Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?
The Texas Board of Education, armed with Google and ideological blinders, sees a communist takeover.
As the Board marches on with its dogmatic re-writing of history in its social studies standards, its members inadvertently gave students an important lesson on how not to do their homework.
According to the Fort Worth Star Telegram Monday, the board voted to ban the children’s book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, written by Bill Martin Jr. and illustrated by Eric Carle, based on one member’s “research:”
In its haste to sort out the state’s social studies curriculum standards this month, the State Board of Education tossed children’s author Martin, who died in 2004, from a proposal for the third-grade section. Board member Pat Hardy (R-Weatherford), who made the motion, cited books he had written for adults that contain “very strong critiques of capitalism and the American system.”
Brown Bear, Brown Bear? Well, no, not exactly.
Apparently, one of the board members, Terri Leo (R-Spring), googled Bill Martin’s name and found out that he had authored a book called, Ethical Marxism: The Categorical Imperative of Liberation.
Leo emailed Hardy to let her know of the connection, but noted that she had not actually read the book. Hardy said that was good enough for her and made a motion to remove the book from a proposed reading list. Hardy has been trying to pare down the lengthy proposed reading list.
Except that it was a different Bill Martin, a DePaul University philosophy professor. The Bill Martin of the Brown Bear series? He never published anything political, unless you count, as the Star reported, a book he once wrote teaching kids how to say the Pledge of Allegiance.
