I teach in a school that is 99% African-American and 100% poor. So many of my students have few, if any good male role models. And yet good teaching is going on in these families. I am amazed what many of my kids know of their history. You are so right - our schools are so manipulated by politics that you cannot trust that your kids will learn their history if it is left up to people who don't want them to know it.