WASHINGTON (AP)--Lynne Cheney, wife of the vice president, disputed educators
who want to teach more multiculturalism in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror
attacks, promoting instead an [blue]America-first curriculum.
[/blue] "If there were one aspect of schooling from kindergarten through college to
which I would give added emphasis today it would be American history," Mrs.
Cheney said Friday in remarks prepared for a speech to the Dallas Institute of
Humanities and Culture.
[b]Cheney, a well-known critic of political correctness[/b] and former chairwoman of
the National Endowment for the Humanities, took issue with published comments
by the deputy chancellor for instruction in New York City schools, Judith
Rizzo.
In a Sept. 30 article, The Washington Post quoted Rizzo as saying: [red]"Those
people who said we don't need multiculturalism, that it's too touchy-feely, a
pox on them. I think they've learned their lesson. We have to do more to teach
habits of tolerance, knowledge and awareness of other cultures."
[/red]
Cheney agreed that children need to be taught about world cultures. But, she
said, [blue]"to say that it is more important now implies that the events of Sept. 11
were our fault, that it was our failure to understand Islam that led to so many
deaths and so much destruction."
[/blue] The assertion that U.S. citizens need to learn more tolerance implies, Cheney
said, [blue]"that somehow intolerance on our part was the cause."
"But on Sept. 11, it was most manifestly not the United States that acted out
of religious prejudice."
[/blue]
A time of national crisis is a time to study national history, "to know the
ideas and ideals on which our nation has been built," Cheney said. She cited a
recent survey of college seniors at 55 elite American universities that found
only a third could identify George Washington as the American general at
Yorktown. Not one of those 55 universities requires a course in American
history, Mrs. Cheney said.
[blue]"Let me suggest that if there is a failure here, it is lack of commitment to
this nation's history."
[/blue] (END) DOW JONES NEWS 10-05-01
12:57 PM- - 12 57 PM EDT 10-05-01
...you GO girl!