APS Book Club: Lies My Teacher Told Me

[Perd Hapley]

Has anyone here read Lies My Teacher Told Me, by James W. Loewen? 

I have only gotten to the second chapter so far, but I am as much amused as disappointed.  Instead of shedding light on American history, the author whines that high school history is not always taught from his own perspective, trying to pass off the entire exercise as a critical study of text books, and suggestions for a more informative and engaging way to teach history. 

A clever little intellectual thug, he wastes no opportunity to inflate the actual degree to which history text writers whitewash or gloss over the blemishes in our history.  I was very much floored by the following quotation from the introduction, which is hard to regard as anything other than an outright lie.  Keep in mind that Loewen claims to have read and studied many of the popular texts in use today. 

"They [textbooks] leave out anything that might reflect badly on our national character." 

Guess he's never seen a single sentence about slavery, Wounded Knee, or Jim Crow in those text books, which apparently teach that blacks and women have been freely voting since 1776.  I am at a loss to explain such a statement. 

[Sindawe]

Perhaps your history texts differed from those I read in school, but none of mine had a thing to say about 3/5ths compromise, Sand Creek Colorado or My Lai Vietnam.

Sure, we read a slavery and how it was put to an end by the bravery of one Mr. Lincoln; the gift of Maize; and how the noble Dr. King was coldly murdered by a bigoted white man.  Those other facets of history noted in Lies My Teacher Told Me where somehow omitted from the approved texts in public schools I attended.

[mtnbkr]

Perhaps your history texts differed from those I read in school, but none of mine had a thing to say about 3/5ths compromise, Sand Creek Colorado or My Lai Vietnam.

I don't recall anything about SC Colorado or My Lai, but we certainly learned about the 3/5ths Compromise in school.

Chris

[drewtam]

In the 400yrs of history between the founding of British colonies to today, do Sand Creek or My Lai  really stand out as important topics to discuss. They might have a lot of psychological impact today, they didn't really seem to affect history then.

Compare those to the 3/5ths compromise that was part of a bigger rift between North and South that eventually led to a severe and bloody war.
Or compare to the wars with Mexico which led to annexing large parts of western US.
Or the effects of the Louisiana Purchase, etc.
Or another very important aspect is understanding the industrial revolution sweeping the world during these centuries. But don't forget the dramatic fragmentation of the "christian" religions into denominations caused by the religious revivals and "restoration" movements during this time.
Of all the history that is covered, the religious side seems most neglected. Yet is the most powerful motivator for a large section of the world and US population.

There is a lot of history to cover in 400years. Some of the significant events of history can easily be left out while trying to map the general shape of the forest.

[French G.]

In 1992 I actually had a teacher teaching us about federalism, the bill of rights, and such. He was kind of an un-intelligent tool overall, but he gave pretty good context to why the Constitution says what it does. I would probably get suspended from school toady on my why gun control is bad 10th grade paper.

[Perd Hapley]

In the 400yrs of history between the founding of British colonies to today, do Sand Creek or My Lai  really stand out as important topics to discuss. They might have a lot of psychological impact today, they didn't really seem to affect history then.

The left is quick to point out that nonwhites and women were marginalized.  But what else does it mean to be marginalized, but to be pushed to the edges?  To be rendered unimportant?  As high school history text books properly focus on the most important aspects, it is to be expected that they will focus on white men - those making the important decisions of that day.

Sadly, some people cannot differentiate between a reflection of past attitudes, and a continuation of them.  Being less racist today doesn't make Frederick Douglass into our sixteenth president.   


Oh, and try this tid-bit from chapter two.  "Standard history textbooks and courses discriminate against students who have been educated by rap songs or by Van Sertima [an Afrocentric author]."  I can't explain this, either.  Just bizarre.

[MicroBalrog]

If you get your education from musical albums, you deserve to be discriminated against in the school system.

[BlueStarLizzard]

my main issue with the newer text books is not that they leave stuff out, its the bias. the european settlers are discribed in a manner to make them wrong bad or outright evil.

they were people of their time, not evil villinouse snakes out to rule the world 

[Perd Hapley]

If you get your education from musical albums, you deserve to be discriminated against in the school system.

At least you can craft a response to it.  I'm still trying to figure out how the word discriminate even applies in that situation.   

[MicroBalrog]

The educational system is, really, the most undemocratic and discriminatory system in the world, when done properly.

If you don't know what a paragraph is, you are not qualified to be in an English Studies college.

If you don't know how to read and write at the ripe age of 12, you deserve to fail any reading comprehension exam.

Yet simultaneously, the education system, if properly executed, must be the most fair and undiscriminatory system in the world.

Any human being, regardless of race or gender or whatever other views, if he answer the questions correctly, deserves to pass an exam.

If this means that a greater percentage of people of one race pass than of another, than so be it.

[sanglant]

and if they can't make the grade hold them back or move them to a school that will be able to teach them there's a special ed school in town now, the kids in that school(the playground/recess area) look to be the happiest school kids i have seen in at least 5 years. i bet there ain't a teacher in the place for the pension or the summer off.

[Perd Hapley]

Microbalrog,

If you had the context of the statement, you'd be as confused as I am.  He lays out a scenario in which a teacher says that Vasco de Gama was the first to sail around Africa.  Then a black girl raises her hand, and says that Phoenicians did it first, and she learned this from a rap song.  The hypothetical teacher, according to Loewen, is supposed to research this.  Instead, she replies by calling into question the historical methods of Dr. Dre, or perhaps pointing out that the Phoenician discovery is wholly irrelevant to American history.  

Supposedly, this would be "discrimination."  


*The author apparently believes that black people are so stupid as to take their history from rap songs.

[Bigjake]

If this means that a greater percentage of people of one race pass than of another, than so be it.

Why do you hate minorities??  Racist!!  

[MicroBalrog]

Consider the inherent assumption here:

The leftist believes that a fair system would have, as its output, an amount of blacks and whites, corresponding to the amounts of blacks and whites in the population. If there are 13% African Americans, then 13% African-Americans who graduate from high school. Any difference in achievement is ipso facto evidence of either deliberate or structural discrimination.

Now, there are special cases where this has relevance to reality (for example, in the field of diagnosing learning disorders - it is possible for recent immigrants from Ethiopia to flunk certain developement tests geared towards Europeans), but as usual with lefties, they take this assumption and run with it.

[Bigjake]

Tongue firmly in cheek dude 

[Matthew Carberry]

Why was Dre concerned that the Semetic Phoenicians have been slighted?  I mean, that was hella multi-cultural of him but how does it make a song?

[Perd Hapley]

Actually, he doesn't cite Dr. Dre, but Acknowledge Your Own History, by Jungle Brothers.

I don't recall hearing that particular historical factoid in a rap song, but I've heard similar stuff. 

I'm not denying the Phoenicians might have explored the Cape of Good Hope, or what-have-you, I just find it downright hilarious to accuse a text book of "discrimination" because they don't mention this, or a teacher, if they don't hie them hence forthwith to determine the factuality of some rap song some student throws out. 

[BryanP]

Oh, and try this tid-bit from chapter two.  "Standard history textbooks and courses discriminate against students who have been educated by rap songs or by Van Sertima [an Afrocentric author]."  I can't explain this, either.  Just bizarre.

This must be an updated version of the book.  I've had a copy of this book on my shelf for many years and I don't recall any mention of rap songs in relation to education.

[Perd Hapley]

Revised in 2007. 


I have to quote this - so unhinged, it's just breathtaking.  He takes issue with this sentence from a high school text book.  "In 1637, war broke out...between settlers and the Pequot people." 

This deluded sot thinks that the Pequots are the real settlers, because they have been there for "thousands of years."  But the whites can't be settlers, as they've only been there for a few years.  He suggests that "whites" or "invaders" is a more accurate term.

Old boy needs a dictionary. 

[Balog]

Does he object to how the textbooks don't point out the Apache genocide of the Anasazi? 

[Perd Hapley]

I can go you one better.  He begins the book by complaining about the size and weight of texts that try to cram in all manner of details that bore students. 

He then goes on to lay out at length of all the details and the non-white perspectives he demands the texts to include. 

He also suggests that students begin the school year with independent research (in glottochronology and other fields beloved by teenagers) and classroom debates about how and when the Natives arrived in the Americas.  "Students would be excited," he says.  Dude.  Seriously? 

[Tallpine]

Phoenicians did it first

I didn't learn that from a rap song, nor in school either.

It might not have even been the Phoenicians - Egyptians maybe?

Nobody back then could figure out what they had done.  They came back and said something insane about the sun rising in the "west" and setting in the "east"

[BlueStarLizzard]

and actually, it is wrong to say that those who came to america before columbus were really historically signifigant. they wern't

colonies had been established in north america before that time. the vikings did it. the chinese also made an apperance on the western shores.

however, due to the events in europe leading up to the 'discovery' of america by colubus, the fact (and yes, a lot of people knew there was something out here) that there was this great new land was historically signifigant.
if those earlier expeditions had been relevent, the americas would have been populated by europeans hell of a lot earlier.
the fact that the area was 'discovered' during a period of population boom and a european political desire for expansion is the reason for the european colinization of america. which is a hell of a lot more signifigent to the understanding of western civ. then the fact that others (europeans) where here before.

as for the natives being settlers, well, considering that the human species is pretty well documented to have begun in africa, i would say if your gonna take that line then the only 'natives' are those still in africa.