As part of the Republican effort to eliminate teaching about slavery, racism, and other injustices, the state has banned “critical race theory” and requires teaching “both sides” of controversies.
In the Carroll Independent School District, teachers were told that if they teach about the Holocaust in Europe, they must teach “the other side.” Understandably, teachers were confused. Are they supposed to give equal time to the genocide of millions of men, women, and children, and those who say that the genocide never occurred? When they teach about slavery, must they give equal time to the atrocities of enslavement and to apologists who say that slavery was benign?
Teachers in a Texas city have been told that if they have a book on the Holocaust in their classroom, they should also have one that offers an “opposite” view.
A school head’s instruction to staff in Southlake, which is 26 miles northwest of Dallas, was secretly captured on an audio recording obtained by NBC News.
Gina Peddy, executive director of the Carroll Independent School District, spoke during a training session on what books teachers can keep in classroom libraries.
It came four days after the Carroll school board, in response to a parent’s complaint, voted to reprimand a teacher who had an anti-racism book in her classroom.
In the recording, Ms. Peddy told staff to “remember the concepts” of a new state law that requires teachers to present different points of view when discussing “widely debated and currently controversial” topics.
Referring specifically to the Nazi genocide of six million Jews in wartime, he said: “And make sure if you have a book on the holocaust that you have one that has an opposite, that has other perspectives. “
In response, a teacher said, “How do you oppose the Holocaust?”
Mrs. Peddy told them, “Trust me. That has come up.”
Speaking later, a teacher from Carroll told NBC News: “Teachers literally fear that we will be punished for having books in our classes.
“There are no children’s books that show the ‘opposite perspective’ of the Holocaust or the ‘opposite perspective’ of slavery.
“Are we supposed to get rid of all the books on those topics?”
Another teacher hung caution tape in front of books in a classroom after the new guidelines were distributed.
In a statement issued following Ms. Peddy’s comments, Carroll’s spokeswoman Karen Fitzgerald said the district was trying to help teachers comply with the new state law and an updated version that will take effect in December.
Subsequently, the district superintendent publicly apologized.
As the Superintendent, I express my sincere apology regarding the online article and news story. During the conversations with teachers, comments made were in no way to convey the Holocaust was anything less than a terrible event in history.
This statement does not explain how Texas teachers can teach both sides of every issue. There is no doubt that the purpose of the law is to make teachers fearful of teaching anything about racism or any other atrocities that are matters of fact.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This incident reveals how truly ridiculous the whole “controversy” regarding book selection is. When I saw of video of the curriculum coordinator announcing that teachers should also select books that “disagree” with the Holocaust, there was a collective gasp from some the teachers and parents in the audience. The only controversy connected to the Holocaust would be if people believed in the fake news notion circulating among populists that the Holocaust never happened. Should teachers search for books that negate proven history? The right wants to silence real thought and history. This is tragically absurd.
No…it is tragically scary, and it gives credence to the conspiracy theorists. Teachers need to fight tooth and claw for an accurate representation of history and the effects of historical events.
Amen to this, Dr. Griffith!
the holocaust was real but corpses at Dachau not Jews but German soldiers used by Hitchcog for holocaust propaganda
Yes, retired teacher. Every time I think I’ve heard the most dangerous and stupid thing ever from an administrator, someone like this person comes along to top it. There evidently is no bottom to the well of absurdity that these people draw from.
Forget the Alamo!*
By Order of the Texas Equal Time Act.
Ok, that’s brilliant 🤣🤣
Remember the Ammo!
Remember the Ammo!
The AR 15
Remember the cammo!
The tan and the green
Remember the Lone Star
A state of the mind
Remember the junk car
The wrecking yard kind
Cadillac Ranch ☆
[audio src="https://ramrao.com/automobiles/cadillac-ranch/Cadillac-Ranch--Bruce-Springsteen.mp3" /]
LOL, Jon. Hilarious!
In truth, the analogy is not quite perfect. In the Texican Revolution of Independence there really were “good people” on both sides, indeed, pace John Wayne, there is much to criticize on the side of the rebels. Here they were, immigrants politely invited to settle the lands of the Tejas, given land grants and other incentives, and then they got all up in arms because the government of their host country forbid slavery and imposed the dictates and doctrines of the States Most Favored Church upon them. There’s a Texas-Sized Irony in that, Pilgrim.
So when the Founders of the Republic of Texas got down to penning their own Constitution, their chafing at having Catholic ways imposed on them led them to follow the U.S. Constitution in adding a Separation of Church and State clause. Laff Riot, comprende?
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/anglo-american-colonization
There’s a Texas-Sized Irony in that, Pilgrim.
ROFLMAO
i wonder who put all those boulders at Treblinka looks like to keep using radar again . It was done already done by Australia, Why not tell the truth now before it gets worse the truth will come out
The whole thing makes me sick. Utah now has a similar policy. How are we supposed to help students understand racism, antisemitism, etc and yet teach “both sides” as if both are valid. THEY ARE NOT BOTH VALID.
and with things like the Holocaust or lynching I would need A LOT of help knowing what on earth the “opposite” side was supposed to be and where the legal sources for it could be found…
both sides are not valid only the side that tells the truth if the truth is told now why do you worry ?
This is a fundamentally idiotic directive with a fundamentally idiotic motivation. But if they’re really duty-bound to abide by it, why not teach the history of the Palestinian nakba of 1947-49? The Palestinians were (and are) the victims of the victims of the Holocaust, the people whose story is rarely told in American discourse. If you want “the other side” of the Holocaust, that’s it. You don’t have to tell the Holocaust from the perspective of David Irving or the SS. Tell it from the perspective of those who were collateral damage of the attempt to compensate the victims.
and an interesting point to ponder: if any subject now gets an “opposite” side, teachers could point out an amazing amount of hidden truth just while going through approved textbooks
That’s a very good point and a very good suggestion, a bit like the union tactic of “working to rule.”
These are manufactured events and here is one place offering training for the controversies and the confrontations.
THE LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE
Conservatives focus on the nation’s school boards:
The Leadership Institute announces the launch of a new program to train the next generation of conservative candidates for the nation’s school boards.
“With this vital new program, the Leadership Institute will now prepare conservatives all across America to challenge the left’s control over the nation’s locally elected school boards.”
Morton C. Blackwell
President, Leadership Institute
https://www.leadershipinstitute.org/
In NY, our horrid former Education Commissioner also thought that it was just a terrific idea to study “both sides” of the Holocaust. Her actions prompted calls for her ouster, which unfortunately didn’t happen. https://www.syracuse.com/schools/2017/03/nazi_holocaust_homework_assignment_new_york_education_commissioner_maryellen_eli.html
MaryEllen Elia was a Jeb Bush protege and part of Scott’s transition team. She used her NY job to land a gig with a private company in Tampa.
If you listen to the actual audio, you can hear in Peddy’s voice that she is trying to manage the situation by urging the teachers to keep the law in mind, and she doesn’t have an adequate response when the teachers as “How do you oppose the Holocaust?” This is not the same as arguing that there is another valid side to the Holocaust. Clearly, she was not ready to meet the moment, but this doesn’t mean that she was defending the law or its absurd and evil both sides-ism. The teachers sounded ready to defy or at least creatively oppose the law. Hopefully, Peddy will take her cues from them.
Exactly what I heard when I listened to this too. This is a district official trying to find a way to keep their teachers safe from the legal consequences of a stupid and poorly-worded law. They know this is a bad idea, but in the classic tradition of teachers and administrators everywhere, they’re trying to make the best adaptation they can to the idiotic directives of those who don’t know what their doing but have the power to force it on schools anyway. It’s been discouraging to see this well-meaning effort to protect their staff being turned into a story about how they want to undermine teaching about the Holocaust. They don’t want to do anything like that. They just want to prepare their teachers for the inevitable protests and legal sabre-rattling that will come their way from this ridiculous law.
Stewart: We could easily turn this into a cautionary tale about media literacy. I wish more people would listen to the actual audio.
I listened to the audio. There is still no excuse. I am a Holocaust educator. What she said, and the law behind it, are both unacceptable.
Opposing “views” to the Holocaust or evolution don’t exist, only lies which deny their occurrence. Similarly, a “view” opposing the roundness of the Earth is a lie not a view.
If Earth is Round
If Earth is round
Then lies abound
And black is white
And wrong is right
And right is left
And gift is theft
And up is down
If Earth is round
Yeah, SDP, you are right. All hell broke loose with the view that the Earth is round and what was up or down became ambiguous. Is now Heaven up or down?
Science has made things very confusing. It was so much better when Christians had a single source of wisdom.
Galileo’s Gallows
When science reared
It’s ugly head
As many feared
As many said
All Hell broke loose
And Heavens rained
Religious truth
Was henceforth maimed
radar was used at Auschwitz and Treblinka no mass graves no more has to be said Alan Sabrosky claims no holocaust Him being Jewish i would believe him Germans have been demonized for 75 years they want the truth like deniers but i think Jews will find a way to keep the truth from coming out If it is true Jews have nothin to worry about If not it would only be right for the world
Well, well, what have we here? Looks like a Holocaust denier in our midst.
OK. Utter absurdity can be funny, Mr. Kahrs, but I think that your comedy routine here falls flat, despite being just about the dumbest crap I’ve ever read, due to the gravity of the topic. I suggest that you work on some new material.
Yup, one of THESE goose stepped right in.
They can yell and scream and call you “hOlOcAuSt dEnIeR” and think you’re joking, but they have no actual argument against your statement. They know they’re losing, but please, keep weeping about your “6 million” and keep believing in your fairy tales.
For some here, this denial of yours, Lester, contradicts the history of immediate family history. Some went to Auschwitz and other sites in Europe, did DNA identification of ashes, visited mass graves, etc. Your belief system, developed and maintained from a distance of five thousand miles and 70 years, is based on garbage and thin air.
My suggestion is that all posts without punctuation are moderated out.
In addition to Jews, another few million were killed, including Roma people, some Catholics, LGBT, and disabled. And we know this not only because of what Jews have recorded, but because of records the Nazis kept.
cristian for truth claims Corpses at Dachau and Buchenwald were dead german Soldiers killed by Eisenhower used for Holocaust propaganda movie made by Hitchcog
Perhaps we can pay Mexico to build a Wall from New Mexico to Oklahoma ,to Arkansas , and Louisiana . On second thought you might have to extend that wall a bit.
TAGO, Joel!
Taco Bell
I wonder how much the United States might gain if it let states like Texas leave the union with Traitor Trump as their president for life.
Here’s an interesting opinion piece on splitting up.
https://newrepublic.com/article/140948/bluexit-blue-states-exit-trump-red-america
So…you think that abandoning the hundreds of thousands of Democrats and Independents in Texas would be advantageous? How incredibly ignorant. Do you realize that some of the most powerful Dems came from Texas? It didn’t turn red until we had an influx of people from other parts of the US. The idiocy that is going on in Austin at the moment will hopefully cause a good ole Texas house cleaning this next election. I think many of the moderate Reps have had enough of the foolishness. We will see; however, it would be smarter for as many people as possible to help get Texas back to its blue roots instead of making stupid suggestions.
Nah, Lloyd is right. All these good people have the option to leave TX in case it gets separated. Let’s face it, the US is too big.
Will they be teaching opposing views of 2+2=??
Yes. Some early elementary students state that 2 + 2 = 22. This should be taught as an opposing view, imho.
And
3 ‘n 1 = oil
So there’s that too.
And 1/2 (2 + 2) = 1 + 1 by the distributive law
And since 1+1 = 11, which is 1/2 (22)
there is consistency and it all makes logical sense.
The statement “If 2+2=22 then 1+1=11” is true regardless of the truth value of the 1+1=11 conclusion since the 2+2=22 premise is false. To state it differently, once the false assumption 2+2=22 is made, any other statement is logically consistent with it. Like “If 2+2=22 then Trump was the wisest president” is true.
2 + 2 = whatever the boss says it is
Finally, someone who understands the political math!
We are in an Orwellian time in history where even the so-called “liberal” media, and countless supposedly “liberal” university professors who refuse to countenance any criticism of their white-centric history have helped amplify and legitimize the right propaganda that is the precursor to fascism.
There is no such thing as an “opposing view” of a fact. The Holocaust happened. Six million Jews died. You can’t balance a fact with some random person’s assertion that the Holocaust never happened, even if a prominent Republican politician presents this person as an expert in the field of Holocaust studies. When the “both sides must be reported as equally valid” journalists in the NYT cover the news by presenting the facts that inform the Democrats’ policies and statement as having equal weight with the lies that inform the Republicans’ policies and statements — as they so often do, although they haven’t (yet) been cowed and sycophantic enough to present the Holocaust this way — then the aren’t journalists anymore.
On the other hand, it IS possible to have different opinions of the various influences that led to those facts occurring. Was Hitler or Goebbels more responsible for the easy acceptance that Germans had for their “let’s exterminate all Jewish men, women and children” policies? Was the German population’s easy acceptance of the mass disappearance of their Jewish neighbors due to fear of speaking out, or strong support for making their Jewish neighbors disappear? Was the US government’s reluctance to speak out caused only by the rampant anti-Semitism in the state department or were there also reasons – like doing the bidding of rich white men who wanted to keep the Nazis happy for their own financial interests?
The far right wants to control FACTS and they do so by getting people in the media and academia who should know better to help them fudge the difference between fact and opinion.
Anyone offering an interpretation of history based only on invented reality should be marginalized and so should the politicians who cite “experts” who have no facts to support their opinion.
There can be multiple interpretations of what facts influenced history more than others. But there cannot be multiple interpretations of what the reality was.
The Republicans can cite one of their favorite “historians” who says that Holocaust didn’t happen or that the entire Native American population invited the Europeans to take over their land, or that African men, women and children rushed onto slave ships because they could not wait to serve white masters in the new world, but that doesn’t make it true.
But we live in an Orwellian time when the NYT and other media organizations are so cowed by the far right that if those fact-free claims are presented as “truth” by the QAnon controlled “mainstream Republican party”, the NYT will start reporting on the Holocaust and Slavery and Native American issues as if it is a “both sides” issue, and the truth will simply be presented as the partisan belief of Democrats.
It is a very dangerous time, and the media has been played by Steve Bannon and Fox News into being complicit. And despite the danger, there is no sign that the media plans to stop getting played.
Voting rights is now a “partisan” issue to the media, as if somehow there is still an open question as to whether a basic tenet of democracy is making sure every citizen has the right and ability to vote, or whether it is perfectly acceptable to pass laws to disenfranchise citizens who won’t vote the way those in power want them to. To the so-called liberal media, the jury is still out, because the journalists’ believe their job is to report that those who pass laws to disenfranchise citizens say they are doing this protect democracy, and journalists believe their job is to legitimize that.
Remember how many “stories” The NY Times ran about Hillary Clinton’s e-mails! when that wasn’t the story at all?
Here’s a Trump “Christian” Congressman from Virginia – Bob Good – flat-out lying to students and directing them to endanger their health, and that of others. They. Have. No. Shame.
https://www.rappnews.com/news/schools/rep-good-encourages-rappahannock-students-to-shed-masks-at-school-and-rise-up-in-opposition/article_9a684372-2dea-11ec-888e-f7c0d29fe33f.html
take 911 the world knows what happen how come it will not be reported on news because the criminals own the media blackmail gets professors fired for wanting a open investigatian just to find out , not claiming to know how much longer zionists get away with terrible lying about holocaust and 911
Take your meds
“The far right wants to control FACTS and they do so by getting people in the media and academia who should know better to help them fudge the difference between fact and opinion.”
I would have to disagree with part of this statement. Academia does not set out to “fudge the difference between fact and opinion.” They do the best they can to establish the difference between fact and opinion; however, undergrads and grads already have a vast experience of muddy waters with this skill. You would NOT believe some of the arguments I encountered in college essays. I have no idea where some of these ideas are coming from, but it is not from factual information.
I taught an information literacy class (grad level) focused on references and information sources and how to analyze information for validity. This needs to be taught beginning in elementary school because most of my grads didn’t even know what a database was, nor could they identify valid news sources. They had no clue as to media bias research.
We have many layers of problems left over from the Information Age, the fast developing methods of obtaining information, the doubling and tripling of information, yet no one was steering the boat…and now we have QAnon, people who make up information.
The far right DOES want to control facts, and they do it through ignorance of information literacy.
What about opposing views on abortion?
Are they going to teach the views of Wade AND Roe?
Or just Wade?
Amen, Brother SomeDAM.
All my hexes live in Texas
That’s why I hang my hat in pretty much any other state…except Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Louisiana, North Carolina, Georgia, Arkansas, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Montana and Oklahoma, Kentucky (and a few other states).
Georgia, home to Stacey Abrams, has 2 Democratic Senators now.
Too close to Florida, regardless.
I won’t hang my hat in Georgia until continental drift puts it at least a couple hundred miles away.
Or donate change puts Florida under water.
Whichever comes first.
Climate change.
All my hexes live in Texas
Texas is a place I’d really love to flee
All my hexes live in Texas
A place I’ll never ever (ever) be
It is important to teach the accompanying vocabulary with the so-called opposing views:
“Bigot”.
“Bigotry.”
“Racist.”
“Racism.”
YES!
Also,
“Antisemitism”
“Antisemitic”
There are not “opposing views” to some things. It’s like “alternate facts”.
They just don’t exist.
“Cold hard truth” is more fitting than “rAcIsM” or “bIgOt”
And pigs can fly.
I, The Great and Magnificent Editor Scissor Hands the Magician will now attempt to cut and saw a post completely in half, and then magically attach the head to the feet without the body, keeping the post alive the whole time!!! May I have a volunteer? Texas Teachers Told to Teach “Opposing Views” of the Holocaust and Slavery volunteers! Thank you, please come up to the stage. Okay, I take your first and last sentences only, and abracadabra, linguabonanza, cut, cut, cut, and here we are, the true meaning of this latest Republican legislation:
As part of the Republican effort to eliminate teaching, the purpose is to make teachers fearful of teaching.
Ta-da! Thank you! You’re too kind. For my next feat, I will pull a rabbit out of a hat and a drunk Mel Gibson out of a Ted Cruz.
So that’s where Mel came from. Makes sense.
What utter idiocy.
But just about every “teacher training” I ever attended was at this level of stone cold stupidity.
Is it time for someone to point out how ridiculous these laws are? Monday I will point out that Mexico declared its independence under Iturbide. The opposing viewpoint, held by a splinter group, holds that Hildago actually returned to earth after being executed and inhabited the body of the aforementioned. This view is held by a five year old possum who has studied Latin American history at Bob Shepherd’s Duh Academy. Score one for fairness.
It seems so preposterous. I started a class Friday in an enrichment time at our school on human genocide. An interesting mixture of students showed up, all serious. Do you think I can paint a picture of any such occurrence wherein such things are justified? Of course not.
What then can the laws be for? Stir the base. Make the base think you have their back against the imaginary evil. Without the bugbear, there would be no support.
Bless you, Roy, for doing that. It’s the proper response to these moronic and evil “teach both sides” laws. I am really impressed. This is EXACTLY how a courageous teacher acts in such a circumstance, at such a bats**t crazy time.
And what about those physician instructors who don’t give equal time to the value of bladder cancer? Better ring up Governor Abbott.
There is, however, a fine line that relates to what I wrote below. Yes, “both sides” in any context (at least any of which I am capable of conceiving) is wrong. But it IS very important to understand that opposing views existed. Not only that, they influenced public events for more than a decade before taking power, dictated policy for twelve years, and continue to live today in various forms and guises. And it IS very important to expose students to the lies, bigotries and oppressions–historical, actual and potential–in order to understand how and why one side was very much wrong and destructive. Most importantly, it IS vital for students to internalize these lessons, probably more so than at any time in American history. However short it may still be.
One of the BEST ways to explain an important policy or value is often to share the garbage on the other side and expose it as such.
Well said, Greg.
I guarantee you that Ms. Peddy encountered a Holocaust Denier parent, and realized that the Texas law required, “Both Sides.”
She should also have noted that if you have a globe in your class, you need a flat earth supported by 4 elephants on the back of a turtle as well:
Here is the image:
I thought it was turtles all the way down.
There is no opposing viewpoint against the ignorance & audacity of Texas’ governor & legislature.
All Cattle and No Hat
The cattle sans the hat
The state is all of that
Cuz hat implies a brain
But Texas is insane
Oh how I wish I had time to put together some “opposing views” lectures and give them. I’d finally be able to make use of my album of Hitler speeches (hence my views about his lack of charisma) and could show Song of the South in all its intended glory!
https://www.cleveland.com/darcy/2021/10/hitlers-texas-book-mandate-win-darcy-cartoon.html
That’s great, Greg!
Is Jeff Darcy you, GregB?
He does seem to be channeling my thoughts exactly. Only, in my class, the kids would have to learn German in order read it in its original craziness.
AH’s writing was excruciatingly confused, rambling, bloated, boring, and poorly organized. He really brought each of these characteristics to an exquisite level of fine tuning! His writing is like a plastic bag of dog vomit tied off and left in the sun. I read him in translation, however. I bet that in the original, they scale even more profound depths! I keep telling myself that I need to learn some German. There is work in that language as beautiful as his is dreadful.
The Holocaust is notorious for being one of the most fabricated tragedies of all time, overestimating the deaths that were not from gas chambers, but from primarily a typhus outbreak. Ever since the “good guys” won World War II and Israel was founded illegally on Palestinian land, we’ve been inundated with Holocaust propaganda in a pathetic way to sympathize with a race of people that has been notorious for deceiving and manipulating people in their home countries for centuries. Meanwhile, Israel’s been causing endless tragedies for over 7 decades, massacring innocent families with a single sign of remorse. Author Elie Wiesel’s novel “Night” is nothing more than glorified fiction about how terrible Auschwitz was, and there have been instances where “victims” of this camp actually relocated and moved to different countries, and their relatives never knew it and assumed they were killed many years ago. The reason why they insist to play devil’s advocate about slavery is because they’ve played with us with their lies for years.