors and says "I've been hanging out at schools in Virginia all week. The buyers are very interested in how we handle the civil war. They don't want it to come out as a slavery issue because it makes Southern kids confused about where they should stand."

so these liberal connecticut editors grumble, and they go look up some "facts", but they probably don't really like those facts and don't dwell on them too much. The fact checker probably had the same sort of attitude and they pushed it forward because they knew that Virginia schools were going to love 'em.


and that's how state legislators actually make people stupid.

[Cramulus]

Oh for crapping out loud!

Well, at least Virginia cares that their textbooks are wrong. Unlike some other states. *cough*Texas*cough*

Just curious to know what has given Texas such a bad reputation (besides me, anyway). Links, please?

short answer:

Texas' state education standards are decided on by committee, not by academics. As such they are more prone to politicization and revisionism.

A related factor is that Texas has a gigantic education budget and is therefore a gigantic book market. Publishers want to sell their books in as many states as possible, so they try to make them "Texas Friendly". (in the ESL publish industry we sometimes refer to California Florida and Texas as "Caflexas", the giant conflicting set of state standards that we have to appease to sell our books in a national market) This means that the politicization present in Texas' textbooks affects other state markets.



more here: http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=24449.msg848074#msg848074


Texas is also one of the few states that passes resolutions about what their textbooks shouldn't discuss... which affects all of us too. See here: http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=26552.0

[Adios]

Cram, I find this more disturbing than you can imagine.