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It's culture, not an effort to convert




By Lisa Falkenberg

Watch out, parents. Democratic State Board of
Education candidate Laura Ewing wants to
convert your children to Islam.
At least, that's the implication of a campaign
ad from her opponent, Republican David Bradley
of Beaumont.

"Do you know what the Democrat for State Board
of Education supports?" reads the handout,
which was disseminated at a recent gathering of
the Golden Triangle Republican Women and
trumpeted earlier this year at a Republican
senatorial convention.

The handout features a 2004 newsletter article
documenting the scandalous details: In 2003,
Ewing was one of nearly 20 social studies
educators who traveled to Africa and India to
study (gasp!) Islamic history and culture, with
plans to develop curriculum for Texas
schoolchildren in sixth-grade world cultures
classes and high school-level world geography
and history.

Fair game for fear-mongers
Need more proof? Bradley's ad features a photo
of Ewing, former teacher, social studies
curriculum specialist and Friendswood city
councilwoman, caught red-handed, posing in
front of the Taj Mahal!
Ewing admits her guilt: Yes, the educator dared
to educate herself about Islamic culture,
including everything from architecture to
poetry.

Why did she do it? She claims it has nothing to
do with converting Texas students to Islam, and
everything to do with another radical
philosophy: "We've got to understand other
people because we're a global economy," she
says. "We've got to prepare our students for
the 21st century."

Where does she get this stuff?
Apparently, ties to Islam — any ties at all —
are fair game for fear-mongers this election
season. No exception for this down-ballot, but
pivotal race for the Southeast Texas seat on
the 11-member state education board.
It's easy to dismiss Bradley's campaign handout
as dirty campaigning with an unusually bigoted
bent.

And his argument is further undercut by some
inconvenient facts: It was Bradley's fellow
Republican, Gov. Rick Perry, who worked with
the University of Texas and the Aga Khan
Foundation, to help arrange the trip for the
social studies educators. And, Bradley admits
that he voted, in his first term on the state
board, for the state curriculum standards that
call for students to study other cultures and
religions.

The 'A' word
But the campaign piece represents more than
politics of fear. It's a poignant example of
the kind of logic, or illogic, that Bradley,
the board's vice chairman, applies to crucial
decisions involving curriculum and textbook
selection affecting every public schoolchild in
this state.

This is the man who, in my column in April,
called critical thinking "gobbledygook." He's
one of the board members who scrapped
recommendations from educators from 17 literacy
organizations representing 13,000 teachers in
favor of a new, back-to-basics — many would say
backward — reading curriculum for the next
decade that eliminates the teaching of
comprehension in higher grades.

And, if re-elected, the social conservative who
favors teaching the weaknesses of evolution
theory will help decide science curriculum
standards in Texas for the next decade.
Recently, he nominated a leading promoter of
intelligent design as one of six "experts" to
review proposed standards. (Two others are
scientists with serious doubts about Darwin.)

The board under Bradley and Chairman Don
McLeroy, a College Station Republican — neither
of whom have a background in education — has
veered so far out of control that lawmakers are
contemplating the option of converting the
elected board back to an appointed one.
"I've heard the rumblings," House Public
Education Chairman Rob Eissler, R-The
Woodlands, told me recently. "I've heard the
'A' word."

I asked Bradley what bothered him so much about
Ewing's trip.

"I think Islamic curriculum is about the
furthest thing that we need to be introducing
into Texas classrooms," he said, adding a bit
later, "I think people are real sensitive about
Islamic studies, given recent events in the
United States."

Some, like Ewing, believe that sensitivity
should be best addressed with more education,
not more ignorance.

Back to basics
But Bradley's view of what our schools should
offer is limited.

"I think we need to spend a whole lot more of
our time and energy on reading, writing and
arithmetic," he told me. "And, you know, if
there's time to spare, the students might be
able to spend a little time on some electives.
But we're doing a very poor job on reading,
writing and arithmetic to be spending time,
money and effort on other curriculums."
And there you have it.

In 2008, the vice president of the board that
decides what our children learn and what
textbooks will teach it to them believes that
science and social studies are unnecessary.
And traveling outside the country to learn
about another culture is fodder for a political
attack ad.

— Lisa Falkenberg
Houston Chronicle
2008-10-27
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/moms/6081137.html

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