5 ms·

This is kinda misleading, and the title is very editorialized. I think the link should be changed to the original Texas Tribune article which provides some cont

This is kinda misleading, and the title is very editorialized. I think the link should be changed to the original Texas Tribune article which provides some context: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/26/texas-school-books-race-sexuality/ https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/26/texas-school-books-r... This is a list of books which a member of Texas House of Representatives (Matt Krause) has inquired about from the Texas Education Agency (supposedly at least in part with respect to Texas's version of the "no critical race theory in schools" laws).

jeffwass 5y ago
Thanks for the link, but your comment is also a bit misleading. He’s not just casually inquiring the Texas Education Agency, he’s burdening school districts on this wild goose chase which is most likely a political stunt in his campaign for Texas Attorney General. Quote from the article you linked. I can’t imagine how much time it would take to track this information down for all 850 books on his list, and how these resources would be better spent on actual useful tasks for the school districts. “Krause informs districts they must provide the committee with the number of copies they have of each book, on what part of campus those books are located and how much money schools spent on the books, as well as information on any other book that violates House Bill 3979, the so-called “critical race theory law”designed to limit how race-related subjects are taught in public schools.”
makomk 5y ago
[flagged]
- YXNjaGVyZWdlbgo 5y ago
  Citations needed.
- Amezarak 5y ago
  Yes, neither set of books that either side seeks to ban are necessary or, perhaps, even good for an education in the humanities. Notice they are always relatively recent, usually pop fiction (as opposed to nonfiction) that teachers/librarians enjoyed that's supposed to "teach" you something about an actual historical event. You're supposed to read the fictionalized novel because it's more "relatable", definitely not because it ensures you see things through the preferred ideological lens of 21st century school librarians. (To be fair, the "other" side's banned books are usually what these people liked a generation earlier; although there are truly banned books, that, for example, cannot be sold on Amazon, and they are usually, but by no means always, more obviously offensive and of more questionable worth.) What you will not find on banned book lists, with few exceptions, is the books that were used to teach the humanities for hundreds, sometimes even thousands of years, up through the first half of the 20th century. Increasingly, you won't find them in the library, either. They haven't been "banned", though. They're just being "curated" out of collections and pulped. We had to update our library, you see. Human experience is different now, you need to read our modern and ideologically fashionable authors. That's why you have to scroll down to page 14/16 on that list before you find a book published before the year 2000. Of course, the perception (and maybe truth) is that the reaction against the currently fashionable propaganda literature in school libraries and reading lists is led by illiterates, not by people who think you should be reading Thucydides.
dang 5y ago
Ok, we've changed to that article from https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/94fee7ff93eff9609f141433e41f8ae1/krausebooklist.pdf https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/94fee7ff93eff960.... Thanks! I also changed the title to the article's HTML doc title, in case anyone wonders.

jeffwass 5y ago

Thanks for the link, but your comment is also a bit misleading. He’s not just casually inquiring the Texas Education Agency, he’s burdening school districts on this wild goose chase which is most likely a political stunt in his campaign for Texas Attorney General. Quote from the article you linked. I can’t imagine how much time it would take to track this information down for all 850 books on his list, and how these resources would be better spent on actual useful tasks for the school districts. “Krause informs districts they must provide the committee with the number of copies they have of each book, on what part of campus those books are located and how much money schools spent on the books, as well as information on any other book that violates House Bill 3979, the so-called “critical race theory law”designed to limit how race-related subjects are taught in public schools.”

makomk 5y ago

[flagged]

YXNjaGVyZWdlbgo 5y ago
Citations needed.
Amezarak 5y ago
Yes, neither set of books that either side seeks to ban are necessary or, perhaps, even good for an education in the humanities. Notice they are always relatively recent, usually pop fiction (as opposed to nonfiction) that teachers/librarians enjoyed that's supposed to "teach" you something about an actual historical event. You're supposed to read the fictionalized novel because it's more "relatable", definitely not because it ensures you see things through the preferred ideological lens of 21st century school librarians. (To be fair, the "other" side's banned books are usually what these people liked a generation earlier; although there are truly banned books, that, for example, cannot be sold on Amazon, and they are usually, but by no means always, more obviously offensive and of more questionable worth.) What you will not find on banned book lists, with few exceptions, is the books that were used to teach the humanities for hundreds, sometimes even thousands of years, up through the first half of the 20th century. Increasingly, you won't find them in the library, either. They haven't been "banned", though. They're just being "curated" out of collections and pulped. We had to update our library, you see. Human experience is different now, you need to read our modern and ideologically fashionable authors. That's why you have to scroll down to page 14/16 on that list before you find a book published before the year 2000. Of course, the perception (and maybe truth) is that the reaction against the currently fashionable propaganda literature in school libraries and reading lists is led by illiterates, not by people who think you should be reading Thucydides.

dang 5y ago

Ok, we've changed to that article from https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/94fee7ff93eff9609f141433e41f8ae1/krausebooklist.pdf https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/94fee7ff93eff960.... Thanks! I also changed the title to the article's HTML doc title, in case anyone wonders.