Controversy Erupts Over Errors, Bias in Textbook

But was it corrected? An electronic copy was purchased and downloaded April 8, and a side-by-side analysis of sixteen examples from both editions shows the offending text wholly unaltered in eleven instances (which includes repeating a falsely depicted 6-3 court ruling as a contentious 5-4 decision), and altered to correct only a spelling error in a twelfth (it read, "global warning"). It appears that all the most recent edition corrects is a typo that ... Full Story »

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Penelope Miller
3.0
by Penelope Miller - Oct. 1, 2008

A good story that showcases how much one person (high school senior Matthew LaClair of New Jersey) can do to publicize the poor quality/propaganda elements of high school textbooks. The article does a good job of outlining the basic story. LaClair (who previously recorded his history teacher including unconstitutional religious messages in classroom content) noticed religious-right propaganda in his American Government textbook and prepared a 25 page report on same. The Center for Inquiry (who published this article), enlisted experts to verify LaClair's claims and subsequently the AP picked up the story and the controversy continues in the press with one author attempting to justify/explain his prose and the conversation is ongoing with, apparently, NPR interested in highlighting the argument on Talk of the Nation. The article is well-written and sourced, but the broader context about the generally appalling quality of high school textbooks as well as the political and economic machinations behind many of them is not included. Kudos to Matthew LaClair and CFI for publicizing this story, however.

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