Khurt, Namaste! Thank you for listening and for offering your comments. As always, you provide food for thought and help take my ideas further.
What you suggest is absolutely on the mark! Yes, there should be role models of every ethnicity represented in textbooks, regardless of whether there are Indians or West Indians in class. Fact is, a picture in the textbook is worth a thousand words. It states clearly that people of all ethnicity have contributed to our modern civilization and not Europeans alone. When Hippocrates is shown as 'Father of Medicine' (!) in school books regardless of the existence of earlier manuscripts of Dhanvantri, we know something is not right. So absolutely, go right ahead and start an awareness campaign in your part of the woods, without hostility! There is one assumption that you continue to make however and that is my focus on Indian role models alone. You forget, I believe that perhaps I may be reborn as a West Indian and even then I would demand that children are given a balanced and accurate perspective of world history! Glad you enjoyed Anandi Gopal's story. I don't ask for it to be included in the textbooks but it certainly is more inspiring than the current sensational material prescribed for California students in the Homeless Bird. I cannot reiterate enough that universal awareness will condition our kids to view the world quite differently. I am sure you will love my next podcast. Till then, thanks and all the very best!
Mona

I was touched by the story on the young Indian woman who achieved so much in her short lifetime.

However, I still do not understand why you feel her story needs to be in my kids text books. A role model is a role model. Who cares about the ethnicity of the model. Why do we need Indian role models in our text books just because we have Indians in our schools? Are we to have ethnic role models for each type of ethnicity (and sub ethnicity) that we have in our schools?

I come from the West Indies and my wife is from Gujarat, India. We live in a part of the USA where there is no West Indian community but a very size-able Hindu Indian community. So what role models do we seek for our kids? Do we start a program and make a big deal about the lack of positive role models for our ethnically mixed children?