Shirley Booth Didn't Kill Lincoln at a Ford Dealership?

"A textbook case of stupid?"
Robert Basler, Oddly Enough blog (January 3, 2011)

"I feel I have been slighted, and I must speak my bitterness.

"Let me back up for a moment. The Washington Post has been reporting on textbooks being used in some Virginia schools which are riddled with errors about history.

"The numerous mistakes include the wrong number of states in the Confederacy during the Civil War, the wrong year the U.S. entered World War I, etc.

"One historian came up with a list of textbook errors 10 pages long, 'including inaccurate claims that men in Colonial Virginia commonly wore full suits of armor.'

"Several of these books were written by a New Yorker, who the Post says is not a trained historian. Apart from the textbooks, she is also the author of works such as, 'Oh, Yikes! History's Grossest, Wackiest Moments.'

"So now I guess you can see why I'm upset with the State of Virginia...."

Mr. Basler, you see, has a book to sell. Two, actually.

And his potential contributions to the education of America's youth are, somewhat sadly in the Lemming's opinion, being ignored by education officials. Mr. Basler has a solution to that oversight:

"...But don't just take my word for it, Virginia education officials.

"In a few days you will receive Volume One of my own U.S. history textbook, ending in 1867 when actress Shirley Booth pushed President Abraham Lincoln off that balcony to his death at a Ford dealership here.

"All I ask is that you take off your suits of armor, sit back and have a look at it...."

The Lemming was in the education racket once: and unless things have changed a great deal, it is the Lemming's opinion that the kids are okay. Few had the Lemming's unquenchable (if somewhat unfocused) thirst for knowledge. But several decades back most of the teens taught by the Lemming were able to pick up the basics of whatever subject was taught.

It's unlikely, in the Lemming's opinion, that homo sapiens sapiens has changed all that much in about a third of a century.

From the look of it, American education hasn't changed all that much, either. Not the government schools, anyway.

Which is why the Lemming's household started homeschooling. And that's another topic.

Sort-of-related posts:

• "Top Eight Goofiest Photos, 2010? Quite Likely"
  (December 13, 2010)
• "Top Ten Goofy 2010 True Stories: From the Oddly Enough Blog"
  (December 7, 2010)
• "Flying Cucumber? Psychedelic Skyrocket? Dress?!"
  (July 26, 2010)
• "Frankenmodel: Or, 'After This Job, You Die' "
  (January 29, 2010)
• "Rental Wedding Guests, And Other Weirdness"
  (June 9, 2009)

Serious posts about home schooling and an alternative:

• "School District Celebrates Religious Freedom Day: By Banning Bibles"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (July 1, 2010)
• "American History Textbooks: Good for Schools, Good for Home Schooling"
  (April 17, 2010)
• "Police Handcuff Dangerous Student! School Protected From Erasable Marker!"
  (April 6, 2010)
• "Lemming Tracks: Home Schooling isn't What You May Think"
  (March 31, 2010)
• "Home Schooling, Religious and Moral Instruction, and American Culture"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (March 6, 2010)