If you're in school you learn via
textbooks, or Wikipedia.
But still a lot of textbooks and
for a long time in America,
one of the big issues has been that
textbooks are not written
necessarily by the best minds.
They tend to come out of very
conservative states like Texas
most notably.
And that colors the sorts of things
that get taught and
what doesn't get taught.
But they're mostly generally
just talking about sort of normal
political bias, which is terrible
and helps to erase a lot of
the worst instances in our history,
but sometimes it goes even farther.
So I want to show you the results
of an analysis by The Guardian
that's been looking into the sorts
of books that are used in
many private schools, so
mainly Christian Schools.
They reviewed dozens of textbooks
produced by the Christian
textbook publishers Abeka,
Bob Jones University Press and the
Accelerated Christian Education,
three of the most popular textbook
sources used in private schools
throughout the US.
So how popular Well,
with the first they claim that 1
million Christian School students
use them back in 2017.
And the accelerated Christian
education site says that 10s of
1000s of schools and
home schools in 140 different
countries use their books.
In fact, the huffpost did
an investigation back in 2017.
And they found that at least 1/3 of
all of the private voucher schools
throughout the US use a curricula
from one of the three sources.
They're going to be cited here.
And that isn't even getting
into those who don't use
the voucher program.
So this is something that
potentially is reaching 1000's and
1000's of different schools.
So what are some of the things that
you might be learning If these
are the books that are used in
a school that you go to.
Well one accelerated Christian
education high school textbook says
that quote, the end of slavery in
this country was a legitimate goal,
but much was done in the name of
abolition that was as evil as
the institution of slavery itself.
It contains a section titled black
immigration, referring to slavery,
which notes quote,
that all immigrants have come
to America willingly.
So let's pause there, Ben, that
certainly has a spin on it so much
spin that it would be difficult to
actually read the book.
But to say that what was done in
the cause of abolition was
as evil as hundreds of years of
slavery is a pretty bold claim.
>> The United States,
is the only society in the history
of the world and my undergraduate
degrees in social sciences with
a focus on anthropology.
So somebody can provide me
an example, I might be wrong, but
To my knowledge, the United States
is the only society in the history
of the world that has had literal
human farms, where people were
sexually assaulted and
forced to have children so
that people would have more slaves.
I don't think anything in
the abolition movement adds up to
anything like that.
Thing very few things do.
>> Look, I want to believe you
sound so persuasive but you're
not a textbook, and I read in
a book that abolition was as evil.
No, you're totally right.
And the issue is that like a nine
year old and 11 year old he's just
going to accept it.
They don't know about that.
They're certainly not going to be
taught in these books about the
systematized rape and destruction
of families and all of that.
But it goes further.
Here's a section from
an accelerated
Christian education textbook.
Under radical reconstruction
the South suffered great Southern
leaders and
much of the old aristocracy
were unable to vote or hold office.
The result was that state
legislatures were filled with
illiterate or incompetent men.
Northerners who were eager to make
money or gain power during
the crisis rushed to the south.
For all these reasons
reconstruction led to graft and
corruption and reckless spending.
In retaliation, many southerners
formed secret organizations to
protect themselves and
their society from anarchy.
Among these groups was
the Ku Klux Klan, a clandestine
group of white men, who went forth
at night dressed in white
sheets and pointed white hoods.
Wow.
So a reconstruction was radical.
And it took all of society's
best people had formerly served
in the Confederates and you know,
slaveholders, things like
that filled the government
with dummies who didn't believe
that there should be slaves.
And then because there was such
anarchy, what else was there to
be done, but formed domestic terror
groups like the KKK.
And again then a kid reading this
probably this is the only
information they've ever received
about these topics that I worry
that they're just going to
soak it up.
That's what they're going to
believe is true.
>> Yeah, that's terrifying.
That's literally terrifying because
that is like a ridiculous way to
like first like calling
the elected, because to be clear
there was like a lot of states in
the south that had a bunch of newly
elected black representatives who
freed from slavery went and
got elected.
And the KKK was literally one of
many literal murders squads
that would murder those people very
publicly.
And they also if you want to
talk about rigged elections in
the United States.
Elections in the south up until
shoot, I think it was almost
the 1940s or something like that
were notoriously rigged where the
Klu Klux Klan would literally roll
in and like steal ballot boxes,
they would stuff ballots, there was
a notoriously a town where there
were more votes cast, then people,
not just adults, but people period
that lived in the town.
There's a huge part of American
history in the south.
And like, if this is the only thing
a kid is learning about it like
it's just, it is brain melting.
This is literally brain melting.
>> You're totally right about
the effect on democracy.
And then of course,
there's the race based massacres,
there was the wiping out
of an entire town government that
had elected black representatives.
But no, it was just it was
necessary because they were worried
about anarchy.
If anarchy is not
following the law, it kind of seems
like a vigilante squad lynching
people illegally isn't
really defending against anarchy so
much as causing it.
But anyway, look that is talking
about things from a long time ago.
And I believe we need to have
an accurate understanding of our
history, but we also need to have
an accurate understanding about
what's happening now.
And unfortunately the books are no
better when it comes to that.
So, the Bob Jones world
history textbook says unfortunately
American's view of race relations
declined after Obama came into
office.
Race riots in places such as
Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore,
Maryland greatly escalated racial
tensions and worsen strife between
minorities and local police.
President Obama's attempts to
resolve these problems often seem
to make the situation worse.
And Abeka says groups such as
Black Lives Matter sharpen
the divide between police and
citizen and black and
white with divisive rhetoric.
So Yeah.
Whether it's
the origin story of the KKK or
protests that continue to this day,
it is framing things in a way that
makes those who are fighting for
equity and justice.
They were the ones that were
anarchist.
They were the ones that were
divisive.
If it's getting worse.
It's because of them.
>> Yeah, I mean, and
let's talk about recent.
United States history,
40 years ago in the 80s, is when
sundown towns in the United States
reached their peaks.
If you don't know what a Sundown
town is Chad, a Sundown town is
a town where people of color were
literally systematically either
murdered or arrested simply for
being in the town after sundown,
hence its name.
They reached their peak in the 80s.
In the 80s, 40 years ago that means
many of the people,
who are old enough to have written
these textbooks were alive and
very much likely in their adulthood
at the time when these sundown
towns were at their peak.
Which means to be very clear,
they're very aware of it and
be might have some sympathies for
perhaps their cousins, brothers,
uncles, whoever might have
participated in that.
>> Yeah. >> And that's like those
people are very much alive today.
>> Yeah,100% right.
Or like you tell a great story,
I'll tell a different one.
So some black Americans would
venture into sundown towns causing
tension with local police.
That's the way they would cover in
their schoolbooks,
absolute madness.
Now, very briefly, they do go even
further back in history.
So for instance accelerated
Christian education textbook, if
you want to learn about early man,
you can see as they snuck up on
the Wiley Brontosaurus wearing
jeans and wielding swords.
So, there weren't men at the same
time as dinosaurs,
I think we all know that.
And to the extent that they were
like men eventually,
genes are more recent.
I will say though I was very
disappointed because there is so
little that is true in that image
that I assumed, and
I almost wanted it to be
true to be totally perfect.
I was like,
I bet you the Stegosaurus and
the Brontosaurus are separated
by like 100 million years but But
no they were concurrent.
They got that one.
That's the only thing in that
image is actually accurate been.
>> Yeah.
I do have a confession now that
we're at the Young Earth stuff.
This is My Confession.
In high school,
I went to a public school, but
after school, I may or may not have
been very religious and
gone out of my way to do like after
school religious classes that were
very much like and remember kids,
harass your teachers and tell them
that the world is 3000 years old.
>> [LAUGH] God, causing tension
with local teachers.
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