alt.education

Egregious errors in civic text
http://www.taaonline.net/news/index.html


Center for Inquiry raises concerns over errors in civics textbook

The Center for Inquiry (CFI), an international think tank promoting science
and secularism, released a 25-page report today detailing what it calls
"egregious errors" sufficient enough to warrant "immediate correction," in
a widely used civics textbook found in many secondary schools around the
country, including advanced placement courses.

CFI believes that the textbook American Government: Institutions and
Policies, 10th edition, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006) contains
inaccurate and misleading statements, in particular in its analysis of
global warming and certain constitutional law issues. In response, CFI's
legal experts have analyzed the textbook and prepared a critique that sets
forth recommended changes.

Derek Araujo, a lawyer and executive director for CFI's New York office,
spearheaded the textbook review project. Araujo stated that he was
"surprised and dismayed that a textbook used in advanced placement courses
would contain clearly erroneous statements about significant issues, such
as global warming and school prayer." Araujo recruited leading scientists,
including Stuart D. Jordan from NASA, to provide their assessment of the
book's treatment of global warming.

CFI's critique focuses on six areas: the science of global warming; the
legality of school prayer; the significance of the Supreme Court's decision
in Lawrence v. Texas; the alleged influence of the religious concept of
"original sin" on the structure of the Constitution; the meaning of the
Establishment Clause; and the significance of the Supreme Court's decision
not to hear a case (what lawyers refer to as the denial of a writ of
certiorari).

Ronald A. Lindsay, CFI's general counsel, characterized the errors as
"significant and inexcusable. For a civics textbook to state—as this book
does—that the Supreme Court will not allow students to pray in schools
betrays either a serious misunderstanding of the law or a willingness to
have the textbook serve as a propaganda vehicle for the Religious Right."

CFI maintains that it is very important for civics students to obtain
accurate information about our Constitution, our legal system and public
policy issues, and that instructional material should be objective and free
of ideological bias.

The textbook critique was researched and written by Araujo, Lindsay, and
Jordan. A downloadable PDF copy of the full report is available online:
Click here
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/uploads/attachments/CFI_Textbook_Critique.pdf

***************************************************************
You are invited to check out the following:

The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm

American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm

The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html

[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]

HRSepCnS · Historical Reality SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/

***************************************************************
. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
. . .
****************************************************************
USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote

"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"

That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.

It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.

*****************************************************************
THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
****************************************************************