Update on the Potential Boycott of Texas Textbook publishers

Current List of Texas Approved Publishers

This link will take people to the current list of social study publishers for Texas. These publishers are NOT as of yet part of the new standards but one can imaging the implications here. What a surprise????

For Grades 1-12 the Social Studies and History Texts are from the largest publishing companies, any wonders here???

Harcourt, MacMillan, Pearson; Holt, Rinehart and Winston; McGraw-Hill. One has to scroll down to find the actual textbook approved but these are the publishers approved as of now. However, these are NOT the ones approved for the new standards. As the standards are now yet to be approved in their final form later in the year. I will keep track of this

Also a new issue has arisen about this issue that publishers are trying to stay neutral. No surprise there. I have a quote below from a New York Times Article concerning the Texas issue. ""We now have the ability to deliver completely customized content" to different states, said Joseph Blumenfeld, spokesman for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, one of three major publishers that supply Texas with most of its social studies textbooks."

This could be both a blessing and a danger. Publishers for years have been able to provide "customized" textbooks. As one who has been an adjunct in the State of New York, I found that many Community Colleges in that state have customized texts. However, as long as the underlying structure of the content remains factually correct, this is not a problem. The issue at this point is merely what chatper(s) to include. For those who teach introductory courses this is an issue of time and of what to include and what to leave for higher level classes. If publishers start to use customization to "exclude" content that is objectionable, but not factually incorrect, then the issue becomes one of content. This is a problem. If a publisher states that they can just publish a book just for Texas and then a different one for others states for their "customized content," then issue is not solved. It becomes an issue of, dare I say it, censorship and exclusion.

If I, as a college teacher, taught US History I, an introductory class covering everything from 1492 to the War of the Rebellion and did not include slavery and its presence on the North American continent because I might be "uncomfortable" about the issue, I am withholding relevant information from students that they have a right to know. In the Texas case, withholding the knowledge that Thomas Jefferson was influenced by Enlightenment Thinkers like John Locke and Thomas Hobbes, is not a choice of convenience. It is altering the historical record. Jefferson got his phrase "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" from John Locke's notion of "Life, Liberty, and Property."

All this tells me is that Texas Board of Education members should start reading history before they start rewriting and censoring it.

Boycott Texas History Book Publisher

Calling all college history professors and instructors. It is time to use our clout as history professors to make a statement. According to the New York Times article the Texas Board of Education is making significant changes to the history curriculum for high schools students. We need to come to the aid of Mary Helen Berlanga and use our clout as academics to boycott the rewriting of history for political purposes. If it were just Texas, I may not suggest such a boycott. However, because publishers have become so economical in the past years, the book published according to the Texas guidelines will be used by other states for their classes. It is time to say ENOUGH to this blatant attempt at censorship and academic political correctness. Censorship on the part of the publisher and censorship on the part of the Texas Board of Education who did not even have, according to the CBC news broadcast on March, 23, 2010, an academic historian suggesting changes. We need to show our support for Mary Helen Berlanga by emailing her our support at this email address here.I am proposing to spread the word to all historians who teach at the college and public school level. If they we have the power to choose our textbooks, we need to boycott the publisher, and their subsidiaries, of the textbook for Texas public schools. Show them that we will not accept the rewriting of history. These are not just changes to a curriculum these are calculated extractions of American history. The claim by many is that history is some leftist tool to twist facts. I am sorry but both VanRanke and Droysen would argue with that. What qualification does a dentist and a preacher have to determine historical standards? I will need your help here academics and graduate students. Boycott the publisher of this book and their subsidiaries. Let's illustrate that historians can use their clout to stop the abuse of history by agenda seeking loons who think that history is merely interpretation. It is not just interpretation. It is an informed analysis determined by factual evidence. I shutter to think what they will want to exclude next, the holocaust? That will be the next step if we do not take a stand now. All those who support this issue can make a comment below and I will respond. Let me know what more we as historians can do to prevent this gross malfeasance of history on the part of the Texas Board of Education.

It must be stated that censorship is NOT academic freedom. Academic freedom means that one should be able to choose resources for inclusion within an academic setting. What the Texas School Board is doing is excluding, that is censorship.

4 Basics of Web Design

In reading Dan Cohen & Roy Rosensweig’s Digital History,  it has become apparent that web design becomes an element in the historical information that historians are attempting to convey.  This is something that the profession has not had to consider in writing their dissertations.  Up to now, the concern was over what pictures can go into the book and do I have the proper copyright information.  Not to mention that all the primary sources are quoted correctly.  Cohen and Rosensweig provide great advice to their digitally challenged colleagues

1.  Emphasize the importance of contrast on the page “as elements are set off against each other in a pattern that allows the eye to explore different features, draw conclusions or simply appreciate the pattern itself (Digital History p. 120).

2.  Using proximity to illustrate connections will allow the user to make a connection (inferred or otherwise) to a photographic image or a passage.

3.  Feeling the Order/Disorder.  This rule appears to be an extension of the previous rule.  Basically to ensure that your presentation on the internet appears to be aligned with other elements. 

4.  Unity,  this is not what they call it but I thought a word would be better here.  Ensure the like elements are UNIFIED through similar texts, font size, and color.  Hence, ensure you repeat or use the same font size/text/color to make a point.

While these rules appear basic,  I do think that it can make a difference between a good website that can covey the information and a confusing one.  At the same time, this could also be used as guidelines for publishing articles online.  Fancy fonts are ok, but if they are not being used to convey a point, or being used badly to convey a point, then what is the point???  I think the authors are trying to reign in many of us who like the neat colors and fonts warning us not to get carried away.  It is worth while to consider this.

New Wiki

New experiment on how to spark conversation

in reference to: http://vanrankeanddroysen.wikidot.com/digital-history (view on Google Sidewiki)