Texas Schoolbooks Changed to Reflect 'Moral Values'

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2 textbook firms heed Texas, change words on marriage

Texas Schoolbooks Changed to Reflect 'Moral Values'

Officials did not like "married partners" instead of "husband and

wife." Some changes were rejected.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2886945

Altered school books given board approval

Texts rewritten to define marriage as between a man and a woman

By JANET ELLIOTT

Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

RESOURCES

The Texas adoption process was being watched around the nation

because books adopted for Texas often are marketed to smaller

states.

• Books specified: Texas is one of 21 states that reviews textbooks

according to state guidelines and then mandates specific books that

schools must choose from.

• For example: Districts now will choose from four high-school

health books from three different publishers.

AUSTIN - New public school health textbooks that teach abstinence

exclusively and address concerns about homosexuality by defining

marriage as the union between a man and a woman were adopted Friday.

 

 

Only one of 14 State Board of Education members present at the

meeting voted against the books, which were widely criticized for

failing to provide information to help teens avoid pregnancy and

sexually transmitted diseases.

 

Dallas Democrat Mavis Knight said she voted against the books

because they failed to include required information about

contraceptives.

 

Two publishers agreed to make minor changes after some board members

Thursday expressed concern that the books tacitly endorsed same-sex

marriages by references to "partners" instead of "husbands and

wives."

 

Holt, Rinehart and Winston included the following sentence in its

health books for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders: "Marriage is a

lifelong union between a husband and a wife."

 

However, Holt did not adopt controversial language in its teacher

editions suggesting that homosexuals and lesbians are more prone to

self-destructive behaviors.

 

Glencoe/McGraw-Hill changed a few references in its two high school

books. For example, "When two people decide to marry ... "

became "When a man and a woman decide to marry ... "

 

Board member Terri Leo, R-Spring, had argued that the neutral

language about "partners" legitimized homosexuality in violation of

a Texas law that prevents state agencies from recognizing same-sex

marriages or civil unions.

 

"I'm extremely happy," Leo said. "I really wanted a definition of

marriage between a man and a woman to be in the book."

 

Randall Ellis, executive director of the Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby of

Texas, said the books left out any information that might have given

gay and lesbian students a sense of belonging.

 

"The books talk about abstinence until marriage. That's not an

option for gay and lesbian students. So they feel alienated right

there," said Ellis.

 

Most of the reaction to the adoption focused on the high school

books' lack of information to meet a curriculum requirement that

students "analyze the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of barrier

protection and other contraceptive methods" in preventing sexually

transmitted diseases.

 

More than 200 people testified on the books during public hearings

in July and September.

 

Many speakers said the books should stress abstinence but also

wanted the material to provide medically accurate, age-appropriate

contraceptive information.

 

Others said that including birth-control information in the texts

would send teens a mixed message.

 

Charts listing types of contraceptives, their failure rates and

protection they offer from diseases are included in the teacher

editions of the books, but were omitted from student editions.

 

Leo said she thinks those charts should be in the teacher books only.

 

"It's highly sensitive material and the reason the Legislature wrote

an abstinence-based law is to give parents an opt-out," said Leo.

 

She said that the required half-year high school health course was

never meant to be comprehensive sex education.

 

"Because this basic information is not in students' editions, most

students will never see it," said Peggy Romberg, chief executive

officer of the Women's Health and Family Planning Association of

Texas.

 

The board also adopted new materials for fine arts and foreign

language classes.

 

The state is expected to spend $378 million on the books, which

replace 11-year-old texts.

 

A report released in September from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute

said the Texas process leads to sanitized books written to avoid

offending anyone who might complain at textbook adoption hearings in

big states.

 

The report recommended allowing local districts, and even individual

teachers, to choose their textbooks.

 

janet.elliott

 

 

 

 

By Natalie Gott

 

Associated Press

 

 

AUSTIN, Texas - The Texas Board of Education approved new health

textbooks yesterday for the state's high schools and middle schools

after the publishers agreed to change the wording to depict marriage

as the union of a man and a woman.

 

The decision involves two of the biggest textbook publishers and

represents another example of Texas exerting its market clout as the

nation's second-largest buyer of textbooks. Officials said the

decision could affect hundreds of thousands of books in Texas alone.

 

On Thursday, a board member contended that proposed new books ran

counter to a Texas law banning the recognition of gay civil unions

because the texts used terms such as married partners instead of

husband and wife.

 

After hearing the debate Thursday, the publisher Holt, Rinehart &

Winston agreed to include a definition of marriage as a "lifelong

union between a husband and a wife." The definition, which was added

to middle-school textbooks, was already in Holt's high-school

editions, Holt spokesman Rick Blake said.

 

The other publisher, Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, changed phrases such as

when two people marry and partners to when a man and a woman marry

and husbands and wives.

 

"We thought it was a reasonable thing to do," Blake said.

 

Blake said Holt did not plan on adding its definition of marriage in

books that would be sold outside Texas. A spokeswoman for

Glencoe/McGraw-Hill did not immediately respond to questions.

 

A list of the books approved by the Texas board and a list of those

not approved are sent to school districts for guidance when they

choose books.

 

Board member Mary Helen Berlanga, a Democrat, asked the panel to

approve the books without the changes, but her proposal was

rejected, 10-4.

 

"We're not supposed to make changes at somebody's whim," Berlanga

said. "It's a political agenda, and we're not here to follow a

political agenda."

 

Board member Terri Leo, a Republican, said she was pleased with the

publishers' changes. She had led the effort to get the publishers to

change the texts, objecting to what she called "asexual stealth

phrases" such as individuals who marry.

 

"Marriage has been defined in Texas, so it should also be defined in

our health textbooks that we use as marriage between a man and a

woman," Leo said.

 

Texas lawmakers last year passed a law that bars the state from

recognizing same-sex civil unions. The state already had a ban on

gay marriage.

 

Neither publisher added all the changes Leo initially pushed for.

For instance, one proposed passage in the teacher's editions

read: "Opinions vary on why homosexuals, lesbians and bisexuals as a

group are more prone to self-destructive behaviors like depression,

illegal drug use, and suicide."

 

Randall Ellis, executive director of the Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby of

Texas, said the board overstepped its bounds in suggesting and

adopting the new wording.

 

"Their job is to review for factual information, and instead what we

see is the insertion of someone's ideology and agenda into the

textbook of middle-schoolers," Ellis said.

 

The board's approval caps months of debate over health textbooks.

Much of the debate had centered on how much sex education should be

included in high-school books.

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