Dear Editor,
A history text book for 11th graders in many South Carolina school districts is teaching a censored version of the U.S. Constitution. The book is called “The Americans” and is published by McDougal Littell. It is recommended to districts by the South Carolina Department of Education.
This book contains a highly questionable interpretation of the Second Amendment.
It also leaves out parts of the Third Amendment and shows the two amendments combined together.
“The Second and Third Amendments — grant citizens the right to bear arms as members of a militia of citizen-soldiers and prevent the government from housing troops in private homes in peace time,” page 149 of this book states.
For a refresher I will include the Second and Third Amendments below as they were written by our forefathers (and still in effect today):
Amendment 2:
A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Amendment 3:
No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
This censorship must not be allowed to continue. If it does then our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will soon be taught that the only ones allowed to have guns are the military and law enforcement. We must fight for our children’s freedom now by stopping this socialist teaching of false history aimed at taking away their rights.
I know that this book is being used by Lexington School District One. This must be stopped in South Carolina. To help save our children please contact your legislators.
Sincerely,
David Whetsell
Lexington, S.C.
SIC SEZ
David … thank you for sharing this information. It’s unbelievable the extent to which government-run schools are attempting to indoctrinate future generations. Kudos to you for exposing it and calling it out for what it is – “false history.”
61 comments
Ah, Sic Willie and his favorite phrase “government-run schools”. I am quite sure Sic Willie has surveyed all private and/or parochial schools and not a single one of them uses or plan to use this text. Is that correct?
Well, my guess is that he’d say that private schools don’t use texts with any sort of bias, anyway, because free market, capitalism, etc. etc. etc.
The free market fixes everything!
If you don’t want your kids being taught statist ideals then maybe you should consider not sending them to a statist institution.
Well, perhaps he might would if HIS money could follow HIS kids via a voucher or tax credit, to a worthy school. Otherwise, double paying for something is often a prohibitive b!tch… speaking of b!tches, do you hear that, you worthless EduNazi b!tch, Jan?!…. wherever you are?
I curious, how much of your money can you document went to pay for public schools last year?
Would you want a voucher for more than that? If so, aren’t you taking other peoples money?
*
1) TBG can only determine the minimum of his $$ that went to public schools last year. He has this thing called a “Property Tax Receipt”.
2) Probably. Yes. Absolutely yes.
3) Yes. Our children’s education is the shared responsibility of all of us.
*TBG’s opinions are his and may or may not reflect the opinions of Barbarossa.
So you are saying you want me to give you money to help you educate your children the way you see fit, with no input from me.
At least with public education I have a say in what I am paying for. If I don’t want to pay for a school to teach children there were dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark, I can say so. They might do it anyway, but I can vote in the school board elections.
I think one of the problems here remains, the “voucher” folks want everyone to give them far more money than they are paying to support public education.
The majority rules in local school districts? Really?! So my local school district – where the overwhelming majority of its constituents support public prayer – isn’t going to have to worry about the legal challenges from your atheist friends? Sorry, but this is modern America; you know, where only your side wins. Enjoy the ride… while it lasts.
You mad boo?
Would you at least be willing to let the folks who take responsibility for educating their own children get a tax credit (that offsets what they are paying for public education) while their kids are in school?
Only if you are willing to give the childless a tax credit…
Sure!
Small world, dude!
TBG went to school with your brothers, Phuk Dup and Phuk Dat. Even dated your sister, Phuk Mi for a bit. Heard she married that Harder boy from the upstate.
I would need to think about all the implications, but maybe.
Yep Tom, probably more than you. A better question, should the “public schools” retain revenue for kids who are not using the system? And, if you say yes, can I also assume that you think that parents should be required to support the “public schools” even if, hypothetically, all of the parents within a school district were suddenly capable and desirous of pulling their kids out of said schools and putting them into private schools? Taken the extreme, that’s your ridiculous argument.
Perhaps we should take your argument to the extreme, I did not use the library or go to the zoo last year so I now want a tax credit for my non-use.
Further, people seem to forget or be ignorant of section under Article XI of the SC Constitution –
SECTION 3. System of free public schools and other public institutions of learning.
The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a system of free public schools open to all children in the State and shall establish, organize and support such other public institutions of learning, as may be desirable. (1972 (57) 3193; 1973 (58) 44.)
SECTION 4. Direct aid to religious or other private educational institutions prohibited.
No money shall be paid from public funds nor shall the credit of the State or any of its political subdivisions be used for the direct benefit of any religious or other private educational institution. (1972 (57) 3193; 1973 (58) 44.)
Thomas Jefferson said that constitutions should be rewritten every 20 years or so. We are overdue!
*smiles*
I doubt you pay more than me, but I could care less. Yes we have an obligation to provide public education. Its in our State Constitution, and it is one of the pillars of democracy. Your argument about everyone going to private school is silly.
You keep talking about paying double but you are not. People, like me, without children in public school and people with children in public school are paying the vast majority of the cost of those schools. Your share of the cost is very little, and frankly your obligation to pay.
Yet you argue that we should hand you thousands of dollars a year to use on such education as you see fit, with absolutely no input as to what that money is expended on. I’m sorry that does not make any sense to me at all.
Hey, Tom, if it makes you feel any better, your comment does not make any sense to me at all.
First of all public education is not “one of pillars of democracy”. It is, however, plank #10 of <a href="http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch02.htm". The Communist Manifesto.
Secondly, your categorization of Barbarossa’s reductio ad absurdum argument as “silly” is pretty flippant, IMHO.
What is silly, is your trying to score points by pointing out the obvious fact that the <i.collective group of public school children’s parents and childless people pay more in aggregate than any one individual.
Sheesh!
I am not pointing out that the collective pays more than the one. I am pointing out that people who want vouchers for private school are paying way less toward public schools than they want the state to give them to help pay for their private schools.
We will have to disagree on the importance of public education, but it was not Karl Marx’s idea.
“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories. And to render them safe, their minds must be improved to a certain degree.” Thomas Jefferson
“Above all things I hope the education of the common people will be attended to ; convinced that on their good sense we may rely with the most security for the preservation of a due degree of liberty.” Thomas Jefferson
“Now let us see what the present primary schools cost us, on the supposition that all the children of 10. 11. & 12. years old are, as they ought to be, at school: and, if they are not, so much the work is the system; for they will be untaught, and their ignorance & vices will, in future life cost us much dearer in their consequences, than it would have done, in their correction, by a good education.” Thomas Jefferson
“It is a free school system. It knows no distinction of rich and poor…it throws open its doors and spreads the table of its bounty for all the children of the state…Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the equalizer of the conditions of men, the great balance wheel of the social machinery.” – Horace Mann
Some good quotes there!
We are probably more in agreement on the importance of public education than you think.
It is important to distinguish between the importance of education, including for the public in general, and the assumption that the only way that is feasible is via socialist/collective/public means.
That is why Tom constructed the argument in the fashion he did, he pieced together historical opinions to lead one to the conclusion that publically funded education is the only way for a preservation of liberty(Jefferson) and “equality”(how very egalitarian & socialist of hi).
Tom made a good argument, but that doesn’t mean it’s “right”.
For instance, I can find one simple chink in the armor:
Take for instance the premise by Jefferson:
“If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.”
Notice that no one really likes talking about the EFFECTIVENESS of gov’t education.
If the Jeffersonian ideal for the need of limited government revolves around corrutpion, ineptitude, tyranny, etc.; WHY ON EARTH WOULDN’T IT APPLY TO ITS FUNCTIONARIES/ARM, LIKE PUBLIC SCHOOL?
In this regard, Jefferson may have been a hypocrite…still yet…in his day there were ZERO gov’t funded schools…so in that context maybe even Jefferson himself hoped for a genuine education outside of it being run by government. One can only guess.
*John McLaughlin vioce*
What if we took the budgets of all public, private, parochial schools in SC, added them up, then divided them by the number of school age children in the state and sent each parent a check?
Discuss.
No questions that the system is unfair(to those with and without kids), however the only way it changes is by people withdrawing their kids and hence their consent.
The world is filled with unfairness, but the simple fact is those in public education administration generally speaking don’t care too much what the parents of the kids they are educating have to say.
The more kids that are withdrawn, the better. The system still gets paid per student in attendance. You simply have to find a way to get your kids out regardless of the barriers put up by the public education establishment.
There are no barriers to getting your kids out of public school. You home school them or send them to private school.
Despite your admonitions, there as plenty of quality public schools providing a good education to their students. Our local schools are great, and as a result there are very few kids in private school in my school district. Also, there are plenty of crappy private schools in SC. In fact SC has the worst private schools in the country.
The fact that you think your private school is better than public school, does not mean I believe the same. Most likely if you send your kid to a white flight school you are wasting your money, but as long as its your money to waste, why should I care. If you want to waste public money that’s another matter. Don’t ask me to help pay for your crappy private school.
Why do you HATE people from the poorer, rural areas of the state?
“There are no barriers to getting your kids out of public school.”
If you pay property taxes, yes there are. If you received your money back for educating your kids outside the public school system, then you would be correct instead of incorrect.
That is not withstanding any arguments about tax money for library’s, roads, etc. and whether you should get your money back for those things you don’t use.
In other words, the barriers are there whether you choose to acknowledge them or not, or make an argument outside of the fact, like whether anyone is entitled to their money back for government services they don’t use.
That is Barbarrosa’s complaint. It is legitimate.
If he didn’t pay taxes that went to fund public schools, then it wouldn’t be obviously.
There are no barriers to getting your kids out of public school.
Money is an barrier for many. Hence this discussion…..
No, money is a barrier to getting kid in the private school of choice. It is not a barrier to getting kids out of public school. 90%of the time, money is not the issue, its what the family does not want to give up that is the issue. I.E. family vacations, expensive cars, non-working mom, more time with the kids, club memberships, etc.
I hate no one. I want the state to fix the public school system and I believe it can be fixed.
TBG understands opportunity costs, but you do make a valid point.
TGB’s point is this:
You’ve admitted that you live in an area with good public schools. For your kids, a good education is “free”. There are those, however, that live in districts where the schools are “crappy” but where there are good private schools. Why should these children be denied a good, “free” education.
TBG, if you have read my rants over the months and years you know my frustration with this issue. You also would have noticed that I have always said that if the vouchers were limited to the parents of children who truly cannot afford private school and who are currently in a failing public school, until such time as their available public school is no longer failing, I would support vouchers for those kids. With the understanding the state would take over the local school and do what it takes to make it non-failing as soon as possible.
I want everyone to have access to quality education. I want that education to be available regardless of income, race, religion, or social status. That is not going to happen with Private Schools, unless they agree to take everyone who comes to them with a voucher and the voucher is large enough for everyone to afford to pay the freight in that school. Of course that makes it a public school.
Can you imagine how infuriating it would be for a middle income parent to be helping some wealthy family send their kid to a school their child could never get in because he lacked the connections. That is just not fair..
Most Private schools do not want more kids, they want the kids they have to pay more. There is no room for public school kids. Especially the poor ones, except in the religious schools.
Ridiculous, basically. I happen to live in one of those “superior public school districts” you tout, I sent/d my kids there, and had my oldest recently get into the top public college in the state; that said, I’d still joyfully jump at the opportunity to seek the $10+K spent per year per child on education in this state in the form of tax credit. Why? It’s simple, to remove my kids from the overt liberalism, feminism and over-the-top diversity BS that the public schools constantly thrust upon them. Sure, this bigot – yeah, I’ll just beat you to the punch- thinks that math and sciences are pretty much OK at public schools; however, language arts, social studies and history are increasingly hostile to males and to Western civilization. And sadly, conservative parents are pretty much helpless to change this. I know, I tried.
I am sorry, you don’t like your schools. But that 10k did not come from you, and you are not entitled to it. The school only has your kids from 5 days a week for 9 month a year. That leaves 2 days a week and three months a year for you to make them go to church, where you should be addressing these issues. Church is also free.
Or you could do what I did when my youngest told me he wanted to go to boarding school in Virginia. My spouse and I started putting in more hours at work, we dropped our club membership; we cut back on spending; I lived with my 8 year old car for another four years (saved me about $400 a month); we took fewer trips, my parents helped out, my in-laws helped out, and we borrowed the rest of the money on a credit line.
It frankly never occurred to us our neighbors should help us pay.
“But that $10K did not come from you, and you are not entitked to it”. Seriously? What an arrogant, Obama-esque – you didn’t build that – type of statement. Do you even have a clue where government funding comes from? OF COURSE IT CAME FROM ME AND ALL THE OTHERS – THOUGH DWINDLING – WHO PAY TAXES. Thus, it is technically MY money… not the government’s, not the Democratic party, and not some ambigous, nebulous use of the term “public”. Let’s face it: you (1) likely earn your living from the Public Education Racket; and (2) are a Leftist Democrat who loves ramming Leftist thought down the throats of the kids of conservatives, all the while, these poor conservative SOB’s are having to foot the bill for this indoctrination. You’re so obvious.
I have never had a government job in my life. That $10,000 did not come from you it came from me and a lot of other people as well. Your share of the cost of public education is way less than $10,000. For the average SC taxpayer pays less than $1000 a year goes to public education. The rest of your taxes go to pay for all the other things the government has to pay for.
If you are saying you cannot afford private school I seriously doubt you even paid $10,000 in total taxes to the State of SC, much less what you paid toward public education.
You are not asking for your money back, you are asking for the rest of us to help you pay for your kid to go to a private school.
OH AND BY THE WAY YOUR SO CALLED DWINDLING NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO PAY TAXES ALSO INCLUDES ME, AND I DO PAY MORE THAN $10,000 IN STATE AND LOCAL TAXES EVERY YEAR. So if you want the government to give you a $10,000 hand out I guess that makes you a taker extraordinaire.
You may find that interpretation of the second amendment questionable, but it isn’t. The word militia is right there in it. And if you look at it in context of the rest of the constitution and other writings by the founders it makes sense. The founders didn’t trust standing armies. The constitution doesn’t allow for funding the army for more than 2 years in a row.
But I’m not an absolutist on either side of the issue. There needs to be balance.
Seriously, what part of “……, the right OF THE PEOPLE to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed” is questionable?! I mean, it’s kind of like the Dodgeball movie saying, “if you can dodge a wrench…”. In this case, it’s… “if you can simply read”. Here’s a suggestion, why don’t you keep your disgusting, socialistic, weeny, sissy, liberal interpretations of the 2nd Amendment to yourself!
Seriously, what part of “……, the right OF THE PEOPLE to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed” is questionable?!
Beat me to it!
What part of ‘well regulated militia’ is questionable?
There has to be a reason, you left that part out…
The need for “a well regulated militia” is a reason given for the people’s right to keep and bear arms. It was not the only reason, just the reason given.
As prescient as the founders were, there is no way that they could have seen the idiocy that passes for “Constitutional interpretation” these days. Keep in mind that we had a President, who was a lawyer to boot, that was unclear as to the meaning of “is”.
I perfectly understand “the people”. But have you considered the possibility that for the founders, “the people” were only white males old enough to fight in the militia? So putting those to things in the same amendment wasn’t really redundant? You can bet slaves and women weren’t allowed to have guns.
It was a very different time. You have to accept that perhaps things may not be exactly as you think.
Ok.
Fine then.
We’ll just disenfranchise the majority of Americans and only let “white males old enough to fight in the militia” keep and bear arms. It seems unfair to TBG… but as a white man, of a …um certain age, who am I to argue?
_________________________________________
Do we get to do the same with all other rights guaranteed to the people by the Constitution?
*Asks innocently*
Well, an awful lot of people in this country were disenfranchised when the constitution was written. Guess what, we changed it to fix that problem. We’ve been interpreting the constitution for centuries, and will continue to do so.
What I believe is that we don’t need to be slavishly devoted to things in the constitution that no longer fit the modern world.
Jefferson said constitutions should be re-written every 20 years or so. We’re long past overdue for that.
What I believe is that we don’t need to be slavishly devoted to things in the constitution that no longer fit the modern world.
You, of course, realize that you and I probably disagree on whether or not certain things in the Constitution do or do not “fit the modern world”.
Out of curiosity, are you a fan of Bastiat?
We may agree on some, we may disagree on others.
Not a fan of Bastiat, but my name is a reference to the broken window parable.
TBG’s mama always told him that if he couldn’t say anything nice…not to say anything at all. While TBG does not always live up to this….in this case he will say that your point about standing armies is valid.
“…in many South Carolina school districts” kind of hints at the fact that not every school district does this, therefore it isn’t a systematic attempt at indoctrination via government-run schools. Put away the tin foil hat.
They’re called public schools for a reason. If the parents in those districts are adequately informed and are actively calling out the district to replace the books, chances are they will be replaced, otherwise the school board itself should be replaced. For better or for worse, the public really has the power to decide matters like this. Try actually using that power, maybe?
Also, parents should be checking up on and supplementing what education their child(ren) receives from a school, whether it be public or private. They should be involved as much as possible in that regard. It’s one of those things people call “good parenting.”
…systematic attempt at indoctrination via government-run schools.
TBG doesn’t really think this rises to the level of stupid tin foil hat type paranoia. (Not even in the same ballpark as chemtrails etc…)
The remainder of your comment is spot on.
Let’s be clear, here. The language of the Second Amendment is highly ambiguous, and it was not until the U.S. Supreme Court decided District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008, which – for the first time – incorporated the Second Amendment under the 14th Amendment Due Process clause to confer a right to bear arms on individuals. And it was not until 2010 that the Court held in McDonald v. City of Chicago that the right applied to the states, in addition to federal enclaves. So – history books, like this one published in 2003 and updated for students in 2007 are out of date. And until the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in with these two decisions, there was no clear answer about the meaning of the Second Amendment, owing to the fact that “what part of the ‘right of the people?'” had this pesky phrase “a well-regulated militia” in front of it.
Individuals have always held the right to bear arms under the Bill of Rights. Just because it took the Supreme Court more than 200 years to hear a case direclty addressing that issue does not mean those rights just sprang to life after the Court’s decision. They were always there; the Supreme Court just finally confirmed it when presented with the issue.
A well regulated militia means a counter balance to the government, not an organization of people under the direction of the government. The intent was to make sure that if the government got out of hand, the people would put them back in hand.
Of course, the drug war has allowed for a militarized police force (a standing army if you will) in a way that the founding fathers never expected hasn’t it.
Let’s be clear here. The language of the Second Amendment is about as direct and specific as the Constitution gets. If you’re in an organized, regulated militia, you have the right to bear arms in connection with your militia duties.
That the ‘originalist’ Scalia and his little toadies chose to change the interpretation of the clear as a bell wording only proves that ‘originalism’ don’t mean diddly and changes based on the agenda of the people who pay the bills of Scalia and his cohorts – the Kochs.
There are some Whetsells in my neck of the woods and they are about as messed up a bunch of Christianists as you would ever hate to meet.
nitrat:
“Let’s be clear here. The language of the Second Amendment is about as direct and specific as the Constitution gets.”
Jay Elliot:
“Let’s be clear, here. The language of the Second Amendment is highly ambiguous,…”
Let’s be perfectly clear, here.
TBG is hoping for a cage match, WWF style.
******************************************************************************************
For what it’s worth, nitrat is 100% correct in that:
“The language of the Second Amendment is about as direct and specific as the Constitution gets.”
Unfortunately this nugget of truth is followed up with:
“If you’re in an organized, regulated militia, you have the right to bear arms in connection with your militia duties.”
*facepalm*
Epic. Fail.
You should see what the Bible thumpers are doing to science books in Texas.
And what the farther-right dregs (think Phyllis Schlafly, Mrs. Dilling redux) are trying to do to the history books.
Tom said:
“So you are saying you want me to give you money to help you educate your children the way you see fit, with no input from me.At least with public education I have a say in what I am paying for. If I don’t want to pay for a school to teach children there were dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark, I can say so. They might do it anyway, but I can vote in the school board elections.
I think one of the problems here remains, the “voucher” folks want everyone to give them far more money than they are paying to support public education.”
TBG says:
It’s just not as much fun…
when the rabbit’s got the gun.
Uh, Sic, it’s actually the State Department of Education that approves, buys and provides textbooks to the school districts. That’d be your buddy Mick Zais that you need to be bitching about.
The constitution is under atack by liberal marxists.
We rabid Marxists just hate those liberal faux-Marxists. MINO’s we call them.
I’m a senior at Colleton County High an the only time we used the book was for busy work when our teacher was out
I hope you see this. It’s time for students like you to stand up against Common Core too. Please do your own research into common core and the ‘crap’ ( to put it lightly) it will bring with it.