history as told to your children

History As Told to Your Children

News item:

USA Today reports on a poll taken of American high school students,

asking them to name the "most famous Americans in history," starting

with Columbus to the present day.

Asked to name the most famous Americans in history, high school

students put 20th-century black Americans in the top three slots. Here

are the top 10, with the percentage who chose each:

1. Martin Luther King Jr.: 67%

2. Rosa Parks: 60%

3. Harriet Tubman: 44%

4. Susan B. Anthony: 34%

5.Benjamin Franklin: 29%

6. Amelia Earhart: 25%

7. Oprah Winfrey: 22%

8. Marilyn Monroe: 19%

9. Thomas Edison: 18%

10. Albert Einstein: 16%

Furthermore:

For what it's worth, when the researchers polled 2,000 adults in a

different survey, their lists were nearly identical. To Wineburg, that

shows that what's studied in school affects not just children but the

adults who help them with their schoolwork.

Of course, "famous" is not the same as "significant."

Right?

HT: Dreher

posted by Dad29 @ 12:14 PM 3 comments links to this post

3 Comments:

At 2/07/2008 5:30 PM, Blogger steveegg said...

There are just so many things wrong with that list, I don't

have time (or space in the comments) to deal with it all.

At 2/08/2008 10:03 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm just happy that it wasn't Derek Jeter, Shaq and Beyonce at

the top.

At 2/08/2008 11:49 AM, Anonymous The Asian Badger said...

Boy, are those kids going be confused at Mount Rushmore! Of

course, the teachers will be confused, too.

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