Hippies Demonized in Louisiana Voucher School Textbook

Had to share this article that I found on AlterNet. The comment about Satan worship almost made me spew my coffee.

By Steven Hsieh

Will Louisiana taxpayers continue funding Bobby Jindal’s right wing revisionism and biblical pseudoscience?

Photo Credit: Creative Commons

March 7, 2013  |

If Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) gets his way Louisiana taxpayers will continue funding private school curricula rife with right-wing revisionism and biblical pseudoscience.

Jindal’s voucher program spends tens of millions of dollars in state funds to send low-income students to  one of 134 approved private schools. But the Louisiana Supreme Court will rule this month whether it’s constitutional to divert public funds to private institutions. Also of concern is the misinformation peddled in several approved voucher schools, many institutions espousing a right wing, Christian bastardization of social studies and science.

Most recently, AmericaBlog discovered a rather cartoonish depiction of one of the largest counter-culture movements in American history printed in a Louisiana voucher textbook. The 8 th grade history book, titled  America: Land I love, gives this lesson on hippies:

Many young people turned to drugs and immoral lifestyles; these youth became known as hippies. They went without bathing, wore dirty, ragged, unconventional clothing, and deliberately broke all codes of politeness or manners. Rock music played an important part in the hippie movement and had great influence over the hippies. Many of the rock musicians they followed belonged to Eastern religious cults or practiced Satan worship.

Of course, the devil’s influence extends beyond America’s “immoral” youth. Reads another textbook: “It is no wonder that Satan hates the family and has hurled his venom against it in the form of Communism.”

Last year,  Mother Jones listed some of the most egregious falsities found in Louisiana voucher school textbooks. Apparently, “Dinosaurs and humans were definitely on the earth at the same time” and “The majority of slave holders treated their slaves well.” A reminder: Just last November, Governor Jindal, who supports this curriculum, urged his fellow GOPers to “ stop being the stupid party.”

It’d be easier to take the governor seriously if he stopped spreading stupidity in his own backyard.

 

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2 thoughts on “Hippies Demonized in Louisiana Voucher School Textbook

  1. I went to a diabetes info session once where the heart nurse who spoke talked about stress. According to her talk, adrenaline was useful when cavemen had to escape from dinosaurs. After that, I was done. If she wasn’t listening when they taught about timelines of human evolution, who is to say that she was listening when they taught about diabetes?

    1. Srsly??? (that called for text spelling because of its outrageousness).

      I’m not really sure what I would have done had I been in the audience for that particular talk.

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