Oregon Adopts Controversial Social Studies Text

The Oregon state Board of Education has overwhelmingly adopted a fourth-grade social studies text that environmentalists had opposed as pro-industry in its handling of wilderness and other environmental issues.

The board voted 6 to 1 late Thursday to approve “Get Oregonized”--which was financed by agricultural and timber interests--despite charges that the book promotes exploitation of resources without balancing environmental concerns and that it contains factual flaws and is ungrammatical. The board received assurances that improvements would be made.

The board’s action adds the book to a list of approved school texts in the state, although school districts of 15,000 or more students approve their own texts. Board member Clifford Freeman of Portland, where opposition to the text has been centered, voted against it, saying it was not up to the level of excellence that Oregon schools have been pursuing.

The book had been severely criticized by environmental groups for allegedly condoning logging methods in which all trees are removed from a tract, slighting wilderness values and favorably portraying the use of off-road vehicles on sand dunes.