Over at The Corner, Victor Davis Hanson wonders why Barack Obama is so worried about teaching students about oppression. He quotes a recent "news source":
He said schools should do a better job of teaching all students African-American history "because that's part of American history," as well as women's struggle for equality, the history of unions, the role of Hispanics in U.S. and other matters that he suggested aren't given enough attention."I want us to have a broad-based history" taught in schools, he said, even including more on "the Holocaust as well as other issues of oppression" around the world.
Perhaps Senator Obama missed the news stories about a recent poll of high school students, asking them to name the "most famous" Americans in history, presidents excluded. Here's the list of the top ten, with the percentage who voted for each:
- Martin Luther King Jr.: 67%
- Rosa Parks: 60%
- Harriet Tubman: 44%
- Susan B. Anthony: 34%
- Benjamin Franklin: 29%
- Amelia Earhart: 25%
- Oprah Winfrey: 22%
- Marilyn Monroe: 19%
- Thomas Edison: 18%
- Albert Einstein: 16%
Looks like schools are already doing a decent job teaching some of these "underrepresented" groups, after all.
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