Thorough and well documented, but it got heavy handed in its bias at times (as well as unnecessarily personal), which, unfortunately, I think will only serve to tune out the people that need to hear it the most.
This podcast should be awake up call to all parents and anyone who believes students need to be allowed to learn about the good and the not so good history of the US. All students should be able to see themselves in the books they read. I am a retired teacher. I am proud to say that many of the books I used in my middle school literature classes are being banned now. These books did make some of the students uncomfortable. That is what books are supposed to do. Life is uncomfortable.
This was a fascinating and thorough dive into a dystopian history of the extremist slant forced on a lazy system of school textbook publishing. No wonder much of the South and Midwest live in an alternative reality to those whose education held much more truth, no matter how uncomfortable it might be for some. Well done.
This was a phenomenal podcast! I was completely riveted by the story and so glad this was published. It is scary how these groups can infiltrate public education with no qualifications in history, social studies or teaching. I knew M4L was bad, but they are scarily effective and I didn’t realize how far back this went until listening to this podcast.
Well-researched and exceptionally produced. I love the potent blend of historical facts, humor, and colorful profiles. I hope this podcast series becomes a wake up call everywhere, not just Texas.
Going to public school in the 1960s-early 1970s, I was lucky to have in my life some very creative and dedicated teachers who encouraged us to question everything, to practice openness and tolerance (what is now called inclusivity). There was a political divide then, too, but at least you could converse with most people civilly.
I’m appalled by how far things have disintegrated. Thanks for putting this show together. There’s a lot of wisdom. I will share it widely.
What a worthwhile learning experience this series has been! I wish that all teacher-training programs would clue us teachers-in-traing in on the school textbook approval process and its history and connection to Texas, as was done so thoroughly in this series. Thank you for all of your work—what a service!
I’ve been screaming into a sea of noise for years about the outsized influence of Texas on textbook contents and how their religious beliefs and myths make students learn misinformation instead of factual history. I have begged for parents to get involved with their schools, demand school boards choose
textbooks that aren’t skewed by the Texas requirements. Instead, we got a movement to even further erase history across the country. I hope the parents who listen to this will be inspired to reclaim education from religious extremists and nationalists who want children to learn jingoistic lies instead of real history. It ignores the point of learning history at all; it isn’t for patriotic indoctrination. It’s to have context for understanding the world and avoid repeating ugly pasts. Please save the educational system. Nobody listens to a random childless dude (even if my parents are educators and my mother is an education PhD who has taught every grade). This podcast does the most extensive dive on this I have seen.
As a Texan, I want to thank y’all for the time & effort put in creating this incredible series.
I binged the entire thing on a long trip, I couldn’t get enough of it. Looking forward to next season.
That if the left doesn’t like it, it’s racist,bigotry,etc.. it needs to be changed and we need to learn “their” version of history, the only version that is “correct”.
Grew up in Texas and lived through many of the times and issues described. Grace does a great job of presenting a chronological history of the outsized influence of the Christian right on textbooks and classroom standards. It helped to understand some of the current debate but revisiting the origins of citizen feedback on educational materials. I appreciated her facts and research without leaning too far into the politics, but instead, looking at some the reasons behind what is happening today.
Nicely balanced and fascinating story telling. Thanks for sharing.
Would have hated to try to give children a good education free from Christian Nationalist Texas government propaganda. They don’t learn things like the Alamo was white guys who wanted slavery in their ‘nation’ of Texas. They call that CRT there now. I was also taught they were heroes until I actually read ADULT history, like the Congressional Record and such. The reviews calling the story about the religious rights bias being forced into the school system ‘biased’ are the cruz of the problem.
Teaching Texas is essential for all Americans who have kids in school or know kids in K-12. There is so much that I did not know about the Texas Board of education, such as most schools across the nation use text books that are catered to the school board of Texas!! If you think you’re in a liberal state, check your kids text books for inaccuracies and lies. I have shared this podcast with the Mother’s Against Greg Abbott group as well as local parent groups in Texas. I am trying to figure out how I can get more involved as a working parent. We need more parents who have extra time on their hands to get involved in our kids education. I do not want my child misguided or taught a sugar coated history. I want my child to know the truth about our history and have a diverse education learning about all types of people.
I was on the edge of my seat for this entire series. My jaw dropped more than once, and I've been sharing this podcast like crazy because it was so fascinating and I learned so much. I love finding these types of series!
I was an elementary student at a public school in Texas from 2004-2011, and I this podcast makes so much sense when I look back on that education. We had not one, but TWO morning pledges. One to Texas and one to the US. It wasn’t until I moved to Illinois that I learned that’s not normal. Texas history was taught like a folk tale of sweet ol’ Steven F Austin (the “father of Texas”), and Christianity was unavoidable. Being one of the few none Christian students made children and there parents dislike me and my family. I’m so happy this podcast exists and it’s amazing to look behind the scenes to see why my early education was so strange and misleading.
An extraordinary well thought out, researched and presented podcast on the most important topic fascinating US public schools: influence from
Extreme right wing groups.
I thought this was going to be something completely different. It turned into a bashing of Republicans, religion, parents who have the right to have a say in what their children are being taught, bashing people without the (in the opinion of the host) right credentials to criticize the topics in the education system.
If you asked this host or her employer what a woman is they’d say, “I’m not a biologist” and probably believe that if you aren’t you can’t define a woman.
So after listening to the show and listening to the first episode again.. it’s very blatant how biased it is.
Interesting that she’s attacking people on what they think their opinion of history should be but it’s while she’s saying hers.
Her first example in the very first episode, is about the textbook leaving out under God. For example. The Christian family wasn’t upset that they weren’t being taught about Jesus in schools they were upset that the representation of how God was base for many of the founding fathers was being left out of text books but it’s not worded that way.
I think the podcast itself is really well produced, it’s interesting but is illegitimate when it comes to the anger of bias when the stance is bias.
The honesty and truth isn’t portrayed well from the very first few sentences which makes me not trust most of what’s being said.
This podcast is really well done. In-depth research and reporting, great interviews. It’s eye-opening and sheds a lot of light on why things are the way they are right now in education, and not just in Texas. Everyone should listen to it.
I’m thoroughly enjoying this series. It is eye-opening, and a little unnerving, but so important to understand the state of public education and how it is under attack. Thank you!
Winning Wisconsin was so well researched and the story was told beautifully. Teaching Texas, just wow. I remember talking about how textbooks are different in different states during AP US history, but I had no idea the story went this deep. I can’t wait to see what’s next!
I found the topic compelling, but soon tired off the host’s petty and unnecessary criticisms of the places she visited and people she met. If she had kept with the story and eliminated her whiny asides, I would have given the podcast 4 stars.
In today's climate where parents feel they have the right to insist that their personal views are the only views taught in school, this podcast shows us how we got here. And hopefully provides insights for us to fight back for our multicultural democracy.
As a born and raised Texan, this is a great podcast. It’s interesting, it’s factual, and these things have impacted my life and now my students. I had to leave a review though because all the one star reviews dragging down the rating are mostly “woke liberal trash keep Texas red” comments. One is even about how the first season is about Wisconsin, clearly unaware of how podcast seasons work.
You do such powerful and meaningful work Grace. This is another excellent series. Educational, engaging and disturbing. Thank you for bringing all to light. Keep up the good work. I don’t know how you keep your equilibrium as you research these topics. I admire you so very much.
This podcast is great! I terraria and shows the need for a good education. Most of the naysayers don’t understand the concept of separation of church and state and that the USA was founded on religious freedom… good podcast.
It’s hard to understand why people would be against school’s teaching students facts and how to think, reason and make decisions, but when their idea of education includes preparing students with moral guidance based on the Bible, these things challenge their world view. In Teaching Texas, Grace Lynch reveals how over the past few decades the radical Christian Right has gained so much power in making sure their moral agenda is represented in textbooks across the U.S. Bolstered by the current resurgence of the Christian Nationalist movement, the challenge to the principle of the separation of church and state has never been greater. This incisive podcast allows the people behind the scenes to speak for themselves and connects the dots to help us understand the conflicts that plague our educational system in the U.S. today.
A deep dive into the right-wing extremism that was and is trying to inject their political and religious views into the education system via textbooks. As a former teacher, I’m mortified that the same types of misguided people might actually get on school boards in the upcoming election.
I was excited to see there appeared to be a professional podcast about textbooks and history only to find during the first episode, but especially in the second, a total abandonment of historical analysis for left-leaning, anti-religion, pro-specialization bias. The hosts do not seek to compile research and learn about textbook history and what goes on, rather, they saw an opportunity to assert their beliefs that conservatives have indoctrinated kids for the past 60 years, that America doesn’t hold many Judeo-Christian values (this bring true doesn’t mean America is necessarily religious), and that you can only care about and publicly speak about issues in which you are “qualified,” by arbitrary standards. The hosts believe a couple of caring parent who did their research cannot have rally other parents to have a day in what their kids learn because they aren’t from an educational or political background. The logic here is absurd. I’m really disappointed in this. Maybe the Texans WERE advocating on their Conservative-leaning viewpoint, but this podcast was clearly already convinced of this before they began their research and therefore they are not convincing, which is bad history, bad analysis and argumentation, and BAD JOURNALISM.
Excellent exposure of how these absurdly ridiculous, homophobic, racist Bible thumpers are able to edit truths out of textbooks to skew public education in the USA. Horrifying. This country was founded on religious freedom and separation of church and state. The Bible is not a basis for textbooks with facts in them.
This host wasted no time. The first episodes dives head first into leftist revisionist history. Anecdote after anecdote presented as fact. If you have a smidgen of common sense you’ll pick up on it within the first 4 minutes of episode one. By that way, my favorite line is when the host says she was shocked that the main subjects, the Gablers, were nice people. Because conservatives are evil, how can the Gablers be nice!!? The host is an idiot
I was a fan of “winning Wisconsin” and think the host hits it out of the park again w “teaching Texas”. The folks interviewed are such characters, and help paint a vivid picture of an issue - the fight over what is included and/or misrepresented in textbooks - I was not familiar with. While the show focuses on Texas it does a excellent job illustrating not only the national implications (as a huge number of state use texas’ textbooks) while connecting this debate to other relevant political movements shaping our discourse around church and state, race, and white nationalism. Big applause for this show! Excited to see where it goes.
Fine report on a state that is often overlooked but is an important foundational one for our country.
As the world is changing so rapidly we need stable places like Wisconsin.
I love this podcast, love this host. As a foreigner it helps me understand the political weird mess that is the United States. And I hope we really are able to win Wisconsin!
It started out good but after awhile the liberal bias was SO obvious. C'mon man, keep it unbiased. BTW, we are NOT in our third wave of the 'rona. This is our FIRST wave, it really wasn't even here until September. While we may be in the top five in new cases, our death rate is 42nd in the country.
First 3 episodes were great, factual, and granular, and Grace Lynch had quality reporting. Episode 4 contained rather blaring falsehoods from interviewed guests, with sympathy from Ms. Lynch. While early conservative views were editorialized by the reporter, this episode included no commentary or acknowledgment as skewed by the reporter.
Top notch reporting that really paints a clear picture of Wisconsin as we lead up to the election. Clear, concise and a joy to listen to—this podcast feels like it cuts through a lot of the noise. Also, I just HAVE to give props for the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee reference in episode one.
