Most famous Americans according to high school seniors

When 2000 high school seniors and juniors were asked to write down the 10 most famous Americans in all of history, this is the result.

1. Martin Luther King Jr.: 67%

2. Rosa Parks: 60%

3. Harriet Tubman: 44%

4. Susan B. Anthony: 34%

5. Benjamin Franklin: 29%

6. Amelia Earhart: 25%

7. Oprah Winfrey: 22%

8. Marilyn Monroe: 19%

9. Thomas Edison: 18%

10. Albert Einstein: 16%

For what it's worth, when the researchers polled 2,000 adults in a different survey, their lists were nearly identical. To Wineburg, that shows that what's studied in school affects not just children but the adults who help them with their schoolwork.

I think we can declare the "cultural curriculum" of schools in the past 30 years to be a complete success.  Whether they have learned American history is another matter.  Amazing to me that not a single President made the list, not Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln or either Roosevelt.

I can only take heart in the wording of the questionnaire that asked for "most famous" and not most consequential.

I am reminded of Roger Scruton who when asked whether we have failed in the present age to pass knowledge to the young, replied,

Yes, knowledge is an end in itself, which is why people are afraid of it - they have no formula with which to understand and confine its power. We have failed to pass on knowledge to the young because we have been more interested in the young than in knowledge. Teachers are taught to follow the sentimentalities of Rousseau and Dewey, regarding knowledge as a benefit to the child. The real educator regards the child as a benefit to knowledge - the brain which, properly modified, will carry the burden of knowledge into the future and one day pass it on.

UPDATE:  It took a commenter, reading the article more closely than I to point out that the students were not allowed to name a president.