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Please Stand for Accurate, Unbiased Texts by Attending January 15th Charlotte County Textbook Challenge Committee
January, 2015IF YOU ARE IN THE CHARLOTTE AREA, PLEASE ATTEND THE TEXTBOOK REVIEW COMMITTEE MEETING ON JANUARY 15TH AT 4 PM AT THE CHARLOTTE COUNTY DISTRICT HEADQUARTERS. YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SPEAK BUT YOU CAN SHOW SUPPORT FOR ACCURATE, UNBIASED TEACHING FOR OUR STUDENTS. THE MEETING IS LOCATED AT:
Charlotte County School Board meeting room at: Murdock Administration Building 1445 Education Way, Port Charlotte, FL 33948 (2-story building on corner of Education Way and Murdock Circle, across from the Town Center Mall, Port Charlotte. Go in main entrance, make right, and enter room #107.)
Kudos to Tina Lawler and other members of the ACT! for America textbook review committee for their hard work in exposing religious bias in the World History textbooks in Charlotte County. As happened in Marion, Volusia, Broward and others, this is becoming a major problem. These parents and concerned citizens are using to the best they can the opportunity afforded by SB 864 that passed last year to review the materials and may be one of the first in the state to formally follow the process set by that law.
Their summary report is available HERE with just one example:
In the Prentice Hall text [World History - Connections to Today], the roots of Judaism are covered in three pages of one section in Chapter 2, entitled, "First Civilizations". Hinduism and Buddhism are contained in two pages and three pages respectively a single section in Chapter 4, entitled, "Empires of India and China. Christianity is presented in a single five page section of Chapter 6, entitled "Ancient Rome and the Rise of Christianity". However, the authors devoted an entire chapter to Islam, entitled, "The Muslim World", containing five separate sections and consisting of 19 pages of instruction.
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Here are the conclusion and recomendations:
Conclusion: The textbooks examined by our members demonstrated the same patterns of omissions, errors and bias as found by the investigators from ACT! for America Education, Inc. Additionally, the quantity and specificity of the information presented varied widely between the religions, with the religion of Islam being presented in a much more voluminous and deliberate manner.
Recommendation: That the members of the Charlotte County School Board accomplish the following:
1. State for the record that no special recognition in the teaching of history should be accorded any religion to the detriment of other faiths.
2. Appoint a committee of community volunteers consisting, at a minimum, of parents, clergy and educators tasked to review the contents of any textbooks used within the county where the subject of religion is an integral part of the teaching process. The work of this committee should be transparent and open to all citizens to observe the proceedings.
3. Require the committee to report to the school board in an open meeting the results, conclusions and recommendations of its review.
4. Upon review of the committee's report, suspend from use within the Charlotte County Public School District all textbooks that demonstrate significant errors, omissions, bias or a lack of appropriate balance in regard to volume or specificity in the treatment of any religion.
5. Notify the authors/publishers of the textbooks suspended, the action taken by the Board, and request they produce textbooks that more closely meet the stringent requirements of the Charlotte County Public School District.
Let us see if this new law truly affords the parental rights it was intended to do before being put through the legislative mill in Tallahassee.
