Lies my Teacher Told Me
If knowledge is power, then ignorance cannot be bliss.
I first read this critique of high school American History textbooks when I was in high school. I was just precocious enough that I couldn't resist the title. Especially since I was at the bookstore to pick up a text that we'd received a censored version of in English class. I was keenly aware that my teachers were holding information back, and I was not happy about it.
Loewen argues that kids hate history because the textbooks have removed everything interesting from it. Historical figures are presented as two-dimensional heroes rather than complex people and every major decision is presented as a foregone conclusion rather than the result of a complicated debate with many competing interests. In an attempt to make (white, male) students proud of America, the textbooks authors remove anything that might paint the country in a bad light. The narrative that's left is flimsy, inconsistent, and largely untrue.
There's too much history for Loewen to treat it all. Besides which, this is a critique of history textbooks and a call to teach critical thinking rather than a history book. Still, Loewen uses detailed examples to get his point across, the result of which is that there's a fair amount of interesting history in this book. Most of it is focused on the clashes between European invaders and the American Indians they displaced, America's role in the slave trade, and how they continue to color the relationships between white Americans, black Americans, and Native Americans today. There are brief chapters on more modern history, like the Vietnam War and the response to 9/11. But Loewen is the first to admit that he couldn't cover everything and his book necessarily skips a lot.
Instead he urges readers to look at everything, including his book, with a more critical eye. To engage actively with texts and question them thoroughly. He spends some time examining why textbooks are the way they are, and his ultimate conclusion seems to be that it will be easier to get teachers to abandon textbooks than to get the publishing industry to meaningfully change them.
This is one of those books that I'll probably revisit again, when my children start school. It will help me be a more engaged parent. And I can only hope that they'll see it sitting on the shelf one day and, like me, be moved to read it and get beyond the names and dates presented in school and into the much more interesting stories that make up our history.
I first read this critique of high school American History textbooks when I was in high school. I was just precocious enough that I couldn't resist the title. Especially since I was at the bookstore to pick up a text that we'd received a censored version of in English class. I was keenly aware that my teachers were holding information back, and I was not happy about it.
Loewen argues that kids hate history because the textbooks have removed everything interesting from it. Historical figures are presented as two-dimensional heroes rather than complex people and every major decision is presented as a foregone conclusion rather than the result of a complicated debate with many competing interests. In an attempt to make (white, male) students proud of America, the textbooks authors remove anything that might paint the country in a bad light. The narrative that's left is flimsy, inconsistent, and largely untrue.
There's too much history for Loewen to treat it all. Besides which, this is a critique of history textbooks and a call to teach critical thinking rather than a history book. Still, Loewen uses detailed examples to get his point across, the result of which is that there's a fair amount of interesting history in this book. Most of it is focused on the clashes between European invaders and the American Indians they displaced, America's role in the slave trade, and how they continue to color the relationships between white Americans, black Americans, and Native Americans today. There are brief chapters on more modern history, like the Vietnam War and the response to 9/11. But Loewen is the first to admit that he couldn't cover everything and his book necessarily skips a lot.
Instead he urges readers to look at everything, including his book, with a more critical eye. To engage actively with texts and question them thoroughly. He spends some time examining why textbooks are the way they are, and his ultimate conclusion seems to be that it will be easier to get teachers to abandon textbooks than to get the publishing industry to meaningfully change them.
This is one of those books that I'll probably revisit again, when my children start school. It will help me be a more engaged parent. And I can only hope that they'll see it sitting on the shelf one day and, like me, be moved to read it and get beyond the names and dates presented in school and into the much more interesting stories that make up our history.
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