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The Textbook Controversy in Tennessee
Collection StructureFiring Line broadcast records > Episode guide > The Textbook Controversy in Tennessee
Item Title The Textbook Controversy in Tennessee
Guest Frost, Vicki
Guest Farris, Michael P.
Guest Dyk, Timothy B.
Guest Taylor, Faye P.
Host Buckley, William F., Jr. (1925-2008)
Date CreatedOctober 10, 1986
Description

The case being referred to as Scopes II had been set in motion three years earlier, when Vicki Frost protested against some of the textbooks being used in her daughter's school. The controversy attracted national constituencies on both sides: Mr. Farris was backed by the Concerned Women for America, an anti-secularist lobby, and Mr. Dyk was backed by Norman Lear's People for the American Way. To the plaintiffs, the "open-ended" questions used in the so-called "character education curriculum" are perniciously relativistic; to the defense, as Mr. Dyk puts it, "I think the beliefs are sincere, but I also think they're very, very broad beliefs and they're fundamentally inconsistent not only with the values of public education but with the skills that public education is trying to teach." An illuminating look at a deep division within our society.

Language(s)
Country of Origin
Place RecordedMemphis, Tennessee, United States
DimensionsDuration: 60 minutes
FormatMoving Image
Medium television programs
Aspect Ratio
4:3
Color
color
Soundtrack
sound
Hoover IDProgram S0709
Record Number80040.956
NotesVideo available through special order.
RightsCopyright held by Stanford University. This copy is provided for educational and research purposes only. No publication, further reproduction, or reuse of copies, beyond fair use, may be made without the express written permission of the Hoover Institution Library & Archives on behalf of Stanford University.

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