NEW YORK, NEW YORK, January 25, 2006: The Wall Street Journal printed a long article today by Daniel Golden on the California text book issue. Some excerpts follow. The entire article is available by subscription at “source” above.
The victors write the history books, the saying goes. But increasingly, religious advocates try to edit them. Religious pressure on textbooks is growing well beyond Christian fundamentalists’ attack on evolution. History books are the biggest battleground, as groups vie for changes in texts for elementary and secondary schools that cast their faiths in a better light. Two Hindu groups and a Jewish group have been set up in the past three years as textbook watchdogs, adding to Islamic advocates who have monitored history textbooks since 1990. In addition, some Sikhs have started to complain about being short-changed in history textbooks. All are seeking to extract concessions as California holds its periodic approval process for history textbooks. The process drives school-district purchases in the most populous state, and books adopted for California typically are the ones that schools in the rest of the country end up using for several years.
Hindu groups, in particular, have swamped California authorities with proposed revisions, which would delete or soften references to polytheism, the caste system and the inferior status of women in ancient India. For example, the Hindu Education Foundation, a group linked to a Hindu nationalist organization in India, proposed replacing a textbook’s statement that “men had many more rights than women” in ancient India with: “Men had different duties … as well as rights than women. Many women were among the sages to whom the Vedas [sacred texts] were revealed.”
California’s Curriculum Commission endorsed this and most other changes pushed by Hindu groups, moving the matter along to the state board of education, which usually follows its advice. But then a strong objection to such changes arrived from a group of U.S. scholars, led by a Harvard professor, Michael Witzel. The scholars’ protest, in turn, led to a lawsuit threat, a call for Harvard to disband the professor’s department, and finally an unusual state-sponsored head-to-head debate between two scholars of ancient India.
Underlying such free-for-alls is the question of whether lobbying by religious groups yields a more sensitive and accurate version of history or a sugar-coated one — and also whether students are served better or less well. “It tends to be scholar pitted against believer,” says Kenneth Noonan, a member of the state education board.
For textbook publishers, meanwhile, to ignore religious groups is to risk exclusion from markets. One of the nation’s largest school districts, Fairfax County, Va., dropped a McGraw-Hill Cos. 10th-grade text from its recommended list last year after complaints from Hindu parents, keeping it out of classrooms there.
Every six years, California adopts a list of history books for kindergarten through eighth grade, and districts can spend designated state money only for books on this list. Publishers typically roll out new textbooks for the state, whose districts are expected to buy nearly $200 million of history books over the next two years. California alone represents 10% to 12% of the national textbook market. In the 1970s and 1980s, history texts shied away from religion. “They didn’t use the ‘capital G’ word,” says Roger Rogalin, a publishing consultant. “They said the pilgrims gave thanks on Thanksgiving, but they didn’t say to whom.”
Prodded by religious groups, states began requiring more coverage of the topic. But they imposed goals that can be hard to reconcile: both maintaining historical accuracy and enhancing the pride and self-esteem of believers. California’s guidelines, for instance, say students “should understand the intense religious passions that have produced fanaticism and war.” But also, texts should avoid “reflecting adversely” on anyone’s creed or instilling “prejudice against…those who believe in other religions.”
Such cautions provide an opportunity for religious activists such as the Council on Islamic Education in Fountain Valley, Calif. In California’s most recent review, the council called for extensive changes, most of which the state appears likely to accept.
One target: A Prentice Hall text said the medieval spread of Islam was partly due to military conquest. “Actual conversion to Islam did NOT occur…at the point of a sword,” the council told the state. A specialist appointed by the state board to review Islamic coverage recommended dropping the reference, and Prentice Hall says it will do so.
Disputes over textbook portrayal of Hinduism are a staple of politics in India, and the concerns have arrived in America along with many Indian immigrants. The conventional view of ancient India in U.S. history texts is that men enjoyed more rights than women and that, then as now, Hindus worshipped many gods and were divided into castes.