re: #185 subsailor68

Toward the end of Reagan’s second term, Skousen became the center of a minor controversy when state legislators in California approved the official use of another of his books, the 1982 history text “The Making of America.”

WTF? There are only two possibilities here. One, that these legislators were unaware of what was in that book, which would make them (like our congress with respect to the house bill) incompetent. Two, that these legislators were aware of what was in that book, which would make them complicit in out and out racism.

Neither possibility is defensible.

Read Richard Feynman’s tale of horror regarding his stint as a textbook reviewer for California’s public schools. It is entirely possible that no one ever read the thing in the first place. It’s so common, in fact, that publishers often send “books” out with covers wrapped around empty pages for review.

Seriously.

Warning: Feynman was a huge genius, and his accounts of his life are always entertaining. This one is no exception. But it is also one of the most stomach-churning indictments of the public school system you will ever run across, and may very well induce vomiting. You’ve been warned.