Nerotysia wrote:To Quoc Duc wrote:I took it about eight years ago when I was in highschool and I loved it too. I consider myself a very patriotic American, I love my country and it's history both good and bad, and felt it was fair, balanced, and unbiased. I never encountered a situation where I felt I was being indoctrinated to be ashamed of my nation. If that were the case, I would have sympathy with the Oklahoma board of education. That said, this *was* eight years ago, a lot could've changed.
I'm in Florida, and the new education benchmark is that all history courses, world, European, and American, must contain a significant section on Islam's influence, a fact I find rather odd. Hell, in my younger step-brother's American history textbook, the first chapter is: 'Islamic Civilization and the Impact on the Early American Republic'...as someone who is highly educated, with advanced degrees in history, I was perplexed, since beyond the Barbary Wars we had only limited interaction with the Islamic world at that point!
Nothing has changed, Oklahoma's just being dumb.
As for the Islam thing, I think it's an attempt to begin to educate people about Islam, since it's becoming increasingly relevant in world affairs and most Americans are utterly ignorant when it comes to Muslim history. So, the goal is probably admirable. But I will agree that section is odd and probably misplaced - America was not really influenced by Islam all that much.
I minor'd in Islamic religion in college too, which made me all the more befuddled by the fact. I find Islam to be a fascinating religion, and despite the rage this brought to my peers I did my senior thesis for the minor on how Islam is in effect merely Ultra-Orthodox Judaism (I'm a conservative Jew lol) I don't have a problem with educating on the subject. My issue with it (in the American course) is that it's bizarre, and in the World course part of the curriculum is making the students prostrate themselves to the east, and recite the shahada, something I personally find offensive. Additionally, they stripped teaching about Judaism and Christianity from the curriculum, choosing to dedicate the time that was previously spent on those to additional education on the principles of Islam. Again, I find this somewhat offensive and bizarre since they all build upon each other.