America: the land of ethnic diversity

or at least according to the English books used at my school.*

I'm supposed to be lesson planning (I think I see where this is going), but got sidetracked by completely unrelated details in the book (no surprise there). 

In the 7th grade US unit, you get a closer look at three states: Florida, Alaska, and California. And, for the sake of continuity, there are three characters that tie together all three states throughout the unit. 

It all begins in Florida at space camp, where our 3 friends (oh, and a random British girl) meet...

If you can't read that, their names are (from left to right): Margo Blair, Glen Oktollik, Conchita Gonzales, and Scott Truong, and are from the UK, Alaska, Chicago, and San Fransisco, respectively. 

So, according to this book, if you were to take a random sample of three American children, chances are they're all going to be incredibly ethnic, both in appearance and name. Because we're the melting pot. Right? the land of equal opportunities for all... or something. Apparently this book did not take a sample from Oconee County, Georgia (or else there most definitely would have been at least one very white kid name "Bubba" with a shotgun and a pick-up truck... or am I generalizing again?). 

and my favorite part? the text to the left says "Find the places they are from on the maps of the USA and the UK. Which kid is not American?" hmmm... which one of these is not like the others. 


Maybe in the next edition they'll include a tribute to our native American population as well...

*Obviously I can't say they're wrong, I mean, we are a pretty diverse place. 

I just love that that's how they classify the American kids: they're ethnic.