Lies My Teacher Told Me Summary

Part I: After reading chapters 2 and 3 in Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen, which gave a new view on Christopher Columbus and the first thanksgiving. One concept that Loewen wrote about and Dr. J lectured about was that Christopher Columbus wasn't actually the first one to “discover” the “New World”. In fact many people had been living there for sometime before he had arrived. They gave Columbus a sense of herofication which is "a degenerative process (much like calcification) that makes people over into heroes. Through this process, our educational media turn flesh-and-blood individuals into pious, perfect creatures without conflicts, pain, credibility, or human interest” (Loewen 11). The history books didn't exactly tell the truth nor lie, they just filled in with the wrong information and unverifiable information. Loewen also wrote about how “the textbooks first mistake is to underplay previous explorers. People from other continents had reached the Americas many times before 1942”
(Loewen 33). Another topic that Loewen covered in his book was the first Thanksgiving. He wrote about how “my students heads have been filled with America’s origin myth, the story of the first Thanksgiving.” (Loewen 71). The first Thanksgiving that we all talk about wasn’t the real “first” Thanksgiving. In fact, many years before that people were celebrating what they called Fall Harvest which, was a celebration of the new season. They celebrated Fall Harvest by family and friends getting together over a table with different food. Sound a little familiar to Thanksgiving? The last topic that Dr. J talked about in class was why did the pilgrims land on Plymouth rock? was it because they ran out of beer, winds pushed them off course, a plague, or even that’s where they intended to go. It all depends what you have been told and personally I've heard all of the different scenarios.
Part II: I personally think that the history books did make Christpher Columbus sound like a huge explorer who found the “New World”. I had only thought this though because of what my history books and teachers have taught me growing up. In elementary school you hardly ever question what the teacher is teaching you because you usually don't know anything about topics being taught. Questioning what your teachers are teaching you is like questioning your parents, and you're taught to not do that at a young age. So after reading James Loewens book, I have a new perspective about Christopher Columbus and his journeys, also a different perspective on the first Thanksgiving. I had never really thought anything other than Columbus did find the Americas but as soon as I read the chapter about it, I could see that he really didn’t. Maybe he was one of the first of the Europeans to find the Americas but people had already been living there for years before he found it. Also the first Thanksgiving wasn't really the first one, people had been celebrating Fall Harvest for years! It really does make me question what I’ve been taught in history over my schooling years.
Part III: The things that I found most interesting was that Christopher Columbus wasn’t the first one to discover the ‘New World” and that the first “Thanksgiving” wasn't really the first one.
All of these so called lies are the topics our textbooks are teaching us in school. What I found to be most helpful was that Loewen gave reasons and explained why we were taught the things we were but, I still don't feel that it was right. I think that these two events in history were two very important dates and should be told correctly. This new information has changed my thoughts about the school textbooks and what am I really being taught. I do now have a new perspective on a few events that happened in history after reading these chapters. I even brought the book to my dad and talked to him about what I was reading because I had never questioned it before and wanted to hear his thoughts on it. He was even surprised about some of the things that Loewen talked about in his
book.