Lies my teacher told me: Everything your American History Textbook got wrong.

Lies My Teacher Told Me : Everything Your American History Book Got Wrong

by

James Loewen

James Loewen 's book entitled `Lies My Teacher Told Me : Everything Your American History Book Got Wrong ' speaks of criticism against twelve American history textbooks that mislead readers by representing facts and viewpoints that are actually far from truth . There is often a hitch of bias in the way history is being presented nowadays , what Loewen (2008 ) defined as heroification or a degenerative process that makes people over into heroes . turn flesh-and-blood individuals into pious perfect

creatures without conflicts , pain , credibility , or human interest (p .19 . From the Pilgrims up the occurrence of the Vietnam War , this Eurocentric method of formulating the teaching of history bears thoughts and issues , which appear to be very irrelevant to the views of everyday lives

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Loewen (2008 ) has inserted in his book the words of W .E .B . Du Bois when he said

One is astonished in the study of history at the recurrence of the idea that evil must be forgotten , distorted , skimmed over . The difficulty , of course , with this philosophy is that history . paints perfect men and noble nations , but it does not tell the truth (p .18 In Loewen 's book , it is emphasized how history textbooks , which are used today in education , proclaim misleading evidences and details that abuse `heroification ' and put the angle away from truth . It emphasizes too much on positive qualities that give an overly-emphasized meaning that reflect significant lessons , while distorting the negative characteristics of history and its heroes . By this , students usually find significant lessons in them , such as , for example , Woodrow Wilson and Helen Keller . As Loewen (2008 ) stated , Wilson was usually pictured as an important president , while Keller was an inspiration to the blind and deaf students of this century (pp .19-20 . However , as Loewen (2008 stated , Heroification so distorts the lives of Keller and Wilson (and many others ) that we cannot think straight about them (p .20 . It takes away the truth behind real people and events by presenting them in a way that leads to a specific objective and design . It fabricates people 's minds after a certain framework that would theoretically lead to a basic viewpoint , picture , or assumption

Questions that are raised in Loewen 's book consist of the following (1 ) How true and accurate are the details that are being presented in educational textbooks in the field of history (2 ) How much morality do the authors , publishers , adoption committees , and teachers nowadays possess in presenting facts and issues that should reflect fair non-bias , and factual details of history (3 ) What are the exact causes why most elementary and secondary students find the lectures of history bland , boring , and almost senseless (4 ) How can the process of heroification lead to more positive , truthful , fair , yet fruitful results ? Lastly (5 ) what can authors , publishers , and teachers do to highlight the truth behind Loewen 's statement that history is an ongoing process that is...