Texas to make things all right

Bias in history books meant for the classroom is nothing new.

As children, we in Canada were treated to the story of the British and French "colonization" of North America, with the harmless colonists painted as nobel Christian saviors, while the evil and primitive natives had the nerve to reaction violently to our humanitarian effects to "civilize" them.

Ingrates!

If your European name ended in a vowel, you might get a footnote. Non European? Forget it.

Just the muddy history of Dollard des Ormeaux gives you a hint at how history is used by those in power to influence the present.

* the urban legend that he died by having the as yet unexploded bomb he threw at native warriors thrown back and exploding in his fort is more than likely Anglophone propaganda to make the French look bad. What hand held bombs did they have in 1660 anyway?

Texas high school students would learn about such significant individuals and milestones of conservative politics as Newt Gingrich and the rise of the Moral Majority — but nothing about liberals — under the first draft of new standards for public school history textbooks.

And the side that got left out is very unhappy.

As it stands, students would get “one-sided, right wing ideology,” said Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, chairman of the House Mexican American Caucus.

“We ought to be focusing on historical significance and historical figures. It's important that whatever course they take, that it portray a complete view of our history and not a jaded view to suit one's partisan agenda or one's partisan philosophy,” he said.

Read more here.