Texas School Textbook Battle Heats Up Over Religion
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - The Texas Board of Education is deciding what will be in your child's school textbooks next year and a battle is brewing over some of those books in Austin.
The debate centers around whether dozens of proposed social studies, history, geography, and government textbooks have inappropriate references to religion.
Some say the books are skewed in favor of Christianity, including SMU Religious Studies instructor David Brockman.
Brockman was hired by GroupTexas Freedom Network, a religious freedom activist group, to review the books.
Brockman observed "a kind of subtle Christian tilt in the textbooks, where the textbooks would seem to assume that the students and the instructors were themselves Christian."
Other critics say the role of religion in American democracy is exaggerated in the texts. One book compares Moses to the founding fathers and setting up legal and moral systems for their people. Others say the Muslim faith is portrayed as violent.
One text reads: "The spread of international terrorism is an outgrowth of Islamic fundamentalism, which opposes western political and cultural influences and western ideology."
Parent Lawanda Williams says she knows how important the contents of school textbooks are to her middle school aged daughter.
"Of course, because the children here are our future. So we want them to have clarity in their education because if not, you're going to walk around confused," she said.
However, Williams says no matter how the debate turns out in Austin, she knows that education has to go beyond books.
"We look into it in depth. Sometimes there are things she doesn't understand, and if the book (don't) have a clear explanation, we go to the computer or I send a note out to the teacher or email or something," said Williams.
Other parents agree. "We look at it together, just to elaborate on what she's learning in school. Research, go to library, that type of thing. We don't solely rely on teachers because parents are teachers as well," said parent Jennifer Collins.
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