Israeli Newspeak:

[Matt Giwer]

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/education-ministry-revising-textbook-for-being-too-critical-of-israel-1.310751

Education ministry revising textbook for being too critical of Israel

The Education Ministry is rewriting the coutry's main civics textbook, and the chairman of the ministry's pedagogical secretariat will begin publishing updates on the ministry's Web site as early as the upcoming school year.

...

Zameret has criticized a sentence in the book - "Being Citizens in Israel" - on Israel's Arab citizens stating that "since its establishment, the State of Israel has engaged in a policy of discrimination against its Arab citizens."

...

"Zameret is trying to move the emphasis in civics studies from citizenship and democracy to Judaism and Zionism," said the chairwoman of the academic forum for civics instruction, Dr. Ricki Tessler of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. "The message coming down from the top is sectoral and non-pluralist."

...

The textbook in question was written in the late 1990s and is used in nearly 90 percent of high schools. Ministry sources told Haaretz that Zameret has said the book was focused too much on conflicts and social divisions, and that greater emphasis must be put on the history of the state, such as its establishment in 1948.

He who controls the past controls the present.

...

About a year ago, the Institute for Zionist Strategies published a report criticizing civics studies in Israel. The report alleged that the current curriculum damages Zionist and patriotic education, amid flaws that have ideological, moral and social implications that might weaken Israel's existence as a Jewish and democratic state.

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It is not clear whether this should be categorized as Orwellian or fascist. Perhaps just a bit of both.

 

[Beerina]

I know it's news to you, but "focusing" on conflicts and social divisions and such is, itself, a viewpoint. The mere selection of items of "importance" is one hell of a biased viewpoint, even if the presentations themselves are 100% accurate and unbiased.

 

[Matt Giwer]

I know it's news to you, but "focusing" on conflicts and social divisions and such is, itself, a viewpoint. The mere selection of items of "importance" is one hell of a biased viewpoint, even if the presentations themselves are 100% accurate and unbiased.

What you appear to be missing is these changes are going to be done by a politician. It is legitimate for him in his position to set guidelines for content.

That he is going to produce changes to the content and impose them is exactly the issue. The content then becomes political. That means it is for indoctrination not education.

 

[The Fool]

School text books and thier contents should be controlled by independant professional educators.

 

[Matt Giwer]

School text books and thier contents should be controlled by independant professional educators.

Certainly. Politicians, and in the US elected school boards, should certainly establish guidelines as to what should be covered. Then the professionals should cover it. Of course there will always be politics in the matter but the text book publishers generally deal with it quite well.

Speaking of the US the elected school board system has no particular problems save for the one glaring creationism problem. But percentagewise things like creationism are few and far between. But when they occur it is the political imposition of specific content just as in the OP.

 

[Beerina]

What you appear to be missing is these changes are going to be done by a politician. It is legitimate for him in his position to set guidelines for content.

That he is going to produce changes to the content and impose them is exactly the issue. The content then becomes political. That means it is for indoctrination not education.

The Smithsonian had some lovely, un-political, non-politician-related crap about the Enola Gay. And thus it was true, I suppose? Then evil politicians came in and said, "********! You might want to trade off lives of soldiers for some kind of ethic, as you sit there safely, thousands of miles and decades away." And, similarly this is the wrong, evil attitude, I suppose?

 

[Matt Giwer]

The Smithsonian had some lovely, un-political, non-politician-related crap about the Enola Gay. And thus it was true, I suppose? Then evil politicians came in and said, "********! You might want to trade off lives of soldiers for some kind of ethic, as you sit there safely, thousands of miles and decades away." And, similarly this is the wrong, evil attitude, I suppose?

The Smithsonian is not using the law to insert material into school textbooks.

 

[Beerina]

School text books and thier contents should be controlled by independant professional educators.

Mmmm, I'll take leaving it under the control of elected politicians, warts and all, with the press and public shaming riding herd control. It's working out fairly well to keep the creationist clowns down.


Educators and intelligentsia can get caught up in their own closed, little worlds of mutual backpatting. Re: the whole Enola Gay thing at the Smithsonian, they are an example of non-elected people making a decision on education. When everyone in your circle "knows" this is the right thing to think, well...