CLEARLY THOSE IGNORANT HICKS can’t be allowed to educate themselves [A history redo in Texas will hurt children, Saturday, April 3, 2010]. Washington Post reader Robert Tiller appears to agree:

Residents of Madisonville, Tex. -- and of other communities throughout that state -- are fighting for the right to teach their version of history in their public schools ["On schools, town has a message: Don't mess with Texas," news story, April 1]. I wonder if those folks have considered how their efforts will harm their children.

Young people who believe and spout faux history will have a difficult time in college and graduate school [true, see below], and they will lose out on job opportunities, research grants and more. Filling children's heads with phony "facts" that are based on wishful thinking is a surefire way to stunt the mental growth of those children and limit their ability to enjoy the American dream.

There is some truth to reader Tiller’s claim. “Faux history” has been taught in America’s colleges and universities for on the close order of 20 years – and look at the state of the country today: political correctness run amuck; a recession that seems clear to be second only to the Great Depression; and government-imposed solutions that have been shown repeatedly throughout history to be failures.

No, the people of Madisonville, TX, are more closely attuned to the real world than are self-styled members of the so-called “reality-based” community. They should be applauded.