Talk about a
civics lesson: A high school senior has raised questions
about political bias in a popular textbook on U.S.
government, and legal scholars and top scientists say
the teen's criticism is well-founded.
They say
American Government, by conservatives James
Wilson and John Dilulio, presents a skewed view of
topics from global warming to separation of church and
state to gay rights. The publisher now says it will
review the book, as will the College Board, which oversees
college-level Advanced Placement courses used in high
schools.
Student Matthew
LaClair of Kearny, N.J., recently brought his concerns to
the attention of the Center for Inquiry, an Amherst, N.Y.,
think tank that promotes science and which has issued
a scathing report about the textbook.
''I just realized
from my own knowledge that some of this stuff in the
book is just plain wrong,'' said LaClair, who is using the
book as part of an AP government class at Kearny High
School.
The textbook is
designed for a college audience, but also is widely used
in AP American government courses, said Richard Blake, a
spokesman for the publisher, Houghton Mifflin Co.
Blake said the company ''will be working with the
authors to evaluate in detail the criticisms of the
Center for Inquiry.'' Blake said some disputed passages
already have been excised from the newest edition of
the book.
Both authors are
considered conservative. Dilulio, a University of
Pennsylvania professor, formerly worked for the Bush
administration as director of faith-based initiatives.
Wilson is the Ronald Reagan Professor of Public Policy
at Pepperdine University. Neither responded
immediately to calls seeking comment.
LaClair said he
was particularly upset about the book's treatment of
global warming. James Hansen, the director of NASA Goddard
Institute for Space Studies, recently heard about
LaClair's concerns and has lent him some support.
Hansen has sent
Houghton Mifflin a letter stating that the book's
discussion on global warming contained ''a large number of
clearly erroneous statements'' that give students
''the mistaken impression that the scientific evidence
of global warming is doubtful and uncertain.''
The edition of
the textbook published in 2005, which is in high school
classrooms now, states that ''science doesn't know whether
we are experiencing a dangerous level of global
warming or how bad the greenhouse effect is, if it
exists at all.''
A newer edition
published late last year was changed to say, ''Science
doesn't know how bad the greenhouse effect is.''
The authors kept
a phrase stating that global warming is ''enmeshed in
scientific uncertainty.''
While there are
still some scientists who downplay global warming and the
role of burning fossil fuels, the overwhelming majority of
climate scientists and peer-reviewed scientific
research say human activity is causing climate change.
Last year an international collection of hundreds of
scientists and government officials unanimously approved
wording that said the scientific community had ''very
high confidence,'' meaning more than 90% likelihood,
that global warming is caused by humans.
LaClair also was
concerned about the textbook's treatment of U.S. Supreme
Court decisions regarding prayer in school. The book shows a
picture of kids praying in front of a Virginia high
school and states, ''The Supreme Court will not let
this happen inside a public school.'' Blake said the
photo was cut out of the most recent edition.
The textbook goes
on to state that the court has ruled as
''unconstitutional every effort to have any form of prayer
in public schools, even if it is nonsectarian,
voluntary, or limited to reading a passage of the
Bible.''
Those examples
are not correct, says Charles Haynes, a religious
liberties expert at the First Amendment Center in
Washington.
''Students can
pray inside a public school in many different ways,''
Haynes said, adding they can pray alone or in groups before
lunch or in religious clubs, for example.
Haynes said
students can't disrupt the school or interfere with the
rights of others. The court has said the prayer can't be
state-sponsored, so a teacher can't lead a prayer and
a school can't require it, Haynes said.
Another part of
the book that the report criticizes deals with a Supreme
Court decision overturning a Texas law banning sexual
contact between people of the same sex.
The authors wrote
that the Supreme Court decision had a ''benefit'' and a
''cost.'' The benefit, it said, was to strike down a rarely
enforced law that could probably not be passed today,
while the cost was to ''create the possibility that
the court, and not Congress or state legislatures,
might decide whether same-sex marriages were legal.''
Derek Araujo, the
report's author, said that's a matter of opinion and
that gay-rights activists, for example, see it differently.
''The major problem with this is they describe the
costs and benefits of the system in a very political
way,'' he said.
LaClair added
that he perceived a bias in the book too.
''All the
statements for the most part were trying to lead the reader
in one direction and not giving a fair account of
everything,'' he said.
It's not the
first time LaClair has raised alarm bells over teaching at
his school. A few years ago, he tape recorded a teacher
making religious remarks to his students. Many people
at the school were upset with LaClair for raising the
issue.
''I'm not looking
to cause a huge controversy, but I want the students to
be taught correct information,'' LaClair said.
His mother,
Debra, says she thinks her son is giving his peers another
kind of civics lesson.
''When he sees
something that is incorrect, he wants to fix it,'' she
said. ''That's him. That's what he does.'' (Nancy
Zuckerbrod, AP)
