Sunday, February 19, 2006

Popular Presidents?

A recent article asked freshmen college students to list the most influential US presidents. Well, listed in the top 5, former President Bill Clinton. Now, while "Slick Willy" did provide a ton of fodder for late night show hosts, to name him as one of the top 5 is insane. And, to top it off, there are at least two much more notable presidents that should have been mentioned but didn't make the list - George Washington (duh) and Thomas Jefferson (Yes, remember him, the one that wrote the Declaration of Independence and arrangedthe Louisiana Purchase?) What are they teaching to our high school students in US History? They have to learn that evolution is the only acceptable scientific theory for the beginnings of mankind but they can't learn that infamous people aren't truly influential, just remembered for their poor decisions.

1 comment:

Lyle said...

I think one main problem with history and education is that there is very little money involved. The incentives to learn about history are usually limited to satisfy curiousity and...ahhhhh!! They've removed the incentives from the curriculum.