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Title: Visions of Reality: What Fundamentalist Schools Teach by Albert J. Menendez ISBN: 0-87975-802-3 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: March, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $21.00

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Average Customer Rating: 2.67 (3 reviews)

Rating: 1
Summary: Bias works both ways
Comment: This book masquerades as an objective investigation of "Fundamentalist" schools and why tax dollars shouldn't be used to fund them. Although the author tries to appear objective, he is clearly blinded by his own bias. He has a shallow and faulty understanding of "fundamentalist" beliefs that distort his premise, argument, and conclusions.
The author fails to consider the fact that the government doesn't have any money that people don't pay in through taxes. Even people with fundamentalist beliefs pay taxes (amazingly enough). Vouchers provide parents who couldn't otherwise afford it, the chance to send their child to a school of their choice, even if it is "fundamentalist." Incredulous as it may be, some tax-paying parents want to send their child to a "fundamentalist" private school and don't feel they should be penalized for not agreeing with people like the author.
I could go on.
Bottom line for this book and author: people who agree with the author are obviously progressive, forward thinking open-minded people who have the best interests of society in mind and have a clear responsibility to be the nation's watchdog for proper thinking. Those who disagree must therefore be narrow-minded, ignorant, bigots who want to impose their world-view on everyone else. Does this seem like a bit of a double standard? No stars for this turkey.

Rating: 4
Summary: Pretty accurate
Comment: I went to a (Pentecostal) Christian school that used none of the books outlined, but the sentiments taught were basically the same. I have taken a new interest in history because what I learned was so biased. Being a Christian, I have an odd view of this book,as I believe there is a case for Christian education, but not at the EXPENSE of education. This book outlines the pitfalls awaiting the student of a Christian school. In high school the only literature I read (other than the Bible) was Beowulf. The Bible and Beowulf was my ENTIRE literature foundation! I read no Shakespeare or Chaucer or Steinbeck. The emphasis on the spiritual life of presidents and lack of what they actually accomplished in office was another downfall. This book is pretty accurate in what it describes! We can't see the world through Christian glasses, we need to learn church history BEFORE the Reformation, and we need to realize Democrats are not children of the devil as is often taught in Christian schools, fundamentalist or otherwise.

Rating: 3
Summary: Eye-opening survey of fundamentalist curricula
Comment: This book was recommended reading on an atheist website, though there is information in this book that will be of interest to others, particularly Christians who do not fall under the 'fundamentalist' umbrella. This eye-opening book details the tenets of a private, fundamental education and the biased textbooks used to offer children a one-sided view of the world.

Of interest to Catholics in particular is a survey of the contents in various textbooks published by Bob Jones University, which is an anti-Catholic institution (their textbooks easily reflect this sentiment).