[2778] in Depressing_Thoughts
who *does* write these things, anyway?
sethg@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (sethg@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Sat Feb 15 12:22:52 1992
Napoleon won at Waterloo. Sputnik was an ICBM. Douglas MacArthur was
responsible for MacArthurism and the red scares in the 50's. The Korean War
ended when the US used atomic weapons.
All this and much more (258 errors of this magnitude) in the Scott Foresman
High School History book series.
Texas had enough and ordered the books to be revised, fining Scott Foresman
a quarter of a million for delivering shoddy goods to the state.
A fair number of teachers did not realize there were any errors in the
books.
Scott Foresman spokesperson said "The books were checked carefully for
social content. Accuracy was secondary."
Another Scott Foresman spokesperson said "We process a tremendous amount of
information, and these things happen. Clearly not a good job of proof
reading."
There was no word on whether people who believe stuff like that should be
kept on as authors of school textbooks. These were the books used statewide.
Only Texas has caught this: one presumes the same books are in use in other
states.
This is known as educational professionalism.
