TSBOE and Thomas Jefferson

The Texas State Board of Education’s (TSBOE) recent change in the removal of Thomas Jefferson from a list of philosophers and adding John Calvin, Thomas Aquinas, and Sir William Blackstone is an outrage. I tried to find the actual minutes from the meeting, but they aren’t available yet for some reason, even though it’s over two weeks after the meeting. It is being said that one of the main reasons is because of his belief on separation of Church and State.


Thomas Jefferson was a deeply religious man himself, but he knew that these two should be separate, as indicated in his letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802. This instance of the TSBOE’s removal of Mr. Jefferson and replacing him with such religious figures demonstrates the exact reason why these two should be separate. The mostly ultra-conservative TSBOE should be thoroughly ashamed of what they have done, but I doubt they have truly considered the extent and consequences of what they have done.


Not only does this affect students here in Texas, but it will affect students all over the U.S. Texas is a huge exporter of textbooks to the rest of the nation. Other states should be questioning the motives of this move also. TSBOE’s response states they believe that Jefferson doesn’t belong in the philosophy part of the textbook. Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond, is the one who introduced the change, and also referenced the Enlightenment in her amendment. Of course, the Enlightenment is a philosophy that emphasized reason and science over religion and tradition.


The following quote can be found at the Texas Freedom Network: “Students should learn that Jefferson was one of America’s greatest political thinkers and that his ideas have inspired not just Americans but other people around the world in their struggles for freedom.” The mostly highly-conservative board is trying to have their personal viewpoints instituted on what should be taught instead of what has been highly regarded over the past two centuries as the standard and truth. Even if they thought Jefferson should be removed from this section, why replace him with such religious thinkers and strike out the Enlightenment philosophers.


It is clear that this has personal motivation and ideologies rather than educating children on all aspects of that part of history. I encourage everyone to take action and make your opinions known. Write the TSBOE, TEA, or Governor and call for this to be changed. Bill White has an open letter to Rick Perry asking him to have this reconsidered here. You can email the TSBOE directly here. You can email Governor Perry’s office here.

New Census Information

There is some new census information that will be available after the census of this year. You can read the article here. For the first time, gay couples will have the right to be counted as married in the census.

In his post, Mr. Charles Kuffner states "The data is what it is, and the Census Bureau shouldn't be in the business of telling people they really aren't what they say they are." I have to agree with this myself. The census should be about gathering data and nothing else.

The spots for this information will be available on all states census questionnaire, even though 45 of the states don't recognize same sex couples as married. It will be up to the individual person to put whether they are married, life partners, or some other living arrangement on the census.

Gabriel Sanchez, director of the Dallas Regional Census Center, states it will "shine a light" into the LGBT communities. He also states that "we don't ask about sexual orientation, but what we have done is we will record and will publish that people are same-sex married."

We should all realize that gay and lesbian couples are a lot more prominent than we think, and that information should be taken into account. I believe this is a step in the right direction on getting some rights for these people. There are a lot of people out there that want equal rights for some people as long as it fits in their bubble of what they think is right and not anything else. Maybe this is a positive step to help bring some awareness and rights to this group of society.