Since the days of President Wilson and John Dewey, Progressives (née Socialists) have fought to gain control of America’s gatekeepers — academia, the media, entertainment. This struggle didn’t just begin amidst the turmoil of the 60’s with Timothy Leary’s infamous “Turn on, tune in, drop out” mindset. Certainly there were giant leaps for Progressive minds made in that decade. Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” programs began the wholescale dependence of lower income upon the government.
In the span of one decade, Progressives set the stage for subtle, but unrelenting indoctrination of subsequent generations of young people. Conjoined with LBJ’s Great Society agenda, the Left moved the public away from the Founders’ vision of faith and freedom, and toward an ever-increasing government dependency.
Now, 50 years later, academia in the United States is mostly controlled by the Progressives who have ushered in new textbooks to reaffirm their worldview. The gatekeepers keep a stranglehold on education materials, only approving those texts which reinforce the revisionist history worldview, a worldview that typically demonizes America, the Founders, the early settlers and pioneers.
But there are many in the nation who have not ceded the school room battle to The Left just yet, including Cynthia Dunbar.
Dunbar’s impressive bio:
Cynthia Dunbar is an American patriot of Native-American descent. She is the National Committeewoman to the RNC for VA, author, public speaker, attorney and CEO of Momentum Instruction, LLC. She formerly was an elected member of the Texas State Board of Education, Assistant Professor of Law, Advisor to the Provost of Liberty University, and an appellate attorney. While attending Law School at Regent University Dunbar received three separate American Jurisprudence Awards for excellence, and was a founding editor of the Law Review of Regent University School of Law. She has since conducted over 25 years of research and studies involving Constitutional and common law issues.
Cynthia Dunbar is currently awaiting a vote from the Texas State Board of Education, one of the most influential education entities in the nation (if Texas accepts new textbooks the nation will likely follow suit), re a textbook her publishing company, Momentum Instruction, LLC, has submitted, Mexican American Heritage.
The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) initially adopts a “course,” then adopts “standards for the course,” then they issue a “proclamation” sent to publishers with the state bid process for writing texts. SBOE had NOT adopted a Mexican studies course — a history course — but did adopt a “special topics in social studies and social studies standards course” which would allow for studies which include the history of America and Mexico, their wars and relations.
Cynthia submitted Mexican American Heritage (not hyphenated “Mexican-American”), authored by Jaime Riddle and Valarie Angle, in that context and has been met with irascible resistance every step of the way.
Well aware of Dunbar’s deep knowledge of the Founding Documents and First Principles, and of her efforts to reinvigorate America’s judeo-Christian principles, the SBOE has declared the text, as cited at HuffPo:
…a baffling, error-filled attempt to rewrite Mexican-American history
Tony Diaz, a well-known Reconquista (a movement predicated on the belief that the American Southwest should be wholly Mexican territory) proponent and activist, slammed the book:
“Paradoxically, we pressed for the board to include texts on Mexican-American studies, and we achieved it, but not in the way we were expecting,” Tony Diaz, host of Nuestra Palabra (Our Word) radio program in Houston and director of Intercultural Initiatives at Lone Star College-North Harris, told the Houston Chronicle. “Instead of a text that is respectful of the Mexican-American history, we have a book poorly written, racist, and prepared by non-experts.”
Google Mexican American Heritage and the search engine will return dozens of articles, all hit pieces savaging the textbook as nothing but racism.
But what is the actual truth? What is the truth of America and Mexico, of the battle at the Alamo?
All of the alleged errors to which HuffPo alludes are NOT errors, but rather ideological conflicts with what the public wanted included as if the course were a “MAS” course with fully developed Mexican-American Studies Standards. These requirements clearly could not govern since such a course and standards had never been adopted by the SBOE.
As written in a letter from Liberty Counsel to Donna Bahorich, Chairman Texas State Board of Education:
…over two years ago, the SBOE voted to reject a “Mexican American Studies” course, and instead voted to adopt a course entitled “Special Topics in Social Studies,” along with the “Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills” (“TEKS”) for what is required to be included in a Special Topics in Social Studies course. The SBOE then adopted Proclamation 2017 (“Proclamation”) that was sent out for Publishers who may wish to bid for adoption. This Proclamation lists detailed expectations of what publishers must do in order for their materials to be adopted for a state contract.
. . .
Review panels assessed Mexican American Heritage to have 100% TEKS coverage. The Publisher provided every timely documentation to the TEA that it will meet the physical specifications, and that any errors will be corrected prior to distribution to school districts in 2017. The Commissioner’s formal report of errors only listed 29 total errors in Mexican American Heritage, while other textbooks being recommended for adoption under this Proclamation had hundreds more errors listed.
The Publisher of Mexican American Heritage has already corrected all 29 errors listed in the TEA report, and the current textbook content uploaded for the Board for adoption does not contain any factual errors, even though these corrections were not required to be made under either the TAC or the 2017 Proclamation until the book would be distributed to school districts in 2017.
The supposed errors of the text were not, in fact errors, but rather actual true accounts of the situations and attitudes of the day. In an Alinsky-like flood of articles, sites accused Momentum Instruction, LLC, MI CEO Cynthia Dunbar, and the text Mexican American Heritage of promoting racism and racial stereotypes. What the book actually does with the text is factually recounts racially biased stereotypes that were historically held and used to justify inequality.
In contrast to the unsubstantiated tsunami of criticism, an objective review came from. Maria Hernandez Ferrier, Ed.D., President Emerita, Texas A&M University-San Antonio. Dr. Ferrier is an amazing educational expert and because of her impressive list of accomplishments, someone who deserves to be studied in history herself. Ferrier wrote:
Just a note to thank you for allowing me to review Mexican American Heritage. I found it interesting, well written and very well sourced. As a proud Mexican-American, I am blessed that my grandparents came to this great country during the Mexican Revolution and am also proud of the many contributions we have since made to our beloved United States of America.
This may seem like a regional textbook skirmish, but the implications will be far-reaching. As noted at PBS:
Texas is one of the nation’s largest textbook markets because it is one of the few where the state decides what books schools can buy rather than leaving it up to local districts, which means publishers that get their books approved can count on millions of dollars in sales. Further, publishers craft their standard textbooks based on the requirements of the biggest buyers. As a result, the Texas board has the power to shape the textbooks that children around the country read for years to come.
Another criticism from liberal scholars recruited to attack the book was that Mexican American Heritage did not cite contemporary sources. True, the textbook cites original sources, which are typically the preferred sources for historical papers and textbooks. It is understandable why liberal progressives prefer newer sources as they allow for a revisionist worldview.
The battle for the hearts and minds of America’s children rages on, on the one side the ideological Progressives, determined to indoctrinate students with their revisionist worldview, on the other side, people such as Cynthia Dunbar, fighting for the no-holds-barred truth to be taught.
William Ross Wallace wrote the famous poem, “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Is the Hand That Rules the World.” That might be true. But just as true is the fact that the hand that writes the curriculum for America’s schools affects the hearts and minds of future generations of citizens.
Cynthia Dunbar’s battle for Mexican American Heritage, a textbook containing the unvarnished, non-revisionist truth, could have nation-wide implications: “the Texas board has the power to shape the textbooks that children around the country read for years to come.”
The Texas State Board of Education will vote to accept, or not, the text tomorrow, November 18, and it might just impact the vote if Americans everywhere contact them.
TEXAS SBOE
Phone: (512) 463-9007
Fax: (512) 936-4319
Email: sboesupport@tea.texas.gov
