Norma Gabler (1923-2007) turned her motherhood into a weapon, bending the American educational landscape to fit her own moral compass.
Norma Gabler (1923-2007) turned her motherhood into a weapon, bending the American educational landscape to fit her own moral compass.
While motherhood can take many forms, to mother is to usher forth new generations through care, work and imagination. For the entire month of December, we’re celebrating mothers — including those who raised children who went on to lead the civil rights movement and school desegregation efforts, such as Alberta King and Louise Little, as well as mothers of movements like Lorena Borjas who started the Latinx trans movement. All of the women featured this month were dedicated to the survival of children in their work and to imagining better futures for the next generation.
History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Ale Tejeda, Sara Schleede, Abbey Delk, and Alex Jhamb Burns. Special thanks to Shira Atkins.
Original theme music composed by Miles Moran.
Follow Wonder Media Network:
Hello! from Wonder Media Network, this is Womanica. I'm Adesuwa Agbonile, a producer here at WMN, and the curator of December’s theme.
This month, we’re talking about mothers: women who ushered forth new generations and new futures through their care, work, and imagination.
Today, we’re talking about a woman who I learned about while producing Teaching Texas, another incredible WMN podcast. This woman turned her motherhood into a weapon, bending the American educational landscape to fit her own moral compass.
Let’s talk about Norma Gabler.
Norma was born in Garrett, a small town in the heart of Texas, in 1923. When she was growing up, her father worked for an oil company, which meant she had to move a lot – and switch schools a lot. Those schools often taught different curricula, and had different requirements for advancing to the next grade. As a result, she never officially graduated high school.
In 1942, Norma married Mel Gabler. She was 19, and the two quickly set about fulfilling their duty as a good, Christian, Texan couple.
They got a house in Hawkins, 100 miles outside of Dallas. Mel served in World War II, and then worked as a clerk for an oil company. Norma stayed home and raised the kids. But in 1961, the couple found their true calling.
Their son, Jim, was 14. He’d been tasked with memorizing the Gettysburg Address. So he looked it up in the Encyclopedia, where it was accompanied by a photo of the Lincoln Memorial. The image was pretty small, and hard to read, and when he turned to the typed version of the speech, he realized two key words were missing from the text: Under God.
Jim asked his mother: “Where can you go to get the truth?” Norma was furious. So she marched into the superintendent’s office and demanded an explanation. Here’s what the superintendent told her:
Their public school, like all public schools, was only allowed to buy textbooks that had been approved by the State Board of Education. Then, he gave her a suggestion: “Why don’t you go to Austin? That’s where you can have some impact.”
It may have been an offhand comment, but this small piece of advice shifted the trajectory of American education.
Austin is the state capital. Every spring and summer, it was where the Texas State Board of Education held hearings on the textbook lists for individual school subjects, like English and History. At the hearings, citizens were allowed to make specific arguments for why specific books should not get approved for public school use.
Here’s why that mattered: Texas is the second largest textbook market in the U.S., only smaller than California. And, the approved textbook list is used across the state, in all of the public school districts. To make it on the list means an almost guaranteed profit. To be left off? That was a recipe for financial ruin. And there was one more level of influence: Publishers would often make an edition for approval in Texas… and then sell that version to the entire country. In a time where printing was done on an analogue press, it could get really pricey to make multiple editions to meet different standards across the country.
So, that superintendent was right. To have an impact – a national impact – Norma and her husband needed to go to Austin.
In preparation, the Gablers camped out at their kitchen table, poring over textbooks word by word. They were searching for factual errors, yes, but they were also driven by something much more subjective: anything, and anyone, who didn’t align with their conservative beliefs. They developed a process around what they called the three Ps: Prayer, Preparation and Persistence.
In 1962, a year after starting her crusade, Norma headed to Austin for the first time. At first, publishers were dismissive of this inexpert Texas housewife. But by 1970, Norma got her first big win: science textbook publishers would have to include a statement that said evolution was a theory, not a fact. Publishers also had to avoid any language that might cause “embarrassing” situations in the classroom. And, any prospective books were to be made available at 20 regional educational centers, way ahead of any filing deadlines.
Norma later said those were the three biggest gains they ever had. And from then on, the tide shifted.
In the early 1970s, Norma and her husband, Mel founded a nonprofit called Educational Research Analysts. The couple hired some of their son’s high school classmates to help type, and fact-check every single word, sniffing out as many errors as they could. Factual inaccuracies were their Trojan Horse. They gave Norma and Mel the upper hand to press for more insidious changes. Like, pushing American exceptionalism and Christian Nationalist ideals. That manifested in defining marriage exclusively as between a man and a woman. Or not calling Robin Hood a hero, because he embodied wealth redistribution.
For more than 40 years, Norma and Mel, their followers, and their nonprofit, held the textbook industry hostage. They also laid the groundwork for other parents to express their opinions about education. Norma traveled around the country – and as far as Australia – to spread their methods. She also caught the attention of national television, and was featured on 60 Minutes and The Firing Line, with William F. Buckley.
She was fastidiously dedicated to the cause, and was steadfast in her beliefs. She rarely – if ever – took a vacation.
Norma died in 2007, at the age of 84. Her influence can still be felt today. Not only in the textbooks we use, but in the ways that parents and politicians have turned school board meetings into ideological battlegrounds. Often under the guise of protecting our children.
To learn more about Norma Gabler and the history behind today’s education culture wars, listen to Teaching Texas, another WMN podcast that I helped produce.
All month, we’re talking about mothers. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to co-creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan.
Talk to you tomorrow!