The second installment of comments from the Task Force on Social Sciences Textbooks: Grades five through eight is presented in this document. The first comments, covering part of the textbooks, were attached as an appendix to "Report and Recommendations: Task Force to Evaluate Social Science Textbooks: Grades Five Through Eight" offered in related…

This study, by a group of teachers as part of a course in social foundations, arose out of their concerns about the difficulties in assessing the materials (especially reading materials) that teachers are expected to use. (CB)

Censorship of textbooks and reading materials for school children is discussed. The belief that the content of literary and curricular materials can be discussed in isolation from the ideologies that they consciously or unconsciously manifest is questioned. (JD)

Article presented criteria for evaluating the treatment of minority groups and women in textbooks and other learning materials. (Author/RK)

Minorities are now represented in almost all school books. However, this representation is often not balanced and its distribution across the range of instructional materials is uneven. (Author/MC)

Textbooks and other instructional materials must continually be created and evaluated in order to ensure that children of all races are fairly treated and thus receive the full benefits of the equal education guaranteed by law. (Author/MC)

This report by a committee appointed to review the treatment of minority groups in social science textbooks presents a series of criteria to be applied to the production and selection of these books. It is recommended that material on minorities should be included when relevant to a subject. Treatment of minorities should be accurate, complete,…

Every educator in our country is part of the racist society; we are part of the problem and must do something. Each person has to decide what he can and should do. (Author)

The lack of understanding of most white Americans about the true role of the American Indian and other minority groups in American history is an outgrowth of the failure of the media in general, and history texts in particular, to realistically address minority/majority relations throughout U.S. history. Several suggestions to aid in public…

In this speech, the author examines and traces past and present treatment of minorities in textbooks. The issue of whether textbooks should and do adequately represent the real world of minorities is emphasized. In the past, when publishers either omitted minorities from books or made misleading statements in textbooks about minorities, textbooks…

Explores the influence of textbooks and teaching practices on the self-concept of Chinese, Japanese, and Jewish children during the periods 1880-1920 and 1966-1976. From 1880-1920, Asians were detested and segregated into separate schools in some states. Jews were also considered unassimilable. During the period 1966-76, most textbooks showed only…

Discusses the controversy over multicultural education. Contrasts California's pluralistic approach with New York's particularistic approach. Argues for a multiculturalism that provides students with both an appreciation for America's racial and cultural diversity and a commitment to the common culture that unites all of us in America. (JS)