More Thoughts About What Was Wrought in Texas

Many thanks to those of you who dropped me a line or posted comments on the blog in response to last week's post. I'm glad I'm not alone wringing my hands about all the ways in which Christian-Right politicians are dictating the educational content presented in textbooks nationwide. Last week, the Texas Board of Education voted along predictable lines. The press responded with outrage. By week's end, there was a piece in The New York Times, and an even more comprehensive one in The Huffington Post.

I do have great trust in this country and in the self-correcting powers of a market-driven economy. These textbooks have now gotten so much front page attention and such a bad rap, it is hard to imagine that the best public school systems in the country will continue to buy these products. The same applies to the top private schools. They will take their business somewhere else.

It seems sometimes that with every minute that passes this country moves toward greater and greater class divisions. The dirty little secret about the U.S. is that for all its talk of equality and equal opportunity, it is sharply divided into socio-educational classes. The largest corporations and financial institutions, as well as the best graduate and professional schools in the country, recruit primarily at first tier colleges. Except for legacy admissions, the only way to get into those colleges is by being able to demonstrate that one has the potential to perform rigorous analytic thinking. Textbooks that focus on belief and not on facts, and that have been thoroughly discredited by experts, only limit the opportunities of those unlucky enough to learn from them, hardening these divisions even further.