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Bill Gates Wants To Remake the Way History Is Taught. Should We Let Him?
theodp (442580) writes With his Big History Project, the NY Times' Andrew Ross Sorkin reports that Bill Gates wants to remake the way history is taught (intro video). Last month, the Univ. of California system announced that a version of the Big History Project course could be counted in place of a more traditional World History class, paving the way for the state's 1,300 high schools to offer it. Still, not everyone's keen on the idea. "Is this Bill Gates's history?" asks NYU's Diane Ravitch. "And should it be labeled 'Bill Gates's History'? Because Bill Gates's history would be very different from somebody else's who wasn't worth $50-60 billion." Of the opposition to Gates, Scott L. Thomas of Claremont Graduate University explains, 'Frankly, in the eyes of the critics, he's really not an expert. He just happens to be a guy that watched a DVD and thought it was a good idea and had a bunch of money to fund it."
He didn't make an ad hominem, he made a conclusion based on observation.
Perhaps his sample size was not statistically significant, but that's a different issue.
Because the economic damages caused by his actions are probably orders of magnitude greater than his philanthropic effort, which has been questioned regarding their efficacy, negative impact, and neutrality. Kind of mirrors Rockefeller.
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