Book Review: Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen Lies My Teacher Told Me is James Loewen’s analysis of how courses in American high schools and, more particularly, their textbooks, are a disservice to the students, and furthermore, the country said texts and courses aim to protect. Loewen begins by addressing how high school textbooks treat historical figures such as Helen Keller and Woodrow Wilson: portraying them as bland heroes sans any interesting facts societal forces might find objectionable or define as “taboo.” Next, Loewen discusses how race is misrepresented in textbooks, using the example of Christopher Columbus, who is continually portrayed as a scholarly explorer, ignoring his role in slavery and genocide of Native Americans. Identified is how the roles of European-American beliefs in oneness, and inferiority of the Indian society, go unchallenged, perpetuating myths about superiority and inferiority of such races and further promoting Whiteness in schools. Loewen then turns to the plight of African Americans, and discusses how racism remains invisible in textbooks, which allows justification of the institution of slavery as well as demand for its abolition. Also discussed is how textbooks ignore other taboo subjects such as social stratification, and also how they portray government snafus like handling foreign policy and the Civil Rights movement as rosy government triumphs.
Being a war-opponent and social activist, Howard Zinn’s most likely intention in writing “Unsung Heroes” was to educate people about the mistakes (and deliberate lies) that are, in his opinion, very common in the perception of American history. Also, he likely wanted to direct attention towards the un-credited but “true” heroes who may not be shining enough to fit the common definition of a hero, but who have made meaningful contributions and therefore deserve to be remembered. In any case, they are people who are not responsible for killings of native Americans or the suppressing of minorities. Despite the popularity of Zinn’s views and of “A Peoples History of the United States”, there is an opinion that Zinn is overly pessimistic in his interpretation of the past. Further, some people complain, as he states himself, that they feel “thoroughly alienated and depressed” after reading the book.
He points to George W. Bush's “No Child Left Behind Act.” "The military style reading and math drills prompted by President Bush's No Child Left Behind program have pushed out history, music, art and physical education and may in fact be destroying American Schools." (Schrag, 41) I agree with the last argument that Schrag presented. Because I attend Fairfield University, I think it would be contradictory to do otherwise. Fairfield is a curriculum based around a well rounded core. Before you take your major courses, you must complete a core curriculum, covering various subjects so the student is familiarized in the general education of an educated person.
We read the article, “We Should Cherish Our Children’s Freedom to Think” last week. The author Kie Ho uses his own experiences about his son’s thought and many examples to prove his point. He thinks that public education certainly is not perfect in America, but it is a great deal better than any other country. Children should be more liberal thinking, writing and imagining, rather than comply with the rules or follow the prescribed order of their parents and the execution of what adults say. Children’s creativity brings inspiration to adults, improves the act of education and makes the change to the world.
In this article Prothero blames America’s religious ignorance on our schools. He says, “most of the fault lies in our elementary and secondary schools” (Prothero). Prothero uses statistics, quotation and comparison to effectively create a convincing, persuasive essay. Prothero begins his essay by talking about how America is such a religious country, but the citizens of America are lacking education about religion. He goes on to say that European countries, although far less religious, are considerably more educated when it comes to the subject.
Depending on the education, the citizens receive they will use their power and the country's power in either a good way or a bad way. If people learn about countries helping each other out and being peaceful, then they will most likely do the same when they are in power. Of course there are a few times when this isn't the case. For a country to be positive they have to learn that being positive is the best way to be. They can learn about countries that used their power to do bad things but they need to see that in history it has never worked out and will not help the country out in the long run.
People wish they could be more like him, fearless to challenge those they feel act wrongly. Personally, when I witness behavior that defies social norms, I think to myself “what would Larry David do”? That is because when it comes to social norms, Larry David is the perfect man to expose why it is important not to break them. A typical person who hasn’t been exposed to Larry David’s ideology may not think much of the young, naïve line cutters from 1st grade. However, the episode “Vow of Silence” shows exactly why those line cutters should not be given
Twain is establishing from the get go that this novel should not be argued or criticized because it may be offensive to people but that it should be read as a novel that shows two men who find friendship despite racial boundaries. Although there is a growing concern regarding Huck Finn as being too racist and too blunt, this novel should be taught at schools because it provides a valuable lesson about how equality and high sense of morals prevails over societal views and racial barriers. Twain created the character Huck to serve as an example of the type of person people should be aspire towards. Huck unlike most everyone in the south, ignores racial barriers set forth by society and does what he believes to be right. Hucks test of this philosophy occurs at three main points the first being when he is confronted on the river by two passer-byers who ask to check his raft for a runaway slave.
THE VALUE OF THE GODFATHER In the article “What is the value of The Godfather?” David Clemens states that reading great literature may inspire students to behave as well as what they read. However, some books may have less value than the others may because it would lead the reader to a bad way in life. In addition, some books as Unabomber’s Manifesto, The Anarchist’s Cookbook, and American Psycho would not give any value to the reader, but they glamorize violence, drug use, or other illegal or immoral activity. For this reason, David Clemens agrees that The Godfather should not be made available in our public high school. I agree with David Clemens about banning The Godfather in our public high schools because the violent and criminal scene of the book as well as bringing the wrong impression to high school students that we embrace the intolerance worldviews in the Godfather First, The Godfather novel might present readers a great insight of the real world, yet this image is too violent to be taught for high school students.
Researched Argumentative Essay “Why Geeks are More Successful” by Adele Melander-Dayton should be required reading for English 102 classes because it shows that popularity is detrimental to high school students and that “outsiders” actually have characteristics that are beneficial in adult life and this article can convince students that popularity isn’t important, it’s harmful. Melander-Dayton’s article is based on the book “The Geeks will Inherit the Earth” by Alexandra Robbins. Robbins is the more important author in this area so I will focus primarily on what she has said as far as information, but I am analyzing Dayton’s article. High school students have always had the “in” group and various groups of outsiders (Cross 27). New studies and information are showing that, despite popular belief, popularity can be harmful to students, especially after they graduate.