Today in the New York Times, Dana Goldstein compares the California and Texas versions of the same high school history text and mostly concludes that the California versions like to emphasize LGBTQ issues while the Texas versions like to downplay the effects of racism. Here’s my favorite excerpt:
Even the California textbook can’t quite bring itself to talk plainly about white flight, saying only that it was driven by families that wanted to escape “culturally diverse” neighborhoods. I wonder where that wording came from?
I also wonder why California and Texas apparently demand different fonts for their history texts?
Completely aside from all this, I hate both of these textbooks. I hate all textbooks these days. Cut them all in half! Get rid of the endless boxed inserts and stupid “discussion points.” But add more charts! If I had been forced to learn American history from one of these overstuffed, chopped-up monstrosities, I’d probably hate history too.
