In Tony Water’s “The Sacred and Profane in American History Curriculum,” Waters describes how history text-books leave out the less beautiful truth about history and the individuals who form it, to only portray the self sacrificial heres who made it. Waters continues to describe the effects this has a students, and how the peoples love for our country has been birthed from the lack of honesty in the textbooks. He shows this by describing that people only see the good in America and as a result, set up huge patriotic monuments to enrich it’s greatness.…
James W. Loewen wrote this tell-all to expose the real meaning of American History; “diffusion of ideas is perhaps the most important cause of cultural development”pg.39. Loewen realized that not one but all twelve of the top high school US History textbooks failed at making history somewhat captivating to their readers. These books eliminate any ambiguities and problems that arose during the creation of the American society. By not throwing light upon social stratification, American History textbooks allowed high school students to wonder out into a society that came into view as “the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer”.…
However, the first interesting that I found from this reading chapter, why is history taught likes this? From the book “ Lies my teacher told me” by James W. Loewen was about the publishers of targeted reader’s. Most publishers produce textbooks with several audiences in mind. One is their intended reader: student’s characteristics, as publishers perceive them, particularly after reading level and page layout.…
Loewen, James W., Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. 1996.…
How significant was the Battle of the Somme in attempts to break the stalemate on the Western Front? Use Sources F and G and your own knowledge to answer this question.…
"Texas Textbooks: What Happened, What It Means, and What We Can Do about It." PFAW. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2012. .…
He argues that “the books are too busy telling the students how great the United States was and still is to give them much real history”(Hade 568). It is true, we all know that books will never admit that we were wrong for some part, on the contrary books will brush off the real issues or the real story of the issue to present the United States as being on the right side and doing the best of…
history is a branch of literature. It is colourful, vivid. It has to read well.…
James W. Loewen wrote the book "Lies My Teacher Told Me" to help students understand the past of the United States, and how it is effecting the present. "Lies My Teacher Told Me" examines 12 various American history text books, and points out the various lies, flaws, and sugar coated stories the text books present. Loewen explains how textbooks practice heroification, and how race and race relations are a major issue when it comes to American history. Among these topics, Loewen also sheds light on the truth about social classes in America, and how textbooks lie about the past and try to avoid the recent past all together.…
A large part of what we talked about in American history 221 was slavery and Americas ability to over come slavery. Looking back at what our nation has overcome is an amazing thing, however it seems that most of what our nation has struggled with has been brought on by our own selves and our choices as a nation. Learning history is a wonderful way to not make the same mistakes twice. It teaches todays Americans not only what happened but also how our nation was founded and what kind of foundation America was built on.…
Our group has conducted valid research and all agree that the high price and ever-rising cost of textbooks in the state of New Mexico has become an issue. Luis Argon Castro, Catherine Ponce, Mathew Hagman, Saul Velez, and Hannes Harmon have conducted thorough research to bring this problem to the forefront of issues in New Mexico. We wish to open the public’s eyes to the knowledge and information produced by us on this matter. It feels as if commercial companies, publishers, and authors are taking advantage of students statewide in order to collect high profits, which happen to be increasing yearly. The prices have been substantially climbing every year since 1994 and have now surpassed the rise of inflation.…
The prices of everything are constantly rising due to inflation. Not too long ago, gas prices reached four dollars a gallon. The highest in history. With prices going up in nearly every category, the price of textbooks were affected and raised as well. It seems that publishing companies and authors are taking advantage of students, due to the fact that they have to buy textbooks, across the country just to make as much profit as they can. How much profit do they even make off of one textbook? Some textbooks required for class are over a hundred dollars to rent. Not even to buy and make your own, to rent and return after the semester. And that's if its not damaged in any way, which will cost you more. Some courses like math, only require one giant book. But,…
Reading specific texts takes away teachers’ flexibility. In public schools, the percentage of books read that are in the canon is significantly higher than independent schools’ percentages. In independent schools,…
History can be found written from 3500 BC in Egypt but dates back from much farther back in time. It has been around since the beginning of mankind, in the beginning many scientists and theologist argue about. Whether a person believes humans came from evolution or a God, everyone knows there was a first. A first human whom taught his mistakes, lessons, and culture onto the next which would become history.…
When it comes to meddling with school textbooks, Texas is both similar to other states and totally different. It’s hardly the only one that likes to fiddle around with the material its kids study in class. The difference is due to size—4.8 million textbook-reading schoolchildren as of 2011—and the peculiarities of…