Opinion: High schoolers’ top 10

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A survey of American high schoolers asked them to name the most famous people in the nation’s history, dating back to Columbus. The results, at least at first glance (read beyond the list) are a big surprise. Here they are, in order of how often they were listed by the 2,000 students, across the country:

1. Martin Luther King

2. Rose Parks

3. Harriet Tubman

4. Susan B. Anthony

5. Benjamin Franklin

6. Ameila Earhardt

7. Oprah Winfrey

8. Marilyn Monroe

9. Thomas Edison

10. Albert Einstein

An extraordinary showing by women and African Americans that quite possibly points to a new awareness caused by changes in the curriculum. But of course, you’re wondering, as I did, these kids think Harriet Tubman is more famous than Abraham Lincoln? George Washington? Turns out they were told to leave presidents out of their lists. Further, they were asked in a separate list to name the five most famous women, and those numbers were added to whatever names game up on the first list, giving a huge boost to women.

This is scholarship? (I’m not talking about the kids, but the professor who conducted the study.) Well, at least we can take hope from Britney and Lindsay not being on the list. Actually, the most surprising name of all: How on earth did high schoolers even hear of Marilyn Monroe? Then there’s always the quite large possibility that the kids were listing the people they thought they were supposed to say, not the ones they would put down if they were hanging out with friends.