Texas Pols Tussle Over Obama's Name in Textbooks

Schools to take hard right with curriculum changes
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted May 21, 2010 3:59 AM CDT
Updated May 21, 2010 11:10 AM CDT
Texas Pols Tussle Over Obama's Name in Textbooks
A class of Hispanic students recites the Pledge of Allegiance in Tyler, Texas.   (Getty Images)

The slave trade was actually the "Atlantic triangular trade," and capitalism is always "free enterprise" under textbook changes to be voted on as early as today in Texas. The Board of Education, putting the final touches on the new guidelines yesterday, finally agreed to add the current president's name tO history textbooks rather than simply referring to the election of the first black president. But which version of his name sparked contentious debate—one GOP board member insisted on Barack Hussein Obama.

"I think we give him the full honor and privilege of his full name," the board member averred. But under duress he agreed to drop the middle name, the AP reports. "To put an end to the whining I withdraw the motion," he said. The new guidelines will also require exploration of "unintended consequences" of programs like Title IX and the Great Society, and students will learn about the Moral Majority and anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly, notes the Christian Science Monitor.
(More Texas stories.)

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