I’m going to step out of my lane for a short rant today.
Here was the fourth grade prep sheet from our school system about famous Americans.
Citizens who gave service to our country:
Benjamin Franklin
Helen Keller
Eleanor Roosevelt
George Washington Carver
Citizens who helped shape our government:
George Washington
Betsy Ross
Thomas Jefferson
Citizens who defend our American principles:
Abraham Lincoln
Martin Luther King Jr
Thurgood Marshall
Rosa Parks
Jackie Robinson
Susan B Anthony
Cesar Chavez
I’m not cherry picking. This is the list. Is it any wonder our children don’t know basic history? That they don’t understand the Bill of Rights or know who won the Civil War or when World War II happened or who Ronald Reagan was? It’s not that the list itself contains objectionable elements (though Cesar Chavez wouldn’t be my pick, nor would Betsy Ross), but that they were made purely with a view to diversity. But if diversity is the aim, I’d like to know where the Native Americans are (Elizabeth Warren didn’t feature)? What about early Latinos? And no LGBT? What about good old FDR? He mattered because he was in a wheelchair. History is apparently a tale about race and ethnicity and handicaps, and not the majestic sweep of constitutional governance or the morality of freedom or the magic of opportunity. It’s not that teaching diversity is evil, or that finding people whom children can identify with is a terrible instinct. But can’t we all learn about the great Americans of history with a view to what they did, rather than what they looked like? Apparently not.
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