A ridiculous chain email from a Tea Party nut claiming that the Irving School District in Texas was “indoctrinating children with Islam” led the school board to ask for a full investigation of the curriculum. The investigator found that the school was actually promoting Christianity, not Islam.
The director, Jan Moberly, said she hired a “very socially and fiscally conservative” former social studies teacher who “watches Glenn Beck on a regular basis” to seek out any Islamic bias in CSCOPE.
“I asked her to look for anything she would consider the least bit controversial,” Moberly told the board. That entailed reading through every textbook and cross referencing each religious reference with the CSCOPE guidelines.
Moberly’s presentation was accompanied by the fruits of her investigation: a 72-page handout listing every religious reference in the CSCOPE curriculum, from kindergarten to high school.
The upshot of the investigation:
- Christianity got twice as much attention in the curriculum as any other religion. Islam was a distant second.
- The Red Crescent and Boston Tea Party reference mentioned in the email were nowhere in CSCOPE’s curriculum, although they may have been in the past.
- If there was any Islamic bias in CSCOPE it was “bias against radical Islam.”
What a shock.
15 comments
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TGAP Dad
December 17, 2012 at 10:42 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hoi
TGAP Dad
December 17, 2012 at 10:43 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
(Oops. Typing too fast for meself again…)
Texas tea baggers: Hoist by their own petard!
davidct
December 17, 2012 at 10:54 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It would be nice if that illegal activity was ended. I doubt there is much chance of that. I am sure the board is satisfied that they are doing the right thing.
ArtK
December 17, 2012 at 10:58 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Sorry, but in the Teabagger world, nothing was disproved. The curriculum mentions Islam therefore it’s promoting Islam. Same thing with teaching about any Teabag-controversial topic like sex or communism (now there’s a combination for you!) Admitting that something exists is exactly the same as promoting it, in their world.
richardelguru
December 17, 2012 at 11:00 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I’ve actually seen people playing cricket in Irving: that must be suspicious enough for any teabagger!
Reginald Selkirk
December 17, 2012 at 11:11 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The Red Crescent is the equivalent of the Red Cross in Islamic countries – but the Red Cross is entirely secular. A lot of people don’t realize this because of the cross logo.
eric
December 17, 2012 at 11:16 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
ArtK has it right: I’m sure there will be some folk who respond “Christianity is only mentioned twice as much? It should be mentioned 10 times as much! This is a clear pro-Islam, anti-Christian bias.”
timberwoof
December 17, 2012 at 11:24 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I liked the strategy of assigning a Fox News consumer to do that investigation, perhaps for some of the wrong reasons. Anyone doing a good job would find the same facts, but the people who needed to hear the facts might receive them better if they come from “one of their own”.
Gregory in Seattle
December 17, 2012 at 11:38 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
And now that an ideologically pure source as proven a religious bias, the school will take steps to address this bias.
Wait, stop laughing at me.
d.c.wilson
December 17, 2012 at 12:01 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Find a pro-Christian bias in Texas schools is like finding sand in the Sahara Desert. It’s so prevalent that most people there take it as a given.
Artk@4:
It depends on how they mention it. For example: “Islam is a religion practiced by millions of people”, would be promoting Islam. However, “Islam is a false cult that promotes terrorism, hates us for our freedoms, and is inspired by the Devil to turn people away from Jesus” would be perfectly acceptable.
Olav
December 17, 2012 at 12:20 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Reginald #6:
The same is true for the Red Crescent and their logo. So there is no need for “but” in that sentence. They are the same international organisation. Perhaps the most important reason the Red Cross logo is not acceptable in Islamic countries is that it looks almost exactly like the red cross of the Knights Templar.
dan4
December 17, 2012 at 8:54 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“Christianity got twice as much attention in the curriculum as Islam. Islam was a distant second.”
Sorry, but this doesn’t necessarily disprove the initial Tea Party claim (I’m not a Tea Partier, by the way. In fact, I’m fairly liberal, and at odds with most of their agenda). There is such a thing as NEGATIVE attention, after all. Just because something is “mentioned” doesn’t automatically mean said “mention” is in a positive light.
thebookofdave
December 17, 2012 at 11:04 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
timberwoof@8
What makes you think she was one of their own? Being Texan, self-describing yourself as conservative and watching every Glenn Beck show does not make one a True Scotsman. Was she hand-picked by Glenn Beck? Did she receive the David Barton Seal of Approval®? I didn’t think so.
Crudely Wrott
December 18, 2012 at 12:23 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
ArtK at 4 wrote:
This is what puts the burr under the Teabagger’s saddle. They admire this kind of subtle brainwashing while at the same time despairing that they are unable to do the same themselves on more than a modest and local scale. Hence the loud protestations that draw attention to their insecurities. Oh, woe is them, poor things
Zinc Avenger (Sarcasm Tags 3.0 Compliant)
December 18, 2012 at 5:14 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Artk, #4:
I call it sexunism.