Textbook Bias/History Books Usa

Textbooks are written supposedly with the purpose of addressing facts and topics defined by the educational systems to be the most crucial and valued for a factual and well-rounded educational experience. Not mass-marketed as editorials on how the rich white men remember things, this is too commonly how they some to be.   Capitalism is defined as “an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state”.   As universally acknowledged as the concept of “the American Dream” is the idea that the USA is a nation firmly rooted in Capitalism.   However, some things about the state of publicly funded education are in conflict with one of Capitalism’s most commonly held tenets of “financial gain at any cost”.   Publicly funded education is widely represented and regarded as an institution that exists for the betterment of everyone in the country and around the world. However, it can be seen when looking from another direction that the United States’ educational system is an example of an Ideological State Apparatus (Althusser, 12) and Hegemony at its finest.  
Regardless of the level at which the decisions are being made, the purpose of a system of public education is purported to be to create an improved, more literate and socially responsible populace. Perhaps the clearest illustration of the inconsistency of such a perspective is the actual, publicly funded and widely accepted process of textbook adoption (and use) in the United States today. More educational opportunities supposedly give way to a more active and involved citizenry, and allow for a more diversely productive community.   Increased efficient education reduces crime and improves quality of life, less people turn to drugs and violent criminal activity when they have the luxury of the experience associated with an unbiased, fact-based intellectual challenge such as should be provided by an education system funded by tax... [continues]

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