Christianity is an historical phenomenon, and our Catholic faith is the precious gift that has been handed down to us over the generations. History is essential to our faith. And our faith is essential to any history worthy of the name.
- Marvin R. O'Connell, Professor of History emeritus, Notre Dame University
Please consider making an end-of-the-year donation to the Catholic Textbook Project. CTP is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation and your gift is tax deductible.
Thirty five years ago there were 20 major publishers producing history and social studies textbooks for American schools, including several Catholic publishers. Today there are five, and none is Catholic. In that time, content has steadily diminished in quality and quantity, becoming centered around images as the text and language has been “dumbed down”. At the same time, the national system of textbook review, dominated by a few big states like Texas and California, has politicized the books that are produced to the point that history is now written more for committees of professional reviewers and activist organizations than for children.
As a result of all this, contemporary social studies books have become blander and emptier with each revision. The influence of activist organizations and the secular education establishment has produced textbooks in which the facts of Christian history are also blurred and softened - when they not ignored or distorted completely. In addition, contemporary social studies and history textbooks are prone to numerous errors of fact.
Since 2000 CTP's goal has been to provide a remedy for this bleak situation. But your help is vitally needed. Your gift helps us create the tools that our Catholic schools and teachers need for our Catholic children. Your gift also helps us develop programs to get our history books into financially struggling parochial schools. So, please make a gift before the end of 2013 to help us in our mission. Thank you for your generosity.
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