Lies My Teacher Told Me Essay

There is a common expression that a lot of us have heard at least one time â€Å"don’t believe everything you read†, just because a book is written and published does not mean is always accurate. True historical facts can easily be transformed by adding or taking away details in order to see it only from a certain perspective. The textbooks in history classrooms represent many different groups from the perspective of one group, usually European. Loewen explores the topic of why students dislike history classes. He also discusses the idea that much of what students learn in American history classes, is wrong and that there are many omissions. He challenges the Public School system mostly in regards on how history is taught in high school classrooms. American history books wish to paint the United States as the best country, almost to the point where they make it seem that it doesn’t have any flaws. A lot of books used to teach history in high school neglect to include the entire information on events that formed the United States. Reading some essays from the book Lies My Teachers Told Me helped me open my eyes and see how wrong history is taught in high school; we as citizens need to do the proper research and spread the knowledge among peers to create socially aware generations. Most of the time American history isolates children of color by ignoring the fact that many of the people who contributed greatly to this country were non-white. In a sense, one can say that this contributes to the majority of high school students thinking of white as superior to other races. They think that no other races made great contributions in building this nation. This mentality can be seen as an immediate effect of history classes omitting details about other races major contributions to the country. According to Loewen most students also see history as a boring subject, this is because history is made up of nothing but stories that shouldn’t be boring but textbooks companies have left out anything that â€Å"might reflect badly upon our national character†(Loewen). The case of John Brown is a good example of something that might reflect badly to our national character. He was an American abolitionist who believed armed revolution was the only way to overthrow slavery in the United States. The name John Brown was never mentioned in any of my history classes. After learning about John Brown, my perspective of things changed and it made me see that the people who are responsible for putting the books in high school classrooms, are trying to keep students at a margin in which nobody can learn anything about rebels who used violence to make a statement about inequalities lived in the United States. Omitting this historical fact from books and not permitting teachers to give students the knowledge about John Brown makes it seem that they want to keep people under control and avoid some kind of revolution. That is because, until these days there is a lot of inequalities but seems like everybody just goes along with their life and overlook many inequalities that are going on in our nation and the world. The study of history in high school is mostly all about facts and dates. Students find this to be irrelevant and have a difficult time to make the connection between history to their daily lives. Therefore, making history really boring and the material presented does not really challenge any student to think critically and analyze history. The topic of social class is never touched in high school, which is something that everybody relates to. The issues seen in â€Å"The Land of Opportunity† can make a lot of people gain instant and undivided attention because we can actually relate to it. It makes you analyze how we live and that is something that affects our daily lives. In high school most students are fed the idea that everybody has an equal chance to achieve success through education, but there is an inequality that puts people of higher social status in an advantage to achieve better scores in tests given in high school. Even without coaching, affluent children are advantaged because their background is similar to that of the test makers†(Loewen,208). It is important for students and people to know that equal opportunity it’s just a phrase that has been propagated by white people. People of color in this country have never had an equal chance to thrive the way white people have. History classes in high schools lead students to believe that everything is okay, so students are not troubled. This view of history holds the American idea of individualism rather than looking at the many factors that affected lack of equal opportunity. High school history courses make us believe that equal opportunity was and is an option for all when the reality is very different. A lot students and people still do not know this, it is important to spread this kind of knowledge among people we know in an attempt to make them socially aware. If it doesn’t enforce an immediate change, at least an idea is established and they eventually can look into it when they realize that, in fact the world is not always fair to minorities. By students understanding this, it would make it easier to make a change and achieve many of their goals. Textbooks ignore many historical realities for a variety of reasons. One of the main reasons is that publishers believe that students must develop a sense of nationalism or patriotism towards the United States. To acknowledge troubling areas in our nation’s history is to run the risk that patriotism is not going to be developed. They distort events and avoid conflict that might spark up some type of controversy. This causes students to fail in engaging and analyze information and draw their own conclusion about the credibility and cause and effect of the events being presented. Instead, students have to memorize the standard information given, which is often times is wrong and manipulated. This wrong information builds around them without students actually making a critical analysis or whether the information is true or not. All the important issues that we don’t learn in class makes me think as a citizen to do my own research and learn the facts about any issues. Not only in regards of history but also in situations that are going on in different parts of the world. Because the fault for our misinformation is not entirely from publishers who need to sell books or interest groups that prefer myth to reality, each of us who learned this myths and believes them as untouchable are also to blame. We need to change this and speak about it to the people we know in order to create socially aware generations, by just speaking to some people it can create a chain reaction and eventually more citizens are going to be informed. By spreading the knowledge a lot of change can come, the change might not be immediate but if we are not actors we will never be factors.