History lessons

Photo: Yalonda M. James

A letter to the editor in last week's SF Chronicle:

Discuss the history

The mural at George Washington High School is not only a work of art, but potentially a great teaching tool. The controversy it generates is proof of its merit.

Instead of covering it up, they should print a manual discussing the warts in our history it illustrates and incorporate it into a civics or history class.

Michael Hanley

Berkeley

Rob's comment:

Yes! As a history major in college, I learned as much from the art history courses I took as I did from the rest of the history curriculum. 

It's a shame that art history isn't usually offered in high school: First semester, cave paintings and prehistoric art to the Renaissance. Second semester, Renaissance to abstract expressionism and postmodernism.