alt.education

Thank you for ruining my day by bringing this to my attention.
For the record, the simple statement "A civics textbook
invokes 'Original Sin'" would have been enough for me.

The sad thing is that the textbook authors are too stupid
to even understand the irony of the phrase "lead the
students in voluntary prayer".

-jc


On Apr 13, 4:53 am, buckeye wrote:
> Egregious errors in civic texthttp://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 scienc=
e
> 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 decisio=
n
> 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 fre=
e
> 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 herehttp://www.centerforinquiry.net/uploads/attachments/CFI_Textbook=
_Crit...
>
> ***************************************************************
> You are invited to check out the following:
>
> The Rise of the Theocratic States of Americahttp://members.tripod.com/~can=
dst/theocracy.htm
>
> American Theocrats - Past and Presenthttp://members.tripod.com/~candst/the=
ocrats.htm
>
> The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and Statehttp://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 =B7 Historical Reality SepChurch&Statehttp://groups.yahoo.com/gro=
up/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
> ***************************************************************