"I think our textbooks should to our greatest capacity be free of any type of stereotyping," said Sue Stickel, deputy superintendent for curriculum and instruction for the California Department of Education (search). "We need to make sure that all ethnicities are represented. We need to make sure that both males and females are represented. We need to make sure that our materials cover the full gamut."

But that is exactly the opposite of what they are doing, isn't it? The Founding Fathers were all male and there is no denying that. So what is their response? Make them the generic "Framers." Where we can't substitute females for males, we'll neuter them completely. But the truth is, THEY WERE AGING WHITE MEN, no matter how you try to dance around it. Native Americans didn't live in rural settings? Where exactly did they live then, in sprawling cities?

It makes me wonder what exactly it is that we are afraid of teaching children. Generally what it tells them is that the world is a bad place, so we must substitute this highly-idealized world in which foods don't harm you, races live in harmony, and men and women share an equal place in shaping all parts of history. That is a dangerous way to prepare youngsters for a world which does not operate on those principles.