McGraw Hill Disses Wright Brothers
People wonder why American kids are falling
further and further behind their international peers. Most of them can't name
the capital of Italy, or the inventors or the airplane or light bulb -- and I'm
talking about college graduates! (Although Embry-Riddle grads usually get the
airplane, and MIT EE grads the light bulb).
One reason, of course, is the "political correctness" that pervades the education establishment, to the point that real facts are tossed aside and trivia are beaten into the kids, instead.
A prime example of this
was
just exposed by the Wall Street Journal (via Joe's Dartblog here). It seems
that publishing powerhouse McGraw-Hill deleted the Wright Brothers from its
high-school textbook, "The American Republic Since 1877," to make room for a
character who, to the book's authors, was much more significant: Bessie Coleman.
If you're saying "Bessie who?" you're obviously not a product of modern education, nor an expert in early flight. Coleman was an early aviatrix who had a rather undistinguished career as an airshow pilot, punctuated by numerous crashes, and ending in a few years when she fell from a spinning plane at 500 feet due to an unfastened seat belt. Wikipedia (the unreliable source that it is) explains that she didn't have her seat belt on because she was planning to make a parachute jump -- the next day. (I hope that reflects Wikipedia's usual slipshod editing, not the late Miss Coleman's judgment).
Now, Coleman was a signficant figure, as the first black woman pilot. (She was
not, as the website BessieColeman.com claims, quoting the Postal Service, "the
first African American pilot"; the real first black pilot was Corporal Eugene
Bullard on November 5,
1917 -- Bullard was an American who fought with the French). Coleman
would also learn to fly in France -- the French lacked the institutional racism
pervasive in the USA at the time. But many other black men flew between Bullard
and Coleman.
(Bullard, for what it's worth, joins the Wrights in getting the silent treatment from McGraw-Hill. He might have been the "correct" race to be featured, but as a combat airman he was in the "wrong" profession for the hard-left editors).
Really, in the pantheon of early pilots Coleman's only signficance -- indeed, her fame, such as it was, during her too-short life -- was entirely due to her novelty status as a black woman.
Other women flyers achieved significant firsts (I've written about one on this site). Other black pilots did many things to advance the science of aviation. Bessie Coleman didn't, really. She ousted the Wrights from the textbook because she accomplished the amazing (?) feat of flying while female, and black.
Er, what is the term for someone who, like the textbook authors and editors at McGraw-Hill, sees race as all-important?
One reason, of course, is the "political correctness" that pervades the education establishment, to the point that real facts are tossed aside and trivia are beaten into the kids, instead.
A prime example of this
was
just exposed by the Wall Street Journal (via Joe's Dartblog here). It seems
that publishing powerhouse McGraw-Hill deleted the Wright Brothers from its
high-school textbook, "The American Republic Since 1877," to make room for a
character who, to the book's authors, was much more significant: Bessie Coleman.
If you're saying "Bessie who?" you're obviously not a product of modern education, nor an expert in early flight. Coleman was an early aviatrix who had a rather undistinguished career as an airshow pilot, punctuated by numerous crashes, and ending in a few years when she fell from a spinning plane at 500 feet due to an unfastened seat belt. Wikipedia (the unreliable source that it is) explains that she didn't have her seat belt on because she was planning to make a parachute jump -- the next day. (I hope that reflects Wikipedia's usual slipshod editing, not the late Miss Coleman's judgment).
Now, Coleman was a signficant figure, as the first black woman pilot. (She was
not, as the website BessieColeman.com claims, quoting the Postal Service, "the
first African American pilot"; the real first black pilot was Corporal Eugene
Bullard on November 5,
1917 -- Bullard was an American who fought with the French). Coleman
would also learn to fly in France -- the French lacked the institutional racism
pervasive in the USA at the time. But many other black men flew between Bullard
and Coleman.(Bullard, for what it's worth, joins the Wrights in getting the silent treatment from McGraw-Hill. He might have been the "correct" race to be featured, but as a combat airman he was in the "wrong" profession for the hard-left editors).
Really, in the pantheon of early pilots Coleman's only signficance -- indeed, her fame, such as it was, during her too-short life -- was entirely due to her novelty status as a black woman.
Other women flyers achieved significant firsts (I've written about one on this site). Other black pilots did many things to advance the science of aviation. Bessie Coleman didn't, really. She ousted the Wrights from the textbook because she accomplished the amazing (?) feat of flying while female, and black.
Er, what is the term for someone who, like the textbook authors and editors at McGraw-Hill, sees race as all-important?
Malchow quotes the
WSJ:
Yeah, inadvertently. That's it.
The undistinguished Bessie Coleman, though, is still prominently featured -- more prominently than the Wrights or Lindbergh. See, it's less important for kids to learn things than it is for them to feel good and have enormous self-esteem. And the way for them to get this self-esteem is not by achieving anything, or by overcoming challenges, but by being stroked by lots of images of insignificant historical footnotes, inflated beyond their natural significance in a paroxysm of puffery, so long as those historical underachievers look superficially like them.
Does anybody else have some doubts about this, the McGraw-Hill approach?
Let's build a society of Ted Bundys, then. Sociopaths always have tremendous self-esteem. They haven't accomplished diddly, usually, but they're unimaginably high on themselves.
McGraw-Hill is doing its bit towards that end: a nation of losers that feel good about it.
Some textbooks shortchange depictions of important historical figures. As submitted to Texas for adoption in 2002, McGraw-Hill’s “The American Republic Since 1877” included a profile and photo of Bessie Coleman, the first African-American woman pilot. But there was no mention or image of aviation pioneers Orville and Wilbur Wright. After a Texas activist who advocates for more patriotic textbooks complained, McGraw-Hill added a passage and photo about the Wrights. A company spokeswoman said the brothers had been left out inadvertently.
Yeah, inadvertently. That's it.
The undistinguished Bessie Coleman, though, is still prominently featured -- more prominently than the Wrights or Lindbergh. See, it's less important for kids to learn things than it is for them to feel good and have enormous self-esteem. And the way for them to get this self-esteem is not by achieving anything, or by overcoming challenges, but by being stroked by lots of images of insignificant historical footnotes, inflated beyond their natural significance in a paroxysm of puffery, so long as those historical underachievers look superficially like them.
Does anybody else have some doubts about this, the McGraw-Hill approach?
Let's build a society of Ted Bundys, then. Sociopaths always have tremendous self-esteem. They haven't accomplished diddly, usually, but they're unimaginably high on themselves.
McGraw-Hill is doing its bit towards that end: a nation of losers that feel good about it.
Posted: Monday - August 21, 2006 at 10:30 AM
Quick Links
Statistics
Total entries in this blog:
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Aug 06, 2007 08:05 PM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Aug 06, 2007 08:05 PM