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Textbooks Found Lacking Material Necessary for Understanding of Minority Problems in U.S.

February 23, 1949
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Considerable material essential to an understanding of minority problems in the United States is lacking in textbooks used in elementary and secondary schools in this country, Dr. Howard E. Wilson, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, reported here yesterday. Dr. Wilson’s observations were based on a four-year study of school books undertaken by the American Council on Education at the request of the National Conference of Christians and Jews.

Many school books, he declared, treat the subject of immigrants in “patronizing, “while most textual material on Jews deals chiefly with ancient Jews. He added that most textbook “sins were those of omission, rather than commission.” The study covered 267 elementary and secondary texts, 100 children’s library books and books.

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