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Let's say Thank You
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Not only must we recognize the hard work of many parents in the textbook adoption process, the members of the commission deserved our appreciation too. That cannot have been an easy decision for them. After all, a part of the mission of the commission it to approve the list of textbooks. However, based on the revealing testimony from the parents, they made a historic decision. See sidebar for email addresses. |
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Sometimes you win one!!
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The action--or actually--lack of action--yesterday morning at the State Textbook Commission Meeting brought sweet victory for the dozens of parents across the state who devoted their summer to the tedious task of actually reading the Social Studies textbooks that were up for adoption. These reviews were filed with both the Commission and with the publishers. Then at the September 16 Commission meeting a number of parents present well written, articulate reviews of these inferior books.
Yesterday, when the Commission convened, the main item on the agenda was the adoption of the list of recommended Social Studies textbooks.
Lisa Moore, Julie West, Laurie Cardoza Moore, Barbara Sturgeon and Hal Rounds once again addressed the committee urging the members to either postpone or outright reject the adoption of the textbooks.
[I know this is dangerous, because I actually don't know who all was involved and will leave names out (please forgive), but do want to mention these who helped lead the way,in addition to those that testified: Jackie Archer, Claudia Henneberry, Sue Redman (who set up 'basecamp'), Bruce Avilla, Dr. Bill Warner and many others deserved our gratitude.]
They mentioned the qualifications of the reviewers, the biases of the books, the fact that Pearson Publishing is under investigation, the fact that the rules for the process have not been followed.
When it was time for someone to make a motion to adopt the list of textbooks there was nothing but SILENCE. NO MOTION was made.
The Commission will meet again on October 23rd at 10:00 am. We don't know exactly what will happen then, but for now parents can ENJOY this HISTORIC VICTORY!!
See Lisa Moore's testimony below.
I love the way she started by noting the amazing credentials of some of the reviewers:
TEXTBOOK COMMISSION MEETING 10/7/13
COMMISSION MEMBERS/PUBLISHERS,
I'd like to introduce a few people to you,
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Meet Michele who has a BA /Communications, BS Political Science, MASTERS in Public Policy, and a Law Degree
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Hal, a Vietnam War Veteran Officer a U.S. History scholar with an Undergrad degree in Economics, and a Constitutional Attorney who is a Bar member of TN & US Supreme Courts
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Meet Bill with a PHD in Physics and Math, a successful author, speaker and one of the country's most renowned experts on Islam
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Gwynne with a Bachelors and Masters in Education, 31 years of teaching and a previous teacher of the year for the state Tennessee
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Bruce, the President & CEO of a large technology company, and a homeschooling parent of 6 children
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Kristen, with a Degree in Mass Communications, producer of biographies & documentaries, researcher of the Montessori, Waldorf and Classical Christian education systems
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Claudia a Retired High School History teacher with degrees in English and Language Arts education
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Julie with degrees in both theology and youth ministry, extensive education in World Relgions, Psychology and educational leadership and a Director of Classical Education Tutorial for high achieving students
The list goes on and includes many more individuals who are well educated passionate parents, grandparents with homeschooling background, PTO Presidents, church leaders, community leaders
Who are these people and why do I tell you about them? These are just a few of the people who dedicated hours and hours and hours of their own personal time with no pay, to review these textbooks… these people actually READ these textbooks, so now that we've established credentials, allow me to give you a brief overview of some of the comments from our reviewers....
"a purposeful, nefarious agenda being laid out in order to indoctrinate American Children American Children, intent to twist and change History"
" What could be more "extreme" than purposefully altering the truth, the facts and the history of a people", what kind of humans do this to young, impressionable minds",
"there appears to be a definite agenda to reference Islam as much as possible, and some very obvious omissions or misinformation given regarding Christianity"
"it is beyond amazement to me that publishers would actually submit such inaccurate and biased textbooks for anyone's consideration"
”"You have to wonder how these teacher reviewers were selected and how they were coached to review the books to ignore such obvious religious bias."
"After two days and writing 14 pages of criticism, I only got to about page 200 of this intellectual cesspool. I will not disappoint myself further unless able to confront the authors and publishers personally."
I will finish with this-------
Publishers: Pearson, Bedford Freeman, Houghton Mifflin, McGraw Hill, Holt McDougal, after our thorough review of your social studies books, I just want to say that you've stripped away any modicom of honesty and integerity in your industry, and I really want to ask you how you will sleep at night knowing what you've done to our children's textbooks and education.
Commission Members, you have the daunting responsibility of approving textbooks for millions of Tennessee children, but frankly your system and process here has been fraught with flaws, buck passing and bowing to the big business pressure of these publishers and after everything you have heard from us, if you go through the motions and just finish this process today by approving these textbooks for our Tennessee classrooms, you will sadly be doing a huge disservice to all of these children and our state! You still have the ability to stop that from happening. |
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TN textbook commission tables controversial social studies books
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NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) -Parents who were opposed to some of the textbooks being used in Tennessee classrooms are celebrating what they describe as a victory.
State textbook commissioners decided Monday not to use certain social studies books that some parents believed were controversial. Specifically, they took issue with how some editions addressed Christianity and the Nation of Islam.
After months of discussions, debates and reviews, the commission closed the chapter on the plan to adopt new social studies books for the 2014-2015 school year, at least for now.
"Over the next two weeks, we, as commissioners, are going to do a lot of homework to make sure that the products we put on a recommended list for schools are products that are in fact appropriate and quality materials," said Commissioner Dan Lawson, director of Tullahoma City Schools.
"I'm pleased that the commission made the decision that they did today to at least stop the process and take a further look," said Rutherford County parents Lisa Moore. |
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Textbook Commission Members
NOTE: Tate and Huffman were absent Monday.
Dr. Brian Tate, Chairman
Email:
btate@k12k.com
Teacher 9-12, Position
Mr. John R. (Bobby) Cox
Email:
cox67@kiltn.net
County Director, Position
Mr. Kevin S. Huffman
Email:
Kevin.S.Huffman@tn.gov
Commission of Education
Mrs. Edith Williams
Email:
williamse8@k12tn.net
Teacher, Grades 1-3, Position
Mr. Dan Lawson
Email:
Dan.Lawson@tullahoacityschools.net
City Director, Position
Dr. Jason Robinson
Email:
jrobinson@leeuniversity.edu
Teacher Grades 4-8, Position
VACANT
Lay Member East TN, Position
VACANT
Lay Member West TN, Position
Mr. Emmett Lewis Moorer, Jr.
Email:
landcmoorer@bellsouth.net
Lay Member Middle TN, Position
Dr. Craig Alan Hammond
Email:
craig.hammond@mnps.org
Principal, Position
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