Sinfest

[Michael]

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/textbooks/?rc=tw

And speak out against revisionism

[nathan]

Nothing effects change like email!
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All our final decisions are made in a state of mind that is not going to last. - Marky Mark Proust

[Sam]

Yo, the texas curriculum change IS undeniably retarded and it WILL put a stamp of certification on all those ungainly Texas stereotypes for the next 20 years because it's quite honestly bugfuck retarded, but this rates about at "Internet petition" on the continuum of effective measures for change.

[Korendir]

At least there (probably) won't be this kind of madness next year.
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Moo.

[Willem]

C'mon Nathan, c'mon Sam. Of course internet petitions and mails won't make a change. They do manage to inform people about it, which is a step, at least.
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attitude of a street punk, only cutting selected words out of context to get onself excuse to let one's dirty mouth loose

[Major Tom]

[Sam]

[Michael]

Oddball site or not, it lets you send emails to publishers. The books are being changed because of a small minority of idiots taking an interest, so you really can't counter saying your voice won't matter.
These are text-book publishers we're talking about, if they get a 100 email complaints it'll be a lot.

(Can I go all the way here and say I like the description "Texas Taliban"? Small group of local warlords, very religious, family/town based, no centralised control but small local initiatives from people with shared ideologies...)

[WheelsOfConfusion]

I really dislike comparing our relatively mild religious extremists to people that actually murder, traffic drugs, and bomb the shit out of institutions they don't like. Not to say we don't have our share of religious whacko murderers and a few genuine terrorists here and there, just not on the Texas BoE. I feel the same way with all the readiness people display in comparing X to the Nazis.

[mouse]

there has to be some way to effect change, though. they keep saying that texas has this huge influence because of the number of textbooks they buy, and it's true, they are the second largest state - but that still only gives them about 8% of the U.S. population. and i'm hearing that 80% of textbooks will be influenced by the decisions of the texas boe! that's just ridiculous.
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aka: neverscared!

[ShadowCell]

Oh, sure, if other states were to simply not buy textbooks that were written in accordance with the Texas Board of Education's guidelines...

[Major Tom]

publishers are whores (who have been fighting rising costs and competition for about 25 years).

my sister used to work for a major textbook publisher, in part doing annual school board focus groups in Tx. she'd spend at least a month down there every year. work the big market, get their buy-in and everyone else will be glad to save a few dollars per cover when the publisher can mass-produce a single edition for all.

i've heard that boutique publishing is becoming more fiscally feasible but i will be very surprised if many public school systems have the funds to go that route -- state-wide, even a moderate and reasonable price difference translates to a tidy sum.

[mouse]

so what you are saying is, it is financially better all around if there are relatively few versions of a given text book, which everyone then buys - and i don't disagree with this. the issue is, why does texas get to set the standards? why not california? we are, after all, the largest state. why not a consortium of states from around the country - granted, it might be harder to get agreement, but you might get a more equitable result.

why, in short, was your sister sentenced to spending 1/12 of her life in texas, and not anywhere else?
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aka: neverscared!

[Yorick]

I'm wondering how Texas thinks its school districts can afford to buy all these new textbooks with all their new-fangled revisions.
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88 NPH

[Monkey Mcdermott]