Texas Taliban is a dangerously trending concept

Texas has a track record of marginal success about how to publish revisionist history. What's dangerous about this uniquely evil talent is how the sheer numbers of text books purchased by the Texas educational systems causes revisionism to be replicated, like bad DNA strands. Text book companies cannot provide affordable publications to customers, if the companies must run "niche" editions.  Therefore, what Texas schools order for their libraries and schools usually carries over to other states, because, otherwise, the purchase costs for special editions will challenge tight municipal budgets. 

In Maine Writer's opinion,  I titled this blog "Texas Taliban" because of how the state is suppressing freedom and revising history to suit "eugenic" (my concept) purposes.  Moreover, the hashtag #TexasTaliban is trending in social media.  Fundamentally, there is no difference between Texas creating history apologetics, and what the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan are doing to suppress freedom and diversity.

NBCNews echo: “Additionally, we recognize there are not two sides of the Holocaust,” he wrote in the post. “As we continue to work through implementation of HB [House Bill] 3979, we also understand this bill does not require an opposing viewpoint on historical facts,” he added, referring to the new Texas (#TexasTaliban!) law.

By Mike Hixenbaugh and Antonia Hylton

A top administrator with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake advised teachers last week that if they have a book about the Holocaust in their classroom, they should also offer students access to a book from an “opposing” perspective, according to an audio recording obtained by NBC News.

Gina Peddy, the Carroll school district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, made the comment Friday afternoon during a training session on which books teachers can have in classroom libraries. The training came four days after the Carroll school board, responding to a parent’s complaint, voted to reprimand a fourth grade teacher who had kept an anti-racism book in her classroom.

A Carroll staff member secretly recorded the Friday training and shared the audio with NBC News.

“Just try to remember the concepts of [House Bill] 3979,” Peddy said in the recording, referring to a new Texas law that requires teachers to present multiple perspectives when discussing “widely debated and currently controversial” issues. “And make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust,” Peddy continued, “that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives.”

“How do you oppose the Holocaust?” one teacher said in response.

“Believe me,” Peddy said. “That’s come up.”

Another teacher wondered aloud if she would have to pull down “Number the Stars” by Lois Lowry*, or other historical novels that tell the story of the Holocaust from the perspective of victims. 

It’s not clear if Peddy heard the question in the commotion or if she answered.

Peddy did not respond to messages requesting comment. In a written response to a question about Peddy’s remarks, Carroll spokeswoman Karen Fitzgerald said the district is trying to help teachers comply with the new state law and an updated version that will go into effect in December, Texas Senate Bill 3.

“Our district recognizes that all Texas teachers are in a precarious position with the latest legal requirements,” Fitzgerald wrote, noting that the district’s interpretation of the new Texas law requires teachers to provide balanced perspectives not just during classroom instruction, but in the books that are available to students in class during free time. “Our purpose is to support our teachers in ensuring they have all of the professional development, resources and materials needed. Our district has not and will not mandate books be removed nor will we mandate that classroom libraries be unavailable.”

Fitzgerald said that teachers who are unsure about a specific book “should visit with their campus principal, campus team and curriculum coordinators about appropriate next steps.”

Clay Robison, a spokesman for the Texas State Teachers Association, a union representing educators, said there’s nothing in the new Texas law explicitly dealing with classroom libraries. Robison said the book guidelines at Carroll, a suburban school district near Fort Worth, are an “overreaction” and a “misinterpretation” of the law. Three other Texas education policy experts agreed.

“We find it reprehensible for an educator to require a Holocaust denier to get equal treatment with the facts of history,” Robison said. “That’s absurd. It’s worse than absurd. And this law does not require it.”

*Number the Stars is a work of historical fiction by the American author Lois Lowry about the escape of a Jewish family, the Rosens, from Copenhagen, Denmark, during World War II.

The story centers on 10-year-old Annemarie Johansen, who lives with her mother, father, and sister Kirsti in Copenhagen in 1943. Annemarie becomes a part of the events related to the rescue of the Danish Jews, when thousands of Jews were to reach neutral ground in Sweden, to avoid being relocated to concentration camps. 

She risks her life to help her best friend, Ellen Rosen, by pretending that Ellen is Annemarie's late older sister, Lise, who was killed earlier in the war by the Nazi army because of her work with the Danish Resistance. 

However, her former fiancé, Peter, who is partly based on the Danish resistance member Kim Malthe-Bruun, continues to help them.

The story's title is taken from a reference to Psalm 147:4 in which the writer relates that God has numbered all the stars and named each of them. It ties into the Star of David, which is worn by Ellen Rosen on her necklace and is a symbol of Judaism.