Doc 1
Question 1
I think Loewen chose the four quotes to get the reader to think about how important it is to have an understanding of the truth about our real history. Not the stories that are played out in history textbooks, but the real facts about American history. These quotes help set the stage for Lowen’s thesis by encouraging the reader to start to think about if what they were taught in school was really how it all happened. Loewen’s thesis is that history textbooks either misguide readers in the facts of American history or leave some of them out all together. In either case it creates a false sense of greatness for the story of the Pilgrims and the founding of America. I think Loewen’s thesis is the ninth paragraph after he asks the question “What has gone wrong”(para 8).
Question 3
Loewen sets up his argument about history textbooks by focusing on historical facts. He first starts with asking the question “When was the country we now know as the United States first settled?” (Loewen para 23). After he explains what the typical student response is, he walks us through a historic timeline that goes against what our textbooks taught us. He uses facts and writings from other authors to lend credibility to his argument. Freire frames his argument with a by comparing education to that of a deposit in a bank and explaining how this affects students. It is different from Loewen’s because it does not use facts and dates to add credibility to the argument. Both authors agree that the methods of education do not prompt students to develop a sense of inquiry or curiosity, but instead teach them to just memorize and repeat answers only long enough to get by. The connection means that students are able to recite facts and figures but cannot form an opinion for themselves.
Ref:
Loewen, James W., Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. 1996.
I think Loewen chose the four quotes to get the reader to think about how important it is to have an understanding of the truth about our real history. Not the stories that are played out in history textbooks, but the real facts about American history. These quotes help set the stage for Lowen’s thesis by encouraging the reader to start to think about if what they were taught in school was really how it all happened. Loewen’s thesis is that history textbooks either misguide readers in the facts of American history or leave some of them out all together. In either case it creates a false sense of greatness for the story of the Pilgrims and the founding of America. I think Loewen’s thesis is the ninth paragraph after he asks the question “What has gone wrong”(para 8).
Question 3
Loewen sets up his argument about history textbooks by focusing on historical facts. He first starts with asking the question “When was the country we now know as the United States first settled?” (Loewen para 23). After he explains what the typical student response is, he walks us through a historic timeline that goes against what our textbooks taught us. He uses facts and writings from other authors to lend credibility to his argument. Freire frames his argument with a by comparing education to that of a deposit in a bank and explaining how this affects students. It is different from Loewen’s because it does not use facts and dates to add credibility to the argument. Both authors agree that the methods of education do not prompt students to develop a sense of inquiry or curiosity, but instead teach them to just memorize and repeat answers only long enough to get by. The connection means that students are able to recite facts and figures but cannot form an opinion for themselves.
Ref:
Loewen, James W., Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. 1996.