Tuesday, August 23, 2011

A "history" text that somehow missed Apollo

Seriously.

My 15-year-old brought home a textbook called America: Past and Present (8th edition, combined volume).
Apollo 11 does not get a mention. Seriously. One of the great events of the past millenium was judged unimportant. Even if I overlook the fact that what they do say about the space race is largely wrong (right down to the captions of the photographs), I can't believe this. The only mention at all is that JFK started a program which spent $25B to go to the moon. Even the name "Apollo" is absent.
The only modern technological/scientific issues treated in any depth at all are nuclear power (it's evil) and environmentalism.

You think only Texas has a textbook problem? What myopic moron approved a history textbook with gaping holes in history?

P.S. I'll bet you didn't know "the United States and Britain caused the Cold War" by not sharing all their nuclear information with Stalin. Wouldn't YOU trust a top-secret apocalyptic weapon to a mass-murdering dictator? (Never mind his spies were feeding home all the key information anyway.)

2 comments:

omegaman66 said...

Welcome to the rewriting of history. Liberal style. Not the first time and it won't be the last last. Makes you sick doesn't it... me too.

Pterosaur said...

History texts are a platform for individual political agendas. It helps to move the world in the direction of "preference". A bit like college syllabus choices. It is a source of amusement for those of us who are aware of the phemomenon. An overall balanced exposure will reduce the issue of bias.