update

I have a list of books...but all I've done is carry them from the library to my office :P

Power and Politics in Education / edited by David Dawkins

Conflict of Interests : The Politics of American Education / Joel Spring

Political Agendas for Education : From the Religious Right to the Green Party / Joel Spring

Textbooks in American Society : Politics, Policy, and Pedagogy / edited by Philip G. Altbach

The Textbook Controversy : Issues, Aspects, and Perspectives / John G. Herlihy

Censorship : Evidence of Bias in Our Children's Textbooks / Paul C. Vitz

The Politics of the Textbook / edited by Michael W. Apple and Linda K. Christian-Smith

The Politics of Curricular Change: Race, Hegemony, and Power in Education/ edited by M. Christophe

Lies My Teacher Told Me : Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong/ James W. Loewen (the book I was talking about :D)

I'm not sure what direction I want to move. I think I might generate some surveys or interviews geared toward first-year writing teachers from different universities to see what books they are using and what their ideal textbook would be.

Any suggestions?

politics of textbooks

When I was in grade school, I learned that "Many Indians died from the white settlers' diseases."

When I was in college, I found a cool book called Lies My Teacher Told Me, which talks about things they don't allow us to know in high school:

The "many Indians" became "piles of hundreds of dead bodies decaying in the sun" UGHHHH....what a discrepancy!

Oh yeah, and did you know Helen Keller was a communist? :O

This makes me wonder who writes the textbooks? What are regulations textbook writers need to follow?

There are issues of suppression of information and patriotism as well.

With this blog, I plan to toss in the tidbits that I find to my hungry colleagues who "wanna know" about my topic. This blog will keep me on track and will most of all, help me find THE TRUTH...(which is out there)...