The "Make it Happen" Challenge.

The Dead Poets Society invoked "carpe diem". I give you "Make it Happen", the crowd-sourcing challenge to see if my big ideas can come to fruition thanks to the rich community of creatives, writers, artists, designers, inventors, scientists, architects, pharmacologists, techies, provocateurs, ethicists, military contractors, etc.

MIH Brief 004

OBJECTIVE:

Create a series of extreme right wing high-school text books that comply with the new curriculum guidelines as voted on by the Texas Board of Education.

Check this out for more background, but to surmise, last week the Texas Board of Education provisionally approved a move to inject a more conservative ideology into the Texas school curriculum that will be taught to millions of students for the next decade.

This move will require revisions to textbooks in social studies, history and economics that place more emphasis on religious dogma and other social values that conservatives hold dear. For instance the writings of "secular" thinkers like Thomas Jefferson will be eliminated. The Second Amendment (right to bear arms) will be specified when learning about the Bill of Rights. And the important contribution of Hispanics to American History will be de-emphasized.

Texas is a largest single market for textbooks, which means there is a huge opportunity for publishers to create and sell a lot of the "right" kinds of books.


THOUGHT STARTERS:

  -  Because this is primarily for school children in Texas, make it as Texas centric as possible. Perhaps there is an opportunity in economics or social studies to show all the possible benefits to Texas seceding from the United States.

  -  This winter hasn't been kind to global warming. Continue to de-legitimize climate change. Is there a way to insinuate that Al Gore may have been on drugs when he came up with "An Inconvenient Truth".
  -  How can we rehabilitate the image of far right groups like the John Birch Society.
  -  Is it unreasonable to suggest that the first Native Americans might have been muslims.
  -  Distinguish between heroic religious figures like John Calvin and evil religious figures like John Brown.
  -  Continue to push creationism as a legitimate competing theory to evolution. Is there a way to undermine the credibility of Charles Darwin. Could he have been gay? Or a closet atheist. Or a gay closet atheist?

MANDATORIES:

  -  History textbooks must highlight the great Texans, like George W. Bush, Karl Rove, confederate war hero James Hood and Walker - Texas Ranger. Be sure to exclude Lyndon Johnson.
  -  Economics textbooks must celebrate the power of oil.

  -  History textbooks must make it clear that Ronald Reagan won the cold war single-handed.

  -  Social studies textbooks must highlight the great contemporary American thinkers, like Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck and Michelle Malkin.

  -  Economics textbooks must celebrate the glory of tax cuts and deregulation. All evidence to the contrary will be excluded.

Good luck and make it happen, people!