Flotsam and jetsam

Biographical history, as taught in our public schools, is still largely a history of boneheads: ridiculous kings and queens, paranoid political leaders, compulsive voyagers, ignorant generals, the  flotsam and jetsam of historical currents. Those who radically altered history, the great creative scientists and mathematicians, are seldom mentioned if at all.
Martin Gardner, mathematician and writer (1914-2010)

As for the teaching of biographies. when I was teaching high school history, I used to spend a complete month each on the accomplishments of Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, while of the kings and queens I only lingered on the lives of the two Elizabeths of England: the first for repelling the Armada, the second for helping to dissolve the British Empire.
Andrew Pressburger, Toronto, Canada