Salvador Lopez

Professor Baer

English 5A

9/24/14

From Lies My Teacher Told Me

In the article “From Lies My Teacher Told Me” by James W. Loewen he claims that history text books are over filled with inaccurate information that is boring for high school students to read. Loewen states that the textbook are giving students facts that are incorrect. For example he asked several students when was the U.S first settled and students replied with 1620 which is incorrect. Loewen also states that the textbooks are written too predictable by the given subheadings giving away the main point and making it uninteresting for students to read. For example, “Rise of the American Nation”, tells the story by just that title, which doesn’t keep the students, engaged to read furthermore. In addition to the history textbooks being written incorrectly they are also written biased. For example, it gives to much bad history making the present and the future seem hopeful. By giving too much bad history, students of color feel affected in a negative way. On the other hand Loewen doesn’t blame the teachers for the inaccurate information being passed on to the students, he blames the heavy and dull textbooks that are not being revised. Loewen feels like the history textbooks need to be revised correctly so that once they get into college they aren’t told by their professors that everything they learned in high school history is inaccurate.