Ezra has a report due on Friday. He is supposed to read and write an autobiography of a famous person. He chose Abraham Lincoln and he picked a small book about Honest Abe from his classroom Library. I believe it is a Scholastic Book and it is fairly new.
The book tells about young Abe's early life, his entrance into politics and about the work he did to abolish slavery. What it doesn't mention is how Abe Lincoln died, or even that he died at all.
I was shocked about this. I was obviously not alone because when Greg read over Ezra's report he asked, "was there any information on Abraham Lincoln's death?"
Abraham Lincoln's murder is just as much part of his history as the fact that he was born in a log cabin (or not) and that he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. I don't think the book needed to go into gory details and I would even be ok if it didn't mention that he was assassinated.
But it doesn't even mention that he died. Is death not politically correct anymore? Are we so worried about children and their exposure to violence that we won't even write a book in which we mentioned that one of our founding fathers actually (gasp) died? The man was born in 1809. I certainly hope he isn't alive anymore. But there is no way for me to know now, is there.
Posted by peninah at November 29, 2006 07:45 PM | TrackBack