As riveting as the HBO miniseries "John Adams" is as a drama, the biographical story of the American Revolutionary War figure could do wonders for the close-minded folks on Texas' State Board of Education.

The contrasting way Adams and Benjamin Franklin were received in 1770s France — a time when a fledgling union of colonies was desperately seeking a powerful ally against Great Britain — demonstrated what happens when we don't understand the world around us.

Franklin, who took the time to learn French and to absorb himself in the country's political culture, was more successful in negotiating an alliance.

Adams, while the more aggressive advocate for American independence, was continually frustrated by his inability to speak the language. More important, though, it was his inability to understand French customs that undercut his effectiveness in dealing with the crown.

More than 230 years have passed since those seminal moments in our country's formation, but this much is clear:

The world has become more, not less, global.

Whether it be business, politics or communication, those who see through barriers of culture and language are the most successful.

But, yet, right here at home in Texas, our schoolchildren are being led headfirst into the sand of provincial thinking by the state's education leadership.

The recent comments of Don McLeroy, chairman of the State Board of Education, regarding a public school reading curriculum weren't appropriate in 1778, much less 2008.

"What good does it do to put a Chinese story in an English book?" he told reporter Michelle De La Rosa. "You learn all these Chinese words, OK. That's not going to help you master ... English.

"So you really don't want Chinese books with a bunch of crazy Chinese words in them. Why should you take a child's time trying to learn a word that they'll never ever use again?"

McLeroy, heaven help us, did relent that some words like "chow mein" might be useful.

To think that it might be useful to know how to pronounce the name of a Chinese dish is to say that Adams might have been treated differently in 18th-century France had he been able to expound on the "soufflé."

It's much more than that.

Children should be exposed to great literary works from all countries and cultures to equip them to understand a world where physical boundaries are blurring in a high-tech age.

It is a red herring to say that the monocultural reading list recommended by the Board of Education is about helping students learn English. The world hasn't produced a living being who wasn't smarter after having read "Don Quixote" in any language.

McLeroy and the rest of the board probably did yeoman's work in preparing a curriculum with more than 150 literary works for Texas public school teachers to consider using in their classes.

Yet they could only find four works that reflect Hispanic culture in a state where nearly half the schoolchildren are Hispanic?

That is more than an oversight; it's a blind spot.

And it's one with a potentially profound impact because it will influence textbooks in every classroom from kindergarten through 12th grade.

The knee-jerk reaction to calls for a more diverse reading list will inevitably stoke fears about bilingualism, multiculturalism and other -isms.

What it should be about is preparing children — all children — for a new frontier.

Two centuries ago, John Adams didn't retreat from France and insulate himself in the worldview of his parents.

Rather, he made sure his son, John Quincy Adams, became fluent in the language and, better yet, the culture of a powerful global partner.