“Everything begins with a word. Without words, a thought can never become a reality”, a quote by an anonymous. Because words have power, the way people use words including word choices and grammar, plays a very important role in expressing fully the idea. Unfortunately, in some recent years, some of the Texas textbooks can “distort history” not only “through word choices”, but also “a tool we often think of as apolitical: grammar,” according to Rockmore - a lecturer in the Institute for Writing and Rhetoric at Dartmouth. While textbooks do not provide enough and correct information, Texas students can lack of some basic knowledge of history in shaping the United States today. Who will take responsibility for this problem?
The major responsibility
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Let imagine that a Texas student, who is in transition into the working environment as a historian, has inaccurate and biased knowledge of history. That student will be the author of new history pages based on his incorrect viewpoints. Distorted views continue to be passed on the next generations. History at that time will no longer be a true history with its accurate value, it might be called a “historical assumption” study. If that student was lucky, he had chance to work out of state, or had opportunity to realize the wrong points in his perception. It might still cost him a spiritual shock, his spending time to research and crosscheck information, his relationship with his colleagues who had different viewpoints, or even one of important thing - his job. That is the reason why not only Board of Education need to take responsibility to correct the textbook, but also everyone, especially professors and students, need to take some …show more content…
has only one history, and every citizen has a right to know it accurately. As the next generation, students today can have chances to become legislators and lawmakers in future. They should take some actions to make sure all factual information available in the textbooks. It should be more research in depth to build a standard system or process to approve textbooks across the nation. It could be more multidimension assessment to crosscheck the information. It could be more regulations for members of the Board of Education such as: they at least must be very knowledgeable about a certain field. Moreover, the diversity in the Board will help to maintain uniformity and eliminate the elements of racial, political and cultural discrimination. Back to the importance of clear and concise writing, it helps a writer communicate his or her message effectively. Thoughtful word choices can sustain the reader attention and make sure that the text remains on topic. On the other hand, a vague and repetitive writing way is inefficient. It can cause a reader to lose interest and focus on the information. Clear and concise prose not only is easy to understand, but also shows confidence level of the writers and conveys that how they understand their
“High school students hate history.”(pg.12) Even though in the end, that is the class they have the easiest time passing. Studies have showed that the more history classes that students take the less that they learn. They become “more stupid” about history.(pg.12) “African American, Native American, and Latino stu...
Greer, Cora. "Competing Perspectives on the Past in U.S. History Textbooks." AP Central. CollegeBoard, 3 Nov. 2009. Web. 12 May 2014.
Unfortunately, American history does have a habit of covering up its history for the sake of offering its younger generations a progress model. In a book titled Lies My Teacher Told Me, James Loewen shows how the progress model mode of history telling has covered up many important events in American history to the point that children in public education are graduating high school with extremely warped views of history.
High school history textbooks are seen, by students, as presenting the last word on American History. Rarely, if ever, do they question what their text tells them about our collective past. According to James W. Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me, they should be. Loewen has spent considerable time and effort reviewing history texts that were written for high school students. In Lies, he has reviewed twenty texts and has compared them to the actual history. Sadly, not one text measures up to the author's expectation of teaching students to think. What is worse, though, is that students come away from their classes without "having developed the ability to think coherently about social life"(Lies p.4). Loewen blames this on the way that today's texts are written. This paper will compare one text, The American Pageant, to Lies.
...ime of the author rather then accurate historical facts. (Lies?293) Textbooks are being written this way and history is being taught this way to show people how they should act and strive to be. This relays to the student what is deemed acceptable to everyone and what is not. When it comes to a student remembering historical lessons they normally do not remember what is being taught to them unless they are moved by it. (Lies?301) So what is the result to a society where our students are being taught this way? The number one result is that students do not know the true history of their country nor do they remember what they were taught in class. This is a sad conclusion but Mr. Loewen feels it is an accurate one given responses to questions he has asked his students throughout the years. What can we do to change this and reeducate the people out there? Sadly I feel nothing can be done for those of us out there who are not truly aware of this misinformed way of teaching. But, our children need not be sheltered from our true history, rather they should learn all that has happened so we can prevent the atrocities from reoccurring again.
The Lewinsky Scandal… A perfect example as to why we cannot accept everything at face value before carefully examining it first. Everyone thought President Clinton was behaving himself in the White House, but, as it turns out, he was most definitely not. This can be the same for history. We must carefully consider different aspects of articles so that we do no make the mistake of believing everything we read. In order to fully understand an article, we must understand the author that wrote it. It is necessary to examine prejudices, sources, information left out, and missing background information before accepting an article. This method of critical analysis allows us to better understand the article and therefore history because we are more aware of the authors and their possible mishaps. “The View from the Bottom Rail”, an article in After the Fact, provides an opportunity to examine different aspects of analysis. If we look at it carefully, then we will be able to determine if the thesis was proven effectively.
It is the responsibility of those who create problems to help fix them and prevent them from happening again. In society today it is evident that man’s morals have been called into question.... ... middle of paper ... ...
America is a nation that is often glorified in textbooks as a nation of freedom, yet history shows a different, more radical viewpoint. In Howard Zinn’s A People's History of the United States, we take a look at American history through a different lens, one that is not focused on over glorifying our history, but giving us history through the eyes of the people. “This is a nation of inconsistencies”, as so eloquently put by Mary Elizabeth Lease highlights a nation of people who exploited and sought to keep down those who they saw as inferior, reminding us of more than just one view on a nation’s history, especially from people and a gender who have not had an easy ride.
Loewen, James W. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. Second. New York, New York: Touchstone, 1997. Print.
In William Zinnser’s essay “Simplicity” he states that “clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other.” He believes that people speak more complexly then they have to and that the key to good writing and speaking is simplicity. In his argument he goes on to say that often writers are not careful enough. They know what they are trying to say but do not know how to put it down on paper. They assume that the reader will understand what they are thinking even though their writing is not obvious to others. He does make several suggestions for improvement. Very easily one could make their writing easier to understand by simple corrections.
Loewen, James W. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. New York: Touchstone, 2007.
In Loewen’s book, Lies My Teacher Told Me, talks about the real point of view of textbooks in the classroom. Many textbooks create this idea of Heroification, were people from the past are perfect creatures without conflicts and pain. The idea is to influence the students to strive for great things and become like these people. However, by showing only the good side of people or events is misleading. We need to show both sides- the good and the bad in order to show a complete picture of the past. Another, thing textbooks do is hid events or makes them more simplistic. Many textbooks show the idea that racism is over, and hid the fact that society is still dealing with racism. The textbook companies do this because they want not to have students have the tough conversations. The la...
Some teachers, when it comes to a child’s writing, do not want to make a child feel like what they wrote is wrong. Goldstein points out that teens today struggle more on college essays and in college because they are not taught correct grammar. Kathleen Sokolowski said that she went to Catholic school and grammar was a major element in her studies. I went to Catholic school as well and it was the same way. I knew others that were in public schools that did not learn grammar like I
The. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995. 60. The ECB 169.
...Moreover, by having paragraphs smaller and/or larger then others, it helps the reader identify what is important within the confines of the text.