A few years ago I made a goal to read 100 books per year. For the first year I made it halfway to my goal.
5/28/08
5. Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen Another book about historical inaccuracies, this time in textbooks. Really enlightening, this book makes you want to do something about the misrepresentations of historical events taught in schools.
Yes, I have been to workshops where they talk about this book (I almost wonder if I have actually seen the author speak on it--I go to so many workshops) but anyway, refresh my memory--does this guy talk about all the craziness of the Thanksgiving story, with the Pilgrims & Indians having their nice little turkey dinner? I've heard a lot about that big lie and it's the thing that comes to mind first when I think of how screwed up our kids are historically-speaking. I don't even know where to start with my 4th graders. They are already so confused. I may need to borrow that book to see what lies I personally may be telling or solidifying in their minds.
Yes, he talks about the "Thanksgiving myth". It's really pretty depressing to see how much our textbooks get completely wrong (and are just plain lying about). He takes about a dozen textbooks that are commonly used across the United States in schools. He also wrote a book about "Sunset towns"(towns where blacks were not allowed to stay after sunset) that I haven't read yet.
I just looked at the library website and they have a new edition of this book on order. It says it's completely revised and updated, so I will have to check it out and read it again.
3 comments:
Yes, I have been to workshops where they talk about this book (I almost wonder if I have actually seen the author speak on it--I go to so many workshops) but anyway, refresh my memory--does this guy talk about all the craziness of the Thanksgiving story, with the Pilgrims & Indians having their nice little turkey dinner? I've heard a lot about that big lie and it's the thing that comes to mind first when I think of how screwed up our kids are historically-speaking. I don't even know where to start with my 4th graders. They are already so confused. I may need to borrow that book to see what lies I personally may be telling or solidifying in their minds.
Yes, he talks about the "Thanksgiving myth". It's really pretty depressing to see how much our textbooks get completely wrong (and are just plain lying about). He takes about a dozen textbooks that are commonly used across the United States in schools. He also wrote a book about "Sunset towns"(towns where blacks were not allowed to stay after sunset) that I haven't read yet.
I just looked at the library website and they have a new edition of this book on order. It says it's completely revised and updated, so I will have to check it out and read it again.
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