by KYW's Dr. Marciene Mattleman

A recent poll of high school students asked them to name ten famous Americans, without naming presidents. They were asked to include five women who were not presidents’ wives.

Those instructions were given so that students would think harder about their responses.

Martin Luther King, Jr. topped the list with 67% of the 2,000 participants. Other individuals named were Benjamin Franklin, Amelia Earhart, Rosa Parks, and Thomas Edison.
 
Diane Ravitch, a well known historian of education, decried the frequent citations of Marilyn Monroe and Oprah Winfrey.  According to a report in Education Week, she believes those choices indicate that popular culture is more important than history.

The survey, a collaboration of professors from Stanford University and the University of Maryland was conducted in one high school in each state.  Eight of those on the students’ lists were similar to choices of 2,000 adults, age 45 and older.
 
Samuel Wineburg, one of the researchers, noted that the inclusion of so many black Americans by students of all races would have been unthinkable 50 years ago.