Return to News Archives 11-02 to 3-03
one last tidbit of info about Across the Centuries and Houghton Mifflin textbooks... few know that the CEO/President of Houghton Mifflin was Nader F. Darehshori who previously taught elementary school in Iran. He began work for HM in 1989 and became President in 1991, simultaneous to “Across the Centuries” debut. After the news broke about the Islam indoctrination in the textbook, Mr. Darehshori was quietly replaced with the seemingly blonde hair blue eyed Hans Gieskes of the Netherlands (on July 1, 2002)
In the October 30, 2000 issue, Forbes magazine observed that Delaine Eastin, California's superintendent of public instruction, "sought and received campaign contributions from textbook publishers."
In Houghton Mifflin's response to the accusations on my website, they wrote a question/answer post. At my website their arguments are totally refuted with facts, but I think this one is extremely pertinent:
Did the CIE [Council of Islamic Education] or any other religious group contribute to the writing of either “A Message of Ancient Days” or “Across the Centuries”?
HM’s Answer: No, the scope of their involvement was limited to reviewing the textbook material.
BlessedCause Comment: That is not what HM's Editorial Director said in an article profiling the CIE! She states very clearly that "We see our reviewers as playing a crucial role in enabling us to present accurate and complete information,"
She also notes that the information in the textbook about the Crusades was provided by the Council of Islamic Education.
Houghton Mifflin also listed Christian Educators Association International and Hadassah as endorsements of the textbook. I contacted those organizations,
Christian Educators DENIES having reviewed "Across the Centuries." Mr. Turpen, Director of CEAI wrote me the following regarding this issue on June 13, 2002:
"I agree with you that the response from HM implies that we reviewed the books in the series in total. That isn't the case at all as we focused only our attention on the Christian perspectives that were written and did not look at or compare the other content of the texts...In essence we did no evaluation of the other religions addressed in any of the textbooks of the HM series. (full letter at BlessedCause) Additionally, I was told over the phone that many of the recommendations and suggestions made by Christian Educators were ignored and omitted.
HADASSAH, one of the most esteemed Jewish organizations out of New York, gave me this statement to post: "Hadassah made a very limited review of only those pages of the manuscript that concerned Judaism, but many of its comments, suggestions and corrections were not incorporated in the textbook. Neither Hadassah nor Dr. Sandra Alfonsi endorse the book."
There is SO MUCH MORE I could post, and have at my site. But the bottom line is, true history and the esteemed title of "historian" is being badly maligned as special interest groups write anything they want and peddle it as history. True historians should be outraged at the demeaning of a truly noble occupation. Is there no organization of historians that act as a watchdog of these charlatans? If there isn't there certainly needs to be! -Jennifer Schroeder Christian@BlessedCause.org
In the October 30, 2000 issue, Forbes magazine observed that Delaine Eastin, California's superintendent of public instruction, "sought and received campaign contributions from textbook publishers."
In Houghton Mifflin's response to the accusations on my website, they wrote a question/answer post. At my website their arguments are totally refuted with facts, but I think this one is extremely pertinent:
Did the CIE [Council of Islamic Education] or any other religious group contribute to the writing of either “A Message of Ancient Days” or “Across the Centuries”?
HM’s Answer: No, the scope of their involvement was limited to reviewing the textbook material.
BlessedCause Comment: That is not what HM's Editorial Director said in an article profiling the CIE! She states very clearly that "We see our reviewers as playing a crucial role in enabling us to present accurate and complete information,"
She also notes that the information in the textbook about the Crusades was provided by the Council of Islamic Education.
Houghton Mifflin also listed Christian Educators Association International and Hadassah as endorsements of the textbook. I contacted those organizations,
Christian Educators DENIES having reviewed "Across the Centuries." Mr. Turpen, Director of CEAI wrote me the following regarding this issue on June 13, 2002:
"I agree with you that the response from HM implies that we reviewed the books in the series in total. That isn't the case at all as we focused only our attention on the Christian perspectives that were written and did not look at or compare the other content of the texts...In essence we did no evaluation of the other religions addressed in any of the textbooks of the HM series. (full letter at BlessedCause) Additionally, I was told over the phone that many of the recommendations and suggestions made by Christian Educators were ignored and omitted.
HADASSAH, one of the most esteemed Jewish organizations out of New York, gave me this statement to post: "Hadassah made a very limited review of only those pages of the manuscript that concerned Judaism, but many of its comments, suggestions and corrections were not incorporated in the textbook. Neither Hadassah nor Dr. Sandra Alfonsi endorse the book."
There is SO MUCH MORE I could post, and have at my site. But the bottom line is, true history and the esteemed title of "historian" is being badly maligned as special interest groups write anything they want and peddle it as history. True historians should be outraged at the demeaning of a truly noble occupation. Is there no organization of historians that act as a watchdog of these charlatans? If there isn't there certainly needs to be! -Jennifer Schroeder Christian@BlessedCause.org
Return to News Archives 11-02 to 3-03
by Jennifer Schroeder on January 19, 2003 at 1:26 PM