I would not doubt, from the voluminous evidence available, that textbooks used in public schools, written by committees, are dreadfully bad. I would not be surprised to find a cursory and incomplete and even slanted representation in a public school textbook given what passes for textbooks these days. Therefore, given the generally poor state of affairs, I wouldn't take the reports of any textbook's inadequacies as proof of a "vast, left-wing conspiracy." And, of course, a conspiracy is not necessary as long as most everyone believes the party line.
For some links to references on the sorry state of textbooks, check: http://www.project2061.org/newsinfo/press/rl092899.htm As to biographies of recent presidents, very little in the way of recent history is ever well covered in history texts. For a Rorschach of where you see your biases, you might investigate the web supplement to Chapter 31 of a textbook called American Passages. http://azimuth.harcourtcollege.com/history/ayers/chapter31/chapter31.html Of course, this is not an entire textbook chapter but only links to extra web resources. Do you think these resources are a fair treatment of the Reagan Presidency? If not, in what direction do they lean? More evidence for the importance of worldview to perception and reasoning. Rick Dr. Richard L. Froman Psychology Department John Brown University Siloam Springs, AR 72761 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] phone and voice mail: (501)524-7295 http://www.jbu.edu/sbs/psych/froman.htm -----Original Message----- From: Stephen Black [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, October 29, 2001 10:44 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences Subject: Re: bias in academia I read Laura Freburg's essay (Confessions of a Republican Academic, at www.frontpagemag.com/archives/academia/gopacad.htm) and I agree that the description of what she went through is disturbing. I'm confident, though, that what she describes would never happen at a Canadian university, and I have difficulty believing that it would be possible at more than a small minority of universities in the US. However, I was prepared to believe that it was an accurate description of her experience. But then she replied to a query concerning which high school textbooks were the source of certain outrageous statements mentioned in her essay. She replied: > I do not have a reference for the textbooks--they were in use in 1996, so I > don't even know if the same ones are around. This changes matters for me. If she is unable to document something as readily verifiable as the textbooks which allegedly printed this questionable material, it calls into question not only these claims, but the remainder of her essay as well. How about it, Laura? You dig up the textbooks and I'll be prepared to believe again. Hallelujah! -Stephen ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stephen Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470 Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661 Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lennoxville, QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Department web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy Check out TIPS listserv for teachers of psychology at: http://www.frostburg.edu/dept/psyc/southerly/tips/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
