Constitution Day September 17, 2013: Textbook Misinterprets the Second Amendment to Advance Placement High School Students = a Generation of the Undereducated!

From: http://godfatherpolitics.com/12555/ap-history-textbook-rewrites-second-amendment/


“AP History Textbook Rewrites the Second Amendment
Posted by Gary DeMar
September 16, 2013

An AP history textbook (AP Stands for Advanced Placement. It is a high level course taught for those planning on going to college and, depending upon the school, may provide college credit for the course although taught at a high school for high school students with a high school teacher. I taught AP American government and AP economics when teaching although not for college credit.—my addition) has rewritten the Second Amendment (Not actually, However, the interpretation for the Amendment is incorrect and that is what he is giving in this article!—my addition). Here’s the Constitution’s wording:

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Here’s the AP history textbook’s reworking of the text (Interpretation of the Amendment. I do not know if they actually publish the wording of the Amendment in the textbook. The trend is NOT to have the Constitution printed within the textbooks, as I understand it!—my addition):

“Second Amendment: The people have a right to keep and bear arms in a state militia (As is pointed out, this interpretation is incorrect! Remember, this is being feed to the top students in the high school! By a company that does NOT provide the correct interpretation of the Constitution! Does the teacher correct it? Do not know!— my addition)”

The revision interprets the Second Amendment in a way that concludes that the only way it’s constitutional to ‘keep and bear arms’ is for a person to be part of a ‘state militia.’ United States History: Preparing for the Advanced Placement Examination gets it backwards as the following article points out:

‘The 2nd Amendment says that a militia is necessary to protect a free State, so in order to be able to have a militia, the citizens have a natural right to keep and bear arms and the government cannot infringe on that right (The federal government can not infringe upon that right!—my addition).

The textbook version implies that we’re only allowed to keep and bear arms if we’re in a State militia, a clear misrepresentation of the 2nd Amendment.’

High School history textbooks have been used as propaganda props for decades. Mel and Norma Gabler scrutinized textbooks and wrecked havoc on the textbook industry for nearly 50 years. They got involved in reviewing textbooks when they found factual errors in their 14-year old son’s textbook, in particular, the absence of the phrase ‘under God’ from the text of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (That long ago, the text book industry has been used to revise American history!—my addition).


Further study showed interpretive bias on economic, political, and religious subjects. Their most famous find was a 1973 fifth-grade American history textbook that devoted more attention to Marilyn Monroe than to George Washington. Norma Gabler remarked, ‘We’re not quite ready for Marilyn Monroe as the mother of our country (Fifth graders are?—my addition).’

In 2001, Time magazine reported that their ‘scroll of shame’ of textbook mistakes since 1961 was 54 feet long. In the early 1990s, Texas fined publishers about $1 million for failing to remove hundreds of factual errors the Gablers had found in 11 history books. An example: A textbook said that Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina had supported the tariff of 1816. He opposed it.[1]

The public schools have done a great job in shifting worldview thinking from theism to humanism right under the noses of parents who extol the virtues of America’s government education system. Consider how some textbooks handled the subject of religion in the founding of America prior to the Texas TEKS guidelines.

One elementary school social studies book has thirty pages of material ‘on the Pilgrims,’ Paul Vitz writes in his book on textbook censorship, ‘including the first Thanksgiving.’

‘But there is not one word (or image) that referred to religion as even a part of the Pilgrims’ life. One mother whose son is in a class using this book wrote . . . that he came home and told her that ‘Thanksgiving was when the Pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians.’ The mother called the principal of this suburban New York City school to point out that Thanksgiving was when the Pilgrims thanked God. The principal responded by saying ‘that was her opinion’—the schools could only teach what was in the books (What nonsense!—my addition)!’ [2]

I suspect that the teaching of America’s Christian history has not improved much since Vitz did his study (It almost certainly has gotten worse!—my addition). School boards and textbook writers can’t hide the truth any longer. As Russell Shorto has to admit the following in his New York Times article ‘How Christian were the Founders?’:

‘There is . . . one slightly awkward issue for hard-core secularists who would combat what they see as a Christian whitewashing of American history: the Christian activists have a certain amount of history on their side (A whole lot of history on their side!—my addition).’

What’s true on rewriting what’s true about religion is spilling over into every area of education (California law: Textbooks must include achievements of homosexuals and must NOT have ANY negative aspects of homosexual behavior! What rot! And because California is the largest public education market, what California wants goes into the textbooks including those being offered to all the other States! Buyers beware! Parents beware!— my addition).

1) Douglas Martin, “Norma Gabler, Leader of Crusade on Textbooks, Dies at 84,” New York Times (August 1, 2007).

2) Paul C. Vitz, Censorship: Evidence of Bias in Our Children’s Textbooks (Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Books, 1986), 3.”

Below is an image of the textbook page given with the story. Look carefully and see what is states about the First Amendment just above the Second. Notice: “Congress shall not favor one religion over another (separation of church and state).” Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! This is what a wrote on a previous post (9/14/13):

Amendment I to the United States Constitution

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

The relevant portion of Amendment I for our purposes:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ….”

This is going to upset many conservatives and many liberals too. Can not help it! Notice the first phrase:

Congress shall make no law: This Amendment is directed toward Congress as the law making body of the federal government. That means obviously that the President and the executive branch has NO say in the matter! Furthermore, the federal courts have NO say in the matter. It is Congress that has the say as the law maker and “Congress shall make no law”

respecting an establishment of religion: What does establishment of religion mean? During this time, it was not uncommon for a State (State meaning a sovereign nation or country) to have an established religion for the nation—that is, the established church in Great Britain was the Church of England. Similarly, some of the sovereign thirteen States had an established church as the official church of the State. In Maryland the established church was the Catholic Church. This section of the Constitution prevents the Congress from having an established church for the United States. That is all it does. It does not say the government can not have prayer—Congress prays before a session begins. It does not mean there can be no Bible reading. Bibles were used in public schools throughout the nation to teach reading! It was the most common book in the United States! The first book a family got was overwhelmingly a Bible! It does not mean the ten commandments can not be on public property. The ten commandments and other religious symbols were carved in stone on many public buildings!

The First Amendment has NOTHING to do with “Congress shall not favor one religion over another” They are interpreting the establishment of religion with this nonsense! If this is what AP students are getting in public education in relation to the Constitution, we are in real trouble. They ARE NOT learning the Constitution of the UNITED STATES!