Texas Board of Education Makes another Controversial Move in its State's Social Studies Curriculum

Today by a 7-6 vote, the Texas Board of Education voted to pass a resolution that stated that the Texas Board of Education would not purchase any social studies textbooks that would give more Islam more space in the textbooks than Christianity. Their move to do this came from the idea that most social studies textbooks have a Pro-Islam slant and an Anti- Christian slant. In a Dallas Morning News Op-Ed, Southern Methodist University Professor Mark Chancey wrote,

[The Resolution in] Its first line complains that "pro-Islamic/anti-Christian bias has tainted some past Texas Social Studies textbooks." It later objects that "pro-Islamic/anti-Christian half-truths, selective disinformation, and false editorial stereotypes still roil some Social Studies textbooks nationwide." In its rhetoric, the terms "pro-Islamic" and "anti-Christian" go hand in hand; whatever is "pro-Islamic" is by definition "anti-Christian."

Pitting religions against each other is not good especially in the political climate that we are in today. The idea that one religion is taking priority over another is bad, but in the way that the Texas Board of Education is doing it is to raise fear and create hate to another religion. This idea that it is right to use education as a religious battleground is unfair to the students of Texas and the students of the United States. By this resolution by the board will change textbooks because Texas is the second largest market for textbooks. U.S. students will already have to suffer to the changes made to the Social Studies Curriculum in March, to see the changes check out Texas Board of Education New Amendments to the Social Science Curriculum Give it a Conservative Spin, now with this change the national Social Studies curriculum will change for all Americans.
We as Americans have to realize that, not all history portrays Americans beliefs and ideals in the positive light. Our history is checkered with massacres  and bad decisions that have shaped the country that we live in today. For example of this 50 years ago students were taught that what happen at Wounded Knee in 1890 was a battle between the Sioux people and the U.S. Army, and today most students learned that it was a massacre of the Sioux people by the U.S. Army. Yes, it does not paint the U.S. Army in a positive light, but it is the truth and the truth hurts some times. We cannot rewrite history to the way we want it because it makes us feel good, because we lose the teachable lesson that history provides us to become a better society. To put this full circle the Texas Board of Education can rewrite history and depict it on how they feel it should be taught, but that teaching of history will never be the truth and never can be accepted as the truth.