Professor of Political Science Emile Lester
Professor of Political Science Emile Lester offered comments to the Friendly Atheist blog on proposed Texas social studies textbooks, which are being criticized for “exaggerating Judeo-Christian influence on the nation’s founding,” featuring “incomplete — and often inaccurate — account of religions other than Christianity,” using “outdated — and possibly offensive — anthropological categories and racial terminology in describing African civilizations” and one textbook included “a biased — verging on offensive — treatment of affirmative action.”
Emile Lester, a political scientist at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia, summarized his report this way: He called the texts a “triumph of ideology over ideals.”
The standards and the textbooks will combine to make Texas students’ “knowledge of American history a casualty of the culture wars,” Lester wrote. Read more.
Professor Lester is a fantastic critical thinker, and expert on Religion & Education. Glad to see knowledgeable individuals driven by facts are participating in this important process with broad consequences.