TEAC 451: Blog #7

I thought the reading for this week was really interesting. I particularly liked how Dr. Johnson primed us for it in class last week without really telling us that he was doing that. By asking us to create our own lists of the top ten most influential/important figures in American history, he made sure we all understood our own perspectives and biases before doing this reading.

Seeing as this article is over ten years old, I'd love to see how high schoolers' perspectives have changed or if they haven't changed at all. I also wish the researchers had asked adults in the middle range (post high school to 45 years old) the same question so we could compare the gap between the generations more.

As I read over the lists of the top 10 most frequent answers I was struck by the seeming diversity, and then upon further inspection, at the lack of true diversity. Sure, there's black Americans and women (although that's skewed due to Part B of the study, as they stated), but where are the Native Americans, the Latinos, the Asian Americans? Furthermore, where are the gay people, the Muslims, the Jewish people, and the people who cross multiple of these categories? I suppose that those groups have historically been less prominent in US history, but it also showcases the fact that those groups' histories and contributions aren't taught in formal settings. Or at least not taught as widely.


https://culturela.org/event/latino-american-heritage-month-celebrations/