Mount Vernon, Alarmed by Fading Knowledge, Seeks to Pep Up Washington's Image

NY Times ^ | 7-29-02 | STEPHEN KINZER

[Pharmboy]

Another sequel to the ridiculous demands of today's educational establishment. As a frequent visitor to Mount Vernon and amateur Washingtonian, I welcome this. The alternative is much worse.

[Pharmboy]

Ping

[Pharmboy]

Ping

[mystery-ak]

My hubby and I took our two sons to Mt. Vernon several years ago.
We were there so early that my one son got to raise the American Flag there...a moment we won't forget.

[aculeus]

Thanks for the ping.

What they should do is bring back Washington's Birthday as a national holiday.

[Pharmboy]

What a neat thing for you and your family.

Also, interesting to note that the print edition of the Times today had a different headline for this story:

George Washington: Mr. Excitement?

Well yes, he was. He did more before he was 23 than most people do in their lives.

[Pharmboy]

What they should do is bring back Washington's Birthday as a national holiday.

I could not agree more. The way interest in the General has been rebuilding over the past few years, perhaps we have reason to be hopeful.

[livius]

I'm very, very glad they're doing this. There has been a systematic campaign to erase the Founding Fathers from our consciousness. The only reason people have even heard of Jefferson, for example, is because of that ridiculous nonsense over his "slave mistress" that came out last year. And as for Washington, forget it. Most young people probably have him confused with George Washington Carver, who no doubt gets more coverage in contemporary history books.

[SW6906]

This pretty much sums up the problem with public education these days:

"When teachers and curriculum planners and textbook authors look at the founding fathers today, they see too many white males," said David W. Saxe, a professor of education at Pennsylvania State University who studies American history textbooks. "George Washington is dissipating from the textbooks. He's still mentioned, but you don't spend a week in February talking about him, doing plays and reciting the farewell address. In the interest of being inclusive, material about women and minorities is taking the place of material about the founders of our country."

[metesky]

For a one volume biography, it's hard to beat Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner

[stainlessbanner]

while 99 percent of students at 55 top universities could identify the cartoon characters Beavis and Butt-Head and 98 percent knew the rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg, just 42 percent could name Washington

So making Mt. Vernon more like MTV is the answer?

[stainlessbanner]

Mt. Vernon bump!

[billbears]

"The attempt to put him in a celebrity package is probably the last thing he'd ever approve," said the historian Joseph J. Ellis, who is writing a biography of Washington. "But I recognize that there's an audience out there that needs to know about him and can only be reached by devices that are a little off-putting."

Joseph Ellis is about the last person I would imagine calling revisionist history 'off-putting'

[Ditto]

For a one volume biography, it's hard to beat Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner

Ditto that. --- a must read for anyone who is interested in how we came to be against all odds. It would not have happened without Washington.

[Hacksaw]

Not so long ago Washington's portrait hung in countless classrooms, his birthday was a separate national holiday, and his exploits and achievements were taught in almost every elementary and secondary school. Today the portraits are gone and the birthday (along with Lincoln's) has morphed into Presidents' Day.

I think President's Day should be renamed Washington and Lincoln Day for starters.

[Paul Ross]

Double Ping.

[ppaul]

[skeeter]

"But let's face it," Professor Henriques added, "he was an 18th-century elitist slaveholder, and that doesn't fit in well with the modern age. We're in an age when white male heroes on horseback are not so popular."

Professor Henriques just summed up with his own words why Washington isn't "so popular" these days - thousands of Marxist "Educators" such as himself. Washington is the wrong color, doncha know.

What an illiterate BOOB.

[Pharmboy]

I don't think they'll go quite that far; however, using the electronic media to showcase the General will not be all bad. He was a very advanced thinker in his time and always objectively evaluated the new. Also, the MVLA will not allow the above-ground vistas to be modernized. They do a wonderful job.

[Pharmboy]

I bridled when I read that sentence. If there was one Founder who was NOT an elitist (for his time, certainly), it was the General.