You thought Texas was bad?

[SlowwHand]

At the time I was in high school, Richardson schools were in the top 10% in the nation. A lot of people here are guided by westerns and ignorance.

[Ben Kenobi]

At the time I was in high school, Richardson schools were in the top 10% in the nation. A lot of people here are guided by westerns and ignorance.

Wasn't the score at one point,

Men landed on the moon:

Texans 3 - entire rest of the world 5?

[SlowwHand]

Here being ACS, not Texas. I just wanted to be clear on that point.

[giblets]

Wasn't the score at one point,

Men landed on the moon:

Texans 3 - entire rest of the world 5?

Oh, you edited it.

[Ben Kenobi]

Oh, you edited it.

Yep,

Bean, (Apollo 12) 4th to walk,
Mitchell, (Apollo 14) 6th to walk,
Scott, (Apollo 15), 7th to walk.

San Antonio, Hereford and Wheeler TX.

So at one point, it was 3 of 7.

Not bad for a bunch of cowboy hicks.

[OzzyKP]

Pssh, astronauts are just cowboys in space, everyone knows that.

[regexcellent]

[Ben Kenobi]

Pssh, astronauts are just cowboys in space, everyone knows that.

Damn, I thought that would bring him back.

[kentonio]

The board of education there made changes to Texas textbooks (nothing involving evolution I don't think) and since Texas is such a large textbook market people were worried it'd affect textbooks nationwide.

The textbook revisions were somewhat political but I don't think they were arguing on the facts so much as the presentation.

Well that's a matter of perspective. Those on the left wailed about radical conservatives rewriting history.

Yes it was about Evolution amongst other things. Wiki Don McLeroy.

A creationist, McLeroy is known for his criticism of evolution and has tried to convince textbook publishers to demonstrate what he considers the weaknesses of the theory of evolution. The board can refuse to place materials it disagrees with on the state approved list. If school districts want textbooks not on the list, the districts must purchase such materials entirely from their own funds. The SBOE thus selects the textbooks for the entire state's 4.7 million schoolchildren, where in most other states this selection is made in individual school districts. As a result, it "has outsized influence over the reading material used in classrooms nationwide, since publishers craft their standard textbooks based on the specs of the biggest buyers."

[regexcellent]

We've already discussed the effect Texas has on textbook writing. The fact that some members on the board are creationist should not be at all surprising given what portion of the American populace is creationist. Consider the following:

1. The controversy was over history textbooks, not biology textbooks
2. The biology textbooks selected don't teach creationism or intelligent design.

[DaShi]

So teaching accurate history doesn't matter?

[giblets]

So teaching accurate history doesn't matter?

Well, obviously replacing Thomas Jefferson with John Calvin and Thomas Aquinas isn't an attempt to shove religion down people's throats.

[DaShi]

Just as long as we don't start saying Abe Lincoln was a vampire hunter. Everyone knows that was Stephen Douglas.

[Ben Kenobi]

So teaching accurate history doesn't matter?

How exactly does teaching evolution pertain to history?

[kentonio]

We've already discussed the effect Texas has on textbook writing. The fact that some members on the board are creationist should not be at all surprising given what portion of the American populace is creationist. Consider the following:

1. The controversy was over history textbooks, not biology textbooks
2. The biology textbooks selected don't teach creationism or intelligent design.

Given that a large part of the controversy was about McLeroy trying to get anti-evolution changes into textbooks, I'm not sure how you discussing it makes that any less true.