Word: offing
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Though neither Mel, 64, nor his wife Norma, 56, was a college graduate (Mel worked as a clerk for Exxon, Norma as wife and mother), they began that day to pursue new careers-part-time at first, then full-time-as readers and harsh critics of textbooks. Says Norma: "I...
Eighteen years after the Gablers began their crusade, Edward Jenkinson, professor of education at Indiana University, calls them "the two most powerful people in education today." That is an overstatement. But the Gablers have certainly inspired attacks on textbooks by a host of community groups and thousands of parents throughout...
Their most frequent complaints: political bias, lack of patriotism and failure to provide students with firm moral guidance. The nine-room house the Gablers built in 1965 in Longview, Texas, is crammed with shelves of textbooks and copies of line-by-line listings of their objections and those lodged by...
Their power base is the state of Texas, where they have incorporated as Educational Research Analysts, a tax-exempt organization with a staff of six. Their detailed reviews of new textbooks under consideration by Texas schools, and Norma's motherly testimony before the State Textbook Committee have great impact...
"We're not censors," argues Mel, adding, "only people with authority can censor." The Gablers simply make their views available to school board members and concerned parents, Norma explains. "They could read the books themselves but for us to read them will save hundreds of hours of time. If...