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Summary Of The History Teacher By Billy Collins

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Summary Of The History Teacher By Billy Collins
Regarding lies, those about history are worse than those about popular culture. In Billy Collins’s “The History Teacher”, the teacher lies to his students about historical events. He tells them that wars that killed so many were only small kerfuffles. He says, “the Enola Gay dropped one tiny atom on Japan”. This is a big deal. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima killed thousands and still has repercussions today. while the kids might not believe that it was only one atom, hearing this version of the story will lessen the importance in their minds. The kids will grow up not knowing just how horrible it must have been to live after the dropping of an atomic bomb. The child in Charles Webb’s “The Death of Santa Claus” learns that Santa is not real.
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