SAN DIEGO : Book for 10th-Grade Class Under Fire

A committee of San Diego city schoolteachers will review again a proposed world history textbook for next school year’s 10th-grade pilot program after the city schools trustees Tuesday expressed concern over allegations that the committee has recommended a book injurious to Jews and Catholics.

The text “World History: The Human Experience” by Glencoe Publishing of Columbus, Ohio, drew strong criticism from Jewish and Catholic community leaders for its treatment of the Holocaust and the founding of Israel, as well as of other Western religions.

But representatives of local Arab organizations praised the book for containing one of the few even-handed accounts of 20th-Century Jewish-Arab tensions in the Middle East.

Board members were inclined to drop the Glencoe book from the proposed pilot program--one of two books that the committee recommended--but held off for two weeks at the insistence of Supt. Tom Payzant.

Payzant said trustees should give the committee a chance to review the criticisms of the book and either come up with an alternative text or better explain its original selection.