Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen Essay - 1948 Words

Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen High school history textbooks are seen, by students, as presenting the last word on American History. Rarely, if ever, do they question what their text tells them about our collective past. According to James W. Loewens Lies My Teacher Told Me, they should be. Loewen has spent considerable time and effort reviewing history texts that were written for high school students. In Lies, he has reviewed twenty texts and has compared them to the actual history. Sadly, not one text measures up to the authors expectation of teaching students to think. What is worse, though, is that students come away from their classes without having developed the ability to think coherently about social†¦show more content†¦According to Loewen they got his name right, and not much else. Lies points out that there were many groups of explorers that had discovered America before Columbus. He probably used some of their information as a basis for his plans to sail west. A full eight pages are d evoted to other possible explorers. These groups include ancient groups from Indonesia, Japan, China, and Phoenicia. More recent groups include the Vikings, British Islanders, West Africans, and Portuguese fishermen. There are varying levels of evidence connecting these groups to pre-Columbian America, but still enough to throw doubt into the mix. Columbus got the credit because of the way in which Europe responded to his discovery. Other false ideas taught about Columbus deal with what is left out. His original motivation may have been to find another trade route to the Orient, but his real motivation, in subsequent expeditions to America, was money. By 1493 Columbus had planned to plunder Haiti, according to Michele de Cuneo, who had been on Columbuss first voyage. Columbus, himself, said to Ferdinand and Isabella that his motivation was gold, and gold constitutes treasure; and he who has it does all he wants in the world, and can even lift souls up to Paradise (Lies p34). Another side of ColumbusShow MoreRelatedEssay about Analysis in James W. Loewen ´s Lies My Teacher Told Me1225 Words   |  5 Pages James W. Loewen wrote the book â€Å"Lies My Teacher Told Me† to help students understand the past of the United States, and how it is effecting the present time. â€Å"Lies My Teacher Told Me† looks at 12 different American history textbooks, and points out the different lies, flaws , and sugar coated stories the textbooks present. Lowen explains how textbooks practice heroification, and how race and race relations are a major issue when it comes to American history. Among these topics, Lowen also shedsRead MoreEssay about Christopher Columbus: Hero or Villain?781 Words   |  4 Pagesall of our years that we are taught about world history, we are led to believe that Columbus was one of the greatest explorers of all time. In my mind there is no question about whether Christopher Columbus discovered America; of course he did, its Columbus! However, this is a highly debated issue and through writings by authors Jeffery Hart and James W. Loewen we will investigate the true importance of Columbus. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;In the essay written by Jeffrey Hart entitled, â€Å"DiscoveringRead MoreSummary : Indoctrinate Blind Patriotism 1151 Words   |  5 PagesElizabeth Tolentino Dr. Andrea Johnson Loewen Paper 29 September 2014 Question 1: What is your interpretation of the statement on page six that includes, â€Å"†¦indoctrinate blind patriotism†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Answer 1: In Lies My Teacher Told Me, James W. Loewen asserts that American history texts are harmful to students because of nationalism and books that â€Å"†¦are often muddled by the conflicting desires to promote inquiry and to indoctrinate blind patriotism† (Loewen 6). Loewen argues that American history texts areRead More The Decline of Education: Social and Economic Inequality Essay1193 Words   |  5 Pages and therefore people would be back to the starting block positions of hard manual labor. However, according to James Loewen’s â€Å"The Land of Opportunity,† even the educational system is slipping, stating that when he asked questions like, â€Å"why are people poor?† he got woefully inadequate responses. In both â€Å"The Land of Opportunity† and â€Å"Lies My History Teacher Told Me,† both by Loewen, the root cause of most of the problems in schools and their lack of adequate education are the textbooks. TheRead MoreEssay on Lies My Teacher Told Me Heroification821 Words   |  4 PagesAshley Walker Mr. Scott INTD 101-18: The Art of Seduction 29 September 2011 A False History James Loewen uses his piece Lies my Teacher Told Me to reveal the flaws in America’s mainstream textbooks. Loewen points out the fact that textbooks try to â€Å"indoctrinate blind patriotism† (Loewen 6) and â€Å"keep students in the dark about the nature of history† (Loewen 8). Almost every American textbook sells history using the â€Å"soft seduction† approach, as explained in Robert Greene’s book, The Art ofRead More The Hypocrisy of Teaching American History Essays630 Words   |  3 Pagesare the basic outline for American schools. In those subjects, where does history fit in? Some believe that teachers avoid history because of how corrupt America has been. James W. Loewen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me, says, Parents may feel undermined when children get tools of information not available to adults and use them in ways that seem to threaten adult-held values. (Loewen 296.) The adults had to learn the same false history children are be ing taught today. By teaching children theRead MoreFood Assumptions: Everything the Food Industry Does Not Want Consumers to Know1051 Words   |  5 Pagesmessage that the book, Lies My Teacher Told Me, by James Loewen, delivers about how the public is deceived in regards to history. One specific food lie is how the Corn Refiners Association wants the public to believe that High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is the same as sugar and is perfectly healthy for consumption. As some research suggests, this is a faulty food assumption. Patriotic textbooks â€Å"leave out anything that might reflect badly upon [them]† (Loewen 5). Loewen argues that â€Å"if textbooksRead MoreEssay on Lies My Teacher Told Me910 Words   |  4 Pagesour past. This is where we get the misinterpretation of history. In chapter five of the book Lies My Teacher Told Me, these contradictions are brought into light and force us to look at them again. As I have learned in my history courses we can always question the accuracy of a story but we may never fully understand the truth. There have been three important times I have been through that have shaped my understanding of history today, specifically the part of history dealing with slavery and racismRead More The Lies My Teacher Told Me and People’s History of the United States1462 Words   |  6 Pages either adding or subtracting certain details from the story. James Loewen, in The Lies My Teacher Told Me, reveals how much history has been changed by textbook writes so that students studying the textbooks can understand and connect to the information. In Howard Zinn’s, People’s History of the United States, the author recounts historical tales through the point of view of the common people. Mainstream media, as proven by Loewen and Zinn, often pollutes and dilutes history to make the informationRead MoreEssay on A Critical Analysis of Lies My Teacher Told Me1014 Words   |  5 PagesA Critical Analysis of:Lies My Teacher Told Me It would be better not to know so many things than to know so many things which are not so. -FELIX OKOYE Out of all forms of literature currently known to man, educational textbooks are arguably the least interesting. On top of being incredibly boring, textbooks, especially American history ones, neglect to include the entirety of the information that it should. Because American history textbooks wish only to paint