Saturday, October 09, 2004

Ugh.

The Education Department this summer destroyed more than 300,000 copies of a booklet designed for parents to help their children learn history after the office of Vice President Dick Cheney's wife complained that it mentioned the National Standards for History, which she has long opposed...

In a widely read opinion piece published in 1994, [Lynne Cheney] complained that "We are a better people than the National Standards indicate, and our children deserve to know it."

The standards contained repeated references to the Ku Klux Klan and to Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the anti-Communist demagogue of the 1950s, she said. And she noted that Harriet Tubman, the escaped slave who helped run the Underground Railroad, was mentioned six times.

But Revere, [Robert E.] Lee, the Wright brothers and other prominent figures went unmentioned, she said.

3 Comments:

At 3:06 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

ugh indeed.

my dad does this kind of bitching about the way canadian history is taught in schools. he complains that louis riel is characterized as a fighter for metis/first nations rights and not a treasonous bastard as he was in the early 60s when he was in elementary school. he complains the english establishment/french catholic oligarchy in quebec is unduly depicted as oppressive.

meh - right wingers can be as utopian-minded as the hippies they hate when it comes to the rose-coloured glasses through which they view the past.

 
At 3:25 PM, Blogger alex said...

word

 
At 2:28 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

as if you answered my comment with "word"

youre so gangsta sometimes

-a

 

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