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The head of a Utah publishing company admits that one of its textbooks — now pulled from Connecticut school districts — depicts a "paternalistic view of slavery."

A passage in a chapter on slavery in fourth-grade textbook "The Connecticut Adventure" reads: "Compared to other colonies, Connecticut did not have many slaves. Some people owned one or two slaves. They often cared for and protected them like members of the family. They taught them to be Christian, and sometimes to read and write."

Layton-based Gibbs Smith Publishing, which specializes in producing state history curriculum for 31 states including Utah, published the textbook in 2002. Its CEO, Brad Farmer, said the controversial passage was "clearly not what most people believe." The book was already being phased out, he added, in favor of more updated and accurate digital programs.

A parent in Norwalk, Conn., last month raised concerns about the accuracy of the slavery text, and school district officials subsequently decided to review the book.

Wednesday, they announced that hundreds of copies would be removed by January, branding the slavery passage "inaccurate," "simplistic" and "offensive to many."

The 250-page book, written by John W. Ifkovic, had been in use in Connecticut schools for several years.

Farmer said that Gibbs Smith had known about the problem, and had identified it when the company started revising its program in the past few years.

"Our focus is creating state-specific social studies curriculum that reflects the most current scholarship, accurately portrays the multiple groups that have influenced the state, uses the latest pedagogy, and meets Connecticut's social studies framework," Farmer said. "Sometimes we fall short of these objectives, as we did in our 'Connecticut Adventure' textbook."

Farmer said Gibbs Smith had stopped printing and selling the book last year when the company began distributing a new updated online program, "Connecticut Stories." The new program, Farmer said, is "designed to provide the teacher opportunities to discuss [slavery] in Connecticut and how it impacted people's lives in the state."

The revised wording in the new program depicts a more accurate portrayal of slavery in Connecticut, stating that slaves "were taken from their homes and forced to work in the colony," that "sea captains from Connecticut bought men, women, and children from traders in Africa and the West Indies," that "only a few colonists in Connecticut said they believed that slavery was wrong," that slavery in Connecticut "was not completely outlawed until 1848, about 200 years after it began" and that "it was also common to see American Indian slaves in the Connecticut Colony."