The May issue of Smithsonian Magazine reported on a poll they'd given to 11th and 12th graders, as well as people in their forties or above. They handed them a sheet of paper with 10 blanks and and asked who they thought were the ten most famous Americans beginning with the days of Columbus until now, excluding Presidents and first ladies. The teens, to their surprise didn't name ten pop stars or other entertainment celebrities as those ten. In fact, the lists in both age groups was surprisingly similar.
Rather than post the top ten named overall in both groups, I'd be curious who YOU would pick. I'll post the names from the poll in a few days. It's a difficult choice
THURSDAY NOTE:
Okay, here are the results of the poll:
Martin Luther King
Rosa Parks
Harriet Tubman
Susan B Anthony
Benjamin Franklin
Amelia Earhart
Ophra Winfrey
Marilyn Monroe
Thomas Edison
Albert Einstein
10 comments:
hmm .... Americans is hard for me. I don't know that much about American history. But perhaps Americans that I've heard of from so far outside of America might be quite telling about how famous they really are?
neil armstrong
martin luther king
sitting bull
crazy horse
Toni Morrison
Emily Dickinson
Davy Crockett
Sammy Davis Junior
Marilyn Munroe
Hemmingway
and lots more movie stars and writers I guess.
It's interesting to see your choices, being from NZ, ie whose names cross the big pond with most impact. I won't give away the top list in the magazine yet, but will say that Martin Luther King and Marilyn Monroe were on it. MM was the one who surprised me. Of all the 'entertainment' celebrities, she and one other made the list, the other one still living.
Okay, I'm not from the US either but shall try to give it a go.
Martin Luther King (of course)
Neil Armstrong.
Elvis the pelvis
Marilyn Monroe (because you said it)
Paris Hilton
Crazy Horse
Ray Charles
Stevie Wonder
David Hemmingway
Johnie Cash
Phew! I had to ask David. Am not too good with names.
I would go downstairs and ask him, "that famous scientist, what's his name?" ... Only to have David scratch his head.
XX
I love seeing whose known in other countries. I would have a hard time with the UK, too, since I'm not always positive when someone is from there, but I would have to say from there Princess Diana, The Queen, of course, Margaret Thatcher would all make my list. Should I mention Monty Python??:-)
I'll name a few more I would put on my list here.
Ben Franklin
Ernest Hemingway
Einstein
Robert E. Lee
.....
Don't forget Thomas Hardy, David Niven, Thomas Cook, Ted Hughes and Tommy Cooper.
LOL
And I'm not from England either!
Hi Monique
That's true. Did you move there when you married?
I'm responding after the Thursday note. Interesting that so many civil rights activists made it to the top of the list. Maybe a lot of the students had just been studying that subject shortly before the poll was made. Amelia Earhart is a surprise. And no fiction writers or poets, tsk tsk tsk!
Hi Brian
This is a survey of 2000 teens over all 50 states, so I'm not sure we could attribute it to what they'd just been studying. That IS an interesting observation, though. I would've expected that especially people like Rosa Parks and Susan B Anthony would've been almost forgotten by this generation.
elvis presely
babe ruth
bob (zimmerman) dylan
hanna montana
louis armstrong
ed baker
bill clinton
monica lewdwinksky
joe lewis
milton berle
Monica Lewdwinsky, I love it;-)
Post a Comment