Comments on: Schadenfreude History, Revisited http://www.schadenfreude.net/2010/04/07/schadenfreude-history-revisited.php Sat, 05 Jan 2013 15:22:08 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Evan Kanehttp://www.schadenfreude.net/2010/04/07/schadenfreude-history-revisited.php/comment-page-1#comment-18602 Evan Kane Wed, 07 Apr 2010 23:39:25 +0000 http://www.schadenfreude.net/?p=27500#comment-18602 The Texas Board of Education also decided to drop Thomas Jefferson from a world history section of its approved history text book devoted to great political thinkers. The original curriculum asked students to "explain the impact of Enlightenment ideas from John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau and Thomas Jefferson on political revolutions from 1750 to the present. And who was Jefferson replaced with? Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin. The new standard now reads, "Explain the impact of the writings of John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and Sir William Blackstone."By dropping mention of revolution, and substituting figures such as Aquinas and Calvin for Jefferson, the Texas school board has chosen to embrace religious teachings over those of Jefferson, the man who coined the phrase "separation between church and state."Despite what Fox News, Teabaggers and Texas School Boards proclaim, America is not based on a common ancestry, a common religion, even a common culture--it's based on accepting an uncommon set of ideas. And if we don't understand those ideas, we don't value them; and if we don't value them, we don't protect them. A nation can never be ignorant and free, said Thomas Jefferson. The Texas Board of Education also decided to drop Thomas Jefferson from a world history section of its approved history text book devoted to great political thinkers. The original curriculum asked students to “explain the impact of Enlightenment ideas from John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau and Thomas Jefferson on political revolutions from 1750 to the present. And who was Jefferson replaced with? Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin. The new standard now reads, “Explain the impact of the writings of John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and Sir William Blackstone.”

By dropping mention of revolution, and substituting figures such as Aquinas and Calvin for Jefferson, the Texas school board has chosen to embrace religious teachings over those of Jefferson, the man who coined the phrase “separation between church and state.”

Despite what Fox News, Teabaggers and Texas School Boards proclaim, America is not based on a common ancestry, a common religion, even a common culture–it’s based on accepting an uncommon set of ideas. And if we don’t understand those ideas, we don’t value them; and if we don’t value them, we don’t protect them. A nation can never be ignorant and free, said Thomas Jefferson.

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