American schools are now pandering to Indian immigrants

Maria Glod:

Fairfax County businesswoman Sandhya Kumar teaches her three daughters about other countries, cultures and religions. She wants them to take pride in their Indian heritage and Hindu faith -- and to respect and understand other views.

But when Kumar of Lorton scanned several world history textbooks recommended for Fairfax County schools, she worried that students would come away with a distorted and negative impression of her homeland's culture.

"I thought the American children will think India is some Third World country with pagan beliefs and backward thinking, not a forward-thinking country," Kumar said.

Is India really a forward-looking country?

She and dozens of other Indian American parents launched a campaign to change the way their history is taught in Fairfax, the nation's 12th-largest school system. Their lobbying has prompted school officials to rethink presentations of India and Hinduism in classrooms and has sparked efforts to develop a more sophisticated and thoughtful curriculum.

I wonder if this "more sophisticated and thoughtful curriculum" will cover the common practice in India of aborting female fetuses? Or the ritual sexual abuse of young girls in India? Will the evils of dowry deaths be explored? And how about the ridiculous practice of dog marriage? Instead of pandering to every disgruntled minority group why doesn't the U.S. educational system concentrate on providing a warts-and-all view of history? That way we can prevent education from degenerating into propaganda.