Review Finds Va. History Textbooks ‘Filled With Errors’
- Posted on December 29, 2010 at 10:21pm by
Meredith Jessup
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Was the city of New Orleans a bustling U.S. harbor in the early 1800s? Did the U.S. Confederacy have 12 states? And did the United States really enter World War I in 1916?
No on all accounts — New Orleans was under Spanish control in the early 19th Century, the Confederacy was made up of just 11 states and the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, not 1916. But these so-called history “facts” are being taught in some Virginia classrooms, according to a new state-ordered review of textbooks, the Washington Post reports.
“Our Virginia: Past and Present,” the textbook including that claim, has many other inaccuracies, according to historians who reviewed it. Similar problems, historians said, were found in another book by Five Ponds Press, “Our America: To 1865.” A reviewer has found errors in social studies textbooks by other publishers as well, underscoring the limits of a textbook-approval process once regarded as among the nation’s most stringent.
“I absolutely could not believe the number of mistakes – wrong dates and wrong facts everywhere. How in the world did these books get approved?” said Ronald Heinemann, a former history professor at Hampden-Sydney College. He reviewed “Our Virginia: Past and Present.”
In his recommendation to the state, Heinemann wrote, “This book should be withdrawn from the classroom immediately, or at least by the end of the year.” …
The unusual review process involved five professional scholars. The results, said three of those involved in the process, proved disturbing. Some submitted lists of errors that ran several pages long. State officials plan to meet Jan. 10 to review the historians’ concerns.
“The findings of these historians have certainly underscored and added urgency to the need to address the weaknesses in our system so we don’t have glaring historical errors in our books,” said Charles Pyle, a spokesman for Virginia’s Department of Education.
Five Ponds Press, based in Weston, Conn., has come under fire in the past for making claims about the number of African Americans who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War. Though the publisher does not dispute that its books have errors, it promised to incorporate historians’ recent critiques into future revised editions of their books.
The Post notes that Five Ponds Press provides books mainly to the Virginia Department of Education in accordance with the state’s “Standards of Learning.” Textbooks are only approved after panels of reviewers verify that the books meet the state’s criteria.
Could you pass the test? Click here to see if you can correct the errors in the Virginia textbook.
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Comments (88)
woodyb
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 1:24amRemember when General Eisenhower ordered troops to takw as many pictures of the concentration camps as they could, because (paraphrasing him): “sooner or later there will be those who come forth to claim this never happened”!!!
We are seeing that in the world today!!!
Report Post »dontbotherme
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 7:35pmWoodyb – I did not now that Eisenhower did that. It’s a good thing all the pictures were taken, because denial (sometimes by omission) is being taught as fact. We were in a museum with a huge exhibit of the Concentration Camps (Ft. Leonard Wood) & a girl in about 8th or 9th grade was stunned by the graphic pictures. She asked her father, “How could anyone do these things to another person?” He tried to explain but ended up crying. I asked her if they had taught about this War in school yet. She had no idea of what I was talking about. Quite a few old soldiers quietly cried that day in that room.
Report Post »ChiefGeorge
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 1:19amI guess they thought no one would notice, but if the mistakes were left unchecked no one would know the difference until another Beck came along in a couple of hundreds years from now. Ahh but the damage would have already been done just like it has been over the past 100 years in this country.
Report Post »PaganGoddess
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 12:54amHoward Zinn tells the truth. My kids know it, do yours?
Report Post »benrush
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 7:08amHoward Zinn lies, Larry Schweikart tells the truth.
Report Post »Lloyd Drako
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 8:08amIf US history were taught the way it should be, students would have to read both Howard Zinn and Larry Schweikart.
Report Post »dontbotherme
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 7:22pmLarry Schweikart & Michael Allen know the truth of our history.
Report Post »AmeriWoman
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 12:38amMaybe you should be downloading history books and spelling books from Amazon then??
Report Post »Structure21
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 12:34am“The unusual review process involved five professional scholars”. Where did these 5 get picked from Moe’s Tavern?
Report Post »lobster
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 4:41pmFull throttle Saloon.. Incidently some one up above posing as an educator mispelled curriculum..
Report Post »Coldheart
Posted on January 2, 2011 at 2:32pmWye, day iz edgimmucated.
Do they really think The Louisiana Purchase was from Spain!
Duh! Where did all them Creoles come From?
Ut-oh! It was the book reviewers that believe that New Orleans was a Spanish city! Go Figure?
Report Post »AndMercy4All
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 12:33amWhen George Washington ascribes personal and knowable characteristics to God, whom would the editors of the history books have Americans believe he is referring to? — “I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, … and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and demean ourselves with that Charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.” GW given on June 8 1783, to the governors of all the states.
Report Post »Rowgue
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 12:27am@PATRIOTDAZE
No not periodically. Every new edition of a textbook should be reviewed for accuracy before being issued to students. And schools should find new textbook sources if they continually receive textbook editions filled with mistakes and sometimes outright intentional fabrications.
Report Post »Steverino
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 12:27amIntothenight-
Report Post »You may be surprised what happens here at The Blaze if you put some serious thought into the commentary before you plug something. Otherwise, you are wasting your time.
My 2 cents.
Steve
Psychosis
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 12:14amgo away
Report Post »beebacksoon
Posted on December 29, 2010 at 11:56pmI’m 58 and grew up believing, what we learned in school was gospel. HA! I learned otherwise, in college, with books that were not the standard edition for public education.
Report Post »I realized, at that time, I could dissect my own interpretation of our history and all the parties involved…good, bad or indifferent. I liked that.
History books, in most of our public education facilities, are chosen by the federal Department of Education. If your state accepted education funding, you have to accept their cirriculum. All the more reason we MUST eliminate the federal Dept. of Education, and let the states decide the cirriculum for the true history, warts and all, of our United States.
commonsenseguy
Posted on December 29, 2010 at 11:54pmthat will help explain why we have so many young people who think the world is melting, and that money grows on trees. they have been lead to the kool-aid trough and drank the propaganda . god please help us, and please lead these young minds in the right direction.
Report Post »Jade_Peverell
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 3:32amThis is why it is important for parents to talk to their kids about what they are learning in school, so they can correct all the mistakes and omissions,
Report Post »Deutscher
Posted on December 29, 2010 at 11:34pmHistory is , I think, particularly important in any type of democracy and needs to be as accurate as possible. Looks like their proofreading is wanting. I know new information is continually added to our knowledge but they had inaccurate dates, etc. Maybe we don’t need to change texts every few years. Seems a bit like a reason to sell more books at the cost if accuracy.
Report Post »thepatriotdave
Posted on December 29, 2010 at 11:18pmEvery darn textbook in every class in every state should be reviewed periodically for accuracy. If not the progressives start sneaking in their Marxist crappola and our kids get brainwashed!
Report Post »HemiOwner
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 7:43pmStart sneaking in Marxism? Where you been? Walk though any college bookstore’s English, History, Sociology, etc section and you will find plenty of that crap already being taught instead of traditional material.
Report Post »thegr8restoration
Posted on December 29, 2010 at 11:17pmSoooo, is Zorro a Mexican or a Spanish? Let me check my textbook.
Report Post »thegr8restoration
Posted on December 29, 2010 at 11:20pmMe no speak or spell good.
Report Post »ILoveGlenn
Posted on December 29, 2010 at 11:13pmIf I am not mistaken, Fox News had reported this incident afew months ago, on a documentary about our education system.
Report Post »82dAirborne
Posted on December 29, 2010 at 11:11pmStarting with your posts.
Report Post »pamela kay
Posted on December 29, 2010 at 11:10pm\How can you change history? I guess you can if you want to brainwash the youth of this country into accepting socialism. We need to organize and get theses books up to date with the actual facts. Our teachers have to know that they are teaching our children a load of crap to satisfy their progressive union. What ever happened to becoming a teacher to help children learn.? So is learning lies now what gives them the incentive to be a teacher these days? Or is it the greed of the benefits their union will guarantee them if they sell their soul to the devil? Very sad, and disheartening for the children.
LittleLebowskiurbanachiver
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 12:22amHi there Pam, you are aware that the teachers don’t write the textbooks, right. As far as the greed, selling your soul, and evil union nonsense…..teachers in most states go to college for five years to get that 28K a year job. Not exactly a good career choice for the greed motivated.
Report Post »IFIXRIGS
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 1:35amPam is not that far off the mark. Teaachers get paid alot more than 28k a year and union bennies to rival GM. Try to get a bad teacher removed it is almost impossible. Once they reach tenure their job more secure than FT Knox. So why should they care if a text book is flawed. It affects them very little.
Report Post »treshall
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 9:19amNonetheless, Lebowski, certainly you do not deny the fact that the National Education Association’s membership is predominantly liberal- just look at the money they donate to the DNC every year and that cash is the dues paid by their membership- wonder how the few conservatives in the NEA feel about their money going to support the likes of B.H.O.? It‘s one BIG reason why I never have and never will join a teachers’ union, despite the fact that I’ve been an educator for over 25 years.
Report Post »chips1
Posted on December 29, 2010 at 10:58pmGEW
Report Post »The libs have already made yesterdays history fuzzy.
TrueToTheCoreAmerican
Posted on December 29, 2010 at 10:54pmTypical liberal agenda to modify facts with fiction. And, we all know the liberals are behind the misrepresentations. If a liberal had to tell the truth they would no longer be a liberal.
Report Post »LittleLebowskiurbanachiver
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 12:14amWhat part of the this story makes you think this is a liberal conspiracy? Seems like they did a crappy job a editing the text book. Maybe they should have included the part about dinosours riding on a big magic boat with the five hundred year old man. I blame george soros!!!!!
Report Post »eteme
Posted on December 29, 2010 at 10:53pmQuit with the shameless plugs on here. If you want to really comment than do so, then u can plug your site. This site is much like TV, if you don’t add to the entertainment then no body will care for your ads either…
Report Post »BoilitDown
Posted on December 29, 2010 at 10:50pmIt would take a lot more than a promise from Five Ponds Press to convince me to use them again. There have been so many publishers highlighted in the past couple of years advancing a left wing agenda, through misinformation, which call for more urgency in removing these materials ASAP.
Report Post »The decades of indoctrination will be difficult to correct.
This makes me think of ex-Congressman John Hall who was wrongly taught about fascism in his social studies class. Was it the books, the teacher or both?
TheRealElvis
Posted on December 29, 2010 at 10:48pmNo wonder I’ve been losing all my arguments. I have all my facts wrong. Is there somewhere special that I could go and relearn everything? Do they have a special program established yet?
Report Post »tobefreeinmt
Posted on December 29, 2010 at 10:59pmYes. I believe that it’s http://www.bendoverandtakethis.gov
Report Post »WAR PIGS CRAWLING
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 9:20amDo you mean that Mount Rushmore wasn‘t a gift from the Aztec’s to the Norwegian’s?
Report Post »1776Federalist
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 12:03pmNo place special is needed. Just make up facts and statistics and claim “sources” instead of specific identifiable information. It works for the liberals and media. Look at Global Warming/Cooling/Climate Change/Warming Again as a good example. Or when over 70% of America said No to Obamacare and Congressional Democrats said it was what Americans overwhelmingly wanted and passed it anyway.
Report Post »roberja
Posted on December 29, 2010 at 10:47pmI’ve been gone for a while and when I come back, 13th is spouting his usual garabage. This is disgraceful on Virginia’s part. Who is in charge of the store?
Report Post »treshall
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 9:11amVangrungy, I agree with you completely. 13th generation has the annoying tendency of finding out-of-context and/or misleading “supporting evidence”which he conveniently copies and pastes to make the words fit the subject. In this way, one could find support for just about anything.
Report Post »13thGenerationAmerican
Posted on December 29, 2010 at 10:38pmMust have been approved by the Texas Board of Education, you know, the people who had Thomas Jefferson removed from History because he was a Deist. What Morons. Then they added some religious freak no one ever heard of.
GEW
Posted on December 29, 2010 at 10:48pmWell, history can get really fuzzy after SUCH an long time WWI…you know. LOL
Report Post »scguitar
Posted on December 29, 2010 at 10:49pmInconvenient fact for you, Jefferson, like Franklin and Paine, was no deist. Jefferson prayed and worshipped God. Franklin believed God was involved in the lives of all men. Deists don’t believe those things! Yes, they questioned the divinity of Christ. Jefferson though signed documents “in the year of our lord Jesus Christ”. I don’t think deists would sign a document that reads that. O wait what about the so-called Jefferson bible where he takes out all references to Jesus being God? Well, Jefferson never intended for that to be a “bible” to him. Nothing in his writings or speeches indicate such a claim. What he wrote down were the morals of Jesus Christ that people should follow.
I’m gonna assume you will pull quotes of these guys talking badly about religion so let me save you the trouble. Religion to them meant State religioin used by England. A perverted form of organized religion to them. Thats what they refer to when they condemn “religion”
Report Post »13thGenerationAmerican
Posted on December 29, 2010 at 10:58pmHere moron
Treaty of Tripoli – John Adams
Ratified unanimously by The United States Senate
Article 11 reads:
Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen,—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
What does this have to do with anything you just lied about.
13thGenerationAmerican
Posted on December 29, 2010 at 11:03pm“Jefferson never intended for that to be a “bible” to him. Nothing in his writings or speeches indicate such a claim” Really?
I think you Lie
The whole history of these books [the Gospels] is so defective and doubtful that it seems vain to attempt minute enquiry into it: and such tricks have been played with their text, and with the texts of other books relating to them, that we have a right, from that cause, to entertain much doubt what parts of them are genuine. In the New Testament there is internal evidence that parts of it have proceeded from an extraordinary man; and that other parts are of the fabric of very inferior minds. It is as easy to separate those parts, as to pick out diamonds from dunghills.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, January 24, 1814
Rowgue
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 12:37amShut up moron. Make a valid point about something…anything or just go away. All you do is copy and paste non related text from random sources in response to other posts.
You are quite possibly the dumbest person alive. Everyone dumber has been killed in undustrial accidents as a result of their own stupidity.
Report Post »AmeriWoman
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 12:42am@13thGenerationAmerican
Do you have a link to that please, I’d like to look at what / when /how, thanks.
Appreciate it, AW
Report Post »VanGrungy
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 8:53ama) Jefferson is not the be all and end all of American founding
b) The Article 11 you love so much only refers to the Federal Government as a State signing a treaty with a State…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tripoli
Oh look… Article 11 doesn’t appear in the Arabic version…
It’s called the Barlow translation… I wonder how Article 11 magically appeared…
13th Generation Fake American… Who wrote Article 11 ?
Report Post »Lloyd Drako
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 9:03amThey added Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin.
Neither of them was exactly a “religious freak nobody ever heard of.”
Report Post »VanGrungy
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 9:25amArticle 11 also tries to de-islamize the countries involved in the war….
If Article 11 existed in the Arabic ORIGINAL document, the muslims would not have signed it because muslims believe their countries are ruled by allah and are muslim countries to the core….
Article 11 is a grave insult to muslims and their idea of the Ummah…
——————
Article 11 may have been ratified at the time, but that doesn’t make Article 11 American Gospel…
btw… Would you please point to the words, deeds, or documents that show America was created based on Atheism?
good luck with that…
Report Post »VanGrungy
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 9:42amone more thing… just so you know…
muslims are disallowed from faithfully making lasting treaties with non-muslims… It’s called a hudna
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudna
Thus, the treaty of tripoli became void 10 years after ratification on the Barbary side…
Just thought people should know… Hudna is also the reason why muslims will never faithfully honor any modern treaty…
Now you know… and knowing is half the battle…
Report Post »Coldheart
Posted on January 2, 2011 at 1:48pmAs an tenth generation immigrant American, I would like to point out several inconsistencies in your posts.
The Tripoli treaty was quickly voided because of vicious and blatant attacks on American shipping by brutal and sadistic Muslim pirates. President Jefferson was forced to send gunboats to the Mediterranean in a failed attempt to stop the carnage. In 1799, Congress agreed to pay $18,000 a year each to the four North African Muslim Nations of which Tripoli was a signatory. In May 1801 not even two full years later new demands for more gold money were presented and refused by The United States of America, with slogan “Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute!” In 1804 United States Naval Lieutenant Stephen Decatur led a party of 74 sailors and marines ashore to burn the USS Frigate Philadelphia. In the ensuing action one Ruben James a Boatswains Mate sustained severe wounds protecting Decatur and has since been honored with a number of American warships named in his honor. The latest of which was recently launched. In 1805, 1st Lt O’Bannon US Marines in the Battle of Dema. To this day our Marine Dress Uniform includes a replica of the Mameluke sword won on “the shores of Tripoli.”
Article 11 is quite interesting since John Adams was an ardent Congregationalist who wrote voluminous letters to his wife that are totally contrary to Article 11.
Surprisingly, no one seems to know that The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 was from the FRENCH not the Spanish.
If President Jefferson was not in any way shape or form a Christian, why did he attend Church at the Capitol every Sunday of his presidency?
If he was some kind of deist, which he was not, where did he come up with the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, where he wrote, “We hold these truths to be self evident that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights …”
Jefferson’s Bible was made up of verses that he needed for himself. I have my own list of verses that I constantly have to refer to including those regarding losing my temper! If he had hated the Bible then why did support the printing of some TWENTY THOUSAND King James Bibles by the United States of America? Yes, Our own government, for the dissemination of the Gospel?
I can go on but what’s the point? Your absurd comments are ingrained in you by your parents, teachers, and friends. What is annoying is that you are a parrot repeating nonsense you have not researched with an open mind. As for your hatred of folk like me who TRY to live in the Spirit of The Word, I can only say, I love you.
Report Post »GEW
Posted on December 29, 2010 at 10:38pmAll I can say is that they should of had those Texans reviewing their History books.
Report Post »taskmaster78
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 9:22amGEW what’s more amazing is the publishers response, seemed a little disconcerting. This is one thing that does not need revision, yet they revise history books regularly, understood on current history requiring updates. But the past not sure other then, tax dollars.
Report Post »docvet
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 4:29pmApparently Virginia’s criteria for textbooks is that it has pages and words in them.that;s all.
Report Post »koyettsu
Posted on December 30, 2010 at 5:45pmlol hell yeah, I think Texas should be officially in charge of US history.
Report Post »jackrorabbit
Posted on December 31, 2010 at 2:14amThere is a reason why Virginia has such a high homeschooling rate. The majority of our public schools stink, unless you are in Charlottesville, Fairfax, or their counties. The smart parent that cannot afford private school, finds a way to homeschool. I should know, I am that parent.
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