I am Kyle's self-indulgence

"I'm glad I don't teach in Texas." That was my initial reaction to reading about their state Board of Education's latest rewriting of their curriculum to present the Civil Rights Movement, McCarthyism, and the founding of America in a way that treats conservatives of the past more favorably. It's easiest to shake my head or say, "That's Texas for you," and tell myself that it doesn't really affect me in Missouri. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that this is a symptom of a much greater problem with America.

I noticed several quotes in this article from board members justifying their action in the name of "balance." I've written about this fallacy before: our broadcast media have already allowed their fear of seeming biased compromise their journalistic integrity so that now, in the name of "balance," news stories are presented in a "he said, she said" style whether it is warranted or not. The result is that even in matters of fact, dissenting views are given disproportional weight, giving the illusion of uncertainty when the facts are very clear. When vaccinations are discussed, the expert opinions of medically trained professionals are "balanced" with Jenny McCarthy's anecdotal evidence; scientists for the Large Hadron Collider were forced to share TV air time with hacks who thought the machine would open a black hole; and most disastrously, a great number of Americans doubt the truth of climate change because every article on the subject gives equal credibility to the overwhelming consensus of scientists and the extremely small body of dissenters. Framing issues in a point-counterpoint format is fine when we're talking about subjective matters in which two or mare equally valid positions exist; but some things are just a matter of scientific and historical fact, and to constantly seek out dissenters only serves to misinform and mislead the public.

Already I'm concerned about my students who are becoming citizens at such a time as this. I wonder where they are going to get their news about the world. Certainly not from newspapers, books, or NPR. Increasingly, the only sources of information for Americans are the TV networks, which is frightening, considering how poorly they actually inform the public of what is happening in the world.

Though I value education deeply, I normally cringe when I hear cliches like, "Our young people are America's greatest treasure" or "The most worthwhile investment our government can make is in our schools," even if there is some truth to it. So you can trust that I'm not using hyperbole when I say that the most important problem in America today is people's ability to reason and think critically about information media. Most of our political movements and struggles are temporary, when you take a long view of history. Even the more deep-seated and seemingly insurmountable barriers to progress--campaign finance and corporate lobbying interests--could be resolved if the American people really knew what is happening in their government. Just look at health care reform: why is it that polls show Americans are in favor of the individual provisions, including a public option, yet the bill itself is unpopular? They have been so misled by the sensationalist news media and conservative groups out to defeat any reform that they don't even know what they dislike about the bill. They just know they don't like it.

If America has any hope of making real progress, of making the government represent the people's interests rather than a political establishment and their corporate sponsors, people must educate themselves about history and current events. They must know how to think critically about the things they see and recognize when they are being fed BS by the news media. They must learn that there aren't always two sides to every issue--that there is a universal truth, and when scientists tell us something about the world that has been verified time and again, we must believe it even if it is inconvenient.

This is the most disturbing thing about what the Texas Board of Education is doing. They may think that they are teaching students to value conservative ideals to benefit their own political party, but what they're really doing is undermining responsible academic study, and generations after those men and women and everyone they know is out of power, what will have happened to Texans' (and Americans') ability to think?