It is almost unanimously agreed that most students perceive History as the most boring subject in schools today and maybe since the beginning of time. In Lies My Teacher told Me, James Loewen explains why he thinks students hate history. Loewen believes that because teaching history is dominated by textbooks that if one were to change the way textbooks are written it history would be less boring. He exclaims that we can blame a huge part of the problem is context and accuracy of the past (or lack thereof) impairs the quality of American history. Loewen states,”Most authors of history textbooks don’t even try for melodrama. Instead, they write in a tone that if heard aloud might be described as ‘mumbling lecturer’.”( Loewen p.386-387) ) Would …show more content…
it make a difference if all the truths and facts were presented in each chapter of a textbook make the reading any more interesting. It would still be a bunch of dates and facts for students to remember. “Understanding what levels of history interest brought to the classroom by students enables educators to better plan for interventions and learning activities.” (Dan, Y., & Lan, W. p.425). While I agree with Loewen that history's focus on facts can make the material not so engaging, an instructor's teaching method is more important than textbook content given that teachers need to make it interesting. History textbooks have an endless number of dates and facts that need to be remembered.
Seeing a list of them alone can be very off-putting. Teachers need to do a much better job of connecting history to today, and placing a greater emphasis on how young people could learn from past mistakes. “Good minds see connections-that is the skill we need to develop in our children,…” (Hakim p. )In a study by Michelle Anderson: CONNECTING THE PAST TO THE PRESENT: STUDENT MEANING MAKING IN A MIDDLE SCHOOL WORLD HISTORY CLASSROOM, she concluded that “students were able to make meaning of the past by relating the past to today through current events, finding similarities and forging a connection, and adapting events in the past to fit today.” (Anderson 2011). Even when they can see the logical connection from the present to the past, sometimes the emotional connection is not completely there. Finding the connections that make sense for students depends on many factors, including the curriculum, the resources to teach with and the time available for students to learn. Connecting to student interests is possible but may be difficult. But it nothing an enthusiastic teacher and good lesson planning can’t fix. Also, because the changing of the times there are some that suggest that students will find it more interesting if the lessons were taught less through textbook and more effective with the use of multimedia and instructional
software. Multimedia classrooms provide the students chances for interacting with diverse texts that give them a solid background in the tasks and content of history for the next millennium. Furthermore, because educational technology is expected to become an integral part of the curriculum students must become proficient in assessing and using electronic resources. “Some studies have reported modest positive outcomes for several groups of students who used computer-adapted tutorial programs for the practice of social studies skills.”(Kingsley 2009) Compared to conventional classrooms with their stress on verbal knowledge and multiple-choice test performance, technology provides a very different set of challenges and different ways in which students can demonstrate what they understand (e.g., by programming a simulation to demonstrate a concept rather than trying to explain it verbally). With this concept in mind, how could anyone deny using technology combined with the sense of teaching will create a successful teaching method? Though it is thought of the most boring subject is school, we have shown that there are ways that the perception of American history can be change with just a few simple changes in the way its taught. It should be a teacher’s focus to rework their classroom curriculum from that of thousands of years worth of facts, events and dates and converting them into something student can connect to and be interested in. “Try giving them a narrative history, good history, storytelling history…” (Hakim, 1994) Stories play an important role and students can find value in it if it is taught in such a way that it personally resonates with them in their own personal lives. It is so easy to get caught up in the finer points of teaching and content and skills and facts, that its forgotten that history is about teaching stories. History should be both interesting and open to critical interpretation. If this is achieved student would be engaged and will learn how to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. It’s quite possible that they may enjoy it. “In fact, they may not hate history at all. They just hate the way it's presented, which is odd since the educational frameworks insist that history is supposed to be a story well told.” (Schmidt, 2011).
Thomas H. Benton is an English professor who also teaches history. He interacts with countless students that are just beginning their upper-level studies. Of these pupils that he encounters, many of them are rude, disrespectful, and unenergetic about learning: “about half will give me a somewhat confused nod, not quite making eye contact.
Why do children graduate high school without fully understanding concepts that relate to the core subjects of Math, English, Science, and History? Because education is unequal in America. Sociologist Doctor James W. Loewen and award winning writer Jonathan Kozol agree that classicism is to blame. Loewen also believes that history textbooks take some of the blame, for the student’s ignorance of inequality within education. Loewen and Kozol make great points on classicism, and it is important to understand how classism and textbooks affect education, and also to think of solutions to the problem.
...and walked home.” Collins contrasts the students’ misbehavior with the teacher’s ignorance, thus implying a relationship between the history teacher’s inability to teach his students and their ensuing misbehavior.
...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.
History has many examples of these three themes, and to record them all, you would need to write a book. The three themes discussed in this paper have been used to inform and teach young students that history is important; Therefore, it is important to know your history; if you don't learn from history, then you are doomed to repeat
“History never says goodbye. History says see you later” (Eduardo Galeano). History teaches us valuable lessons from the past, which can be used for the present time, yet our leaders usually overlook these lessons and repeat previous mistakes. I have recently immigrated to the United States and since in my home country history classes are not a place to really discuss the history, I was amazed by the way that this history class challenged every event and fact. I have learned that history is told by bias, so we should be able to think critically and question what we are taught. History is usually written by the dominant group of the society, so if we are looking for the truth, we should study each event from different resources and different
...History and World History, a professor only has a small portion of one class session to teach, for example, the Cold War. The devotion to a topic in such a large scale could become even more desperate because now teachers have to teach a whole new world of vocabulary along with the historical vocabulary that is necessary for students to succeed in future history classes.
Many people try to think “back to the good old days,” when really they were not that good for most people who had no rights. With the advancement in technology, we were forced to open our eyes to what is going on in the world around us and the disadvantaged people face throughout the world. As a society once we start to working on damage control to clean up the mess we got into we can finally have true change. The damage control will take time and effort from all people involved on either end of the situation. One major move I feel we can make is by giving honest history lessons that cover every part of our history in schools. I feel that American History and World History should be more emphasized on in our school systems and curriculum. If the students get the full education of our history and how we got to where we are, then moving on will become easier. We expect for children to lead us into a bigger and better future, but how can we expect that without the truth coming to light for our diverse culture. We cannot expect to make this country better without knowing their full history and the mistakes we have made in our past. Looking for another way to move forward, Essence asked Dr. Joy DeGruy on what we could do moving forward, her answer was, “…more research, support, and assistance are needed to produce vital healing…that exceeds the injury
A large majority of people attending school say that it is boring. Take history for example, it isn’t the most enjoyable subject to some people. It isn’t taught in a way that is appealing to the population that it is being taught to. Students slowly become uninterested as the instructor rambles on about the lesson that is being taught. The information just goes through one ear and out the other. Why should students have to sit and listen to what seems to be pointless? Is there no different way to teach history? There is, in fact, a way to make it more interesting, and that is hiding it in plain sight. Instead of feeding students information, why can’t they feed themselves? They can if they read To Kill a Mockingbird. In this novel, Harper Lee tells the readers about the life of two children, Scout and Jem Finch. Even though it’s about the lives of children, the book still tells of The Great Depression and its attributes. Also, on a slightly higher level, it tells about...
As educators and students, we should be able to trust that the truth about our past is what is being taught to today’s youth. The majority of our youth despises history; history is usually ranked last among the favorite subjects of students. American history textbooks all seem to follow the same storybook technique; therefore, students tend to take a snooze in class rather than learning about what has given them the freedom to sit in a classroom and learn. What if what is being taught in classrooms is not the complete truth, though? James Loewen dove deep into the true history of our past in Lies My Teacher Told Me. James Loewen has studied over eighteen American History textbooks over the years, and he discovered one common theme throughout each of the ...
Lies My Teacher Told Me, by James W. Loewen, explores the failings of the traditional American historical education. It addresses the portions of history most textbooks willfully ignore, the overly optimistic and nationalistic narrative these selected events tell, and the unfortunate results of these inadequacies. For a subject, which encompasses every interesting event that has ever occurred, to be considered boring by the average student, something must be terribly wrong. Particular points of interest Loewen covers are the process by which historical figures are made uninteresting, the complicated and often unmentioned aspects of the European discovery of the Americas, the downplay of the importance of ideas and beliefs, and the glorification
Loewen claims that History text books devote less time to recent events because some parents, teachers, and publishers were still alive during the events and would be highly criticized, controversial, and difficult to publish. Although all of these may be true I believe there is much more to be learned and taught that are arguably more relevant, applicable, and relatable than (for example) the war of 1812. There would be drawbacks however. If History classes began teaching about the Iraq war, there could be children whose Mother or Father fought in that conflict and could trigger PTSD. While Loewen claims that recent past events are not being taught like they should this book was published in 1995 and I believe schools have since adopted to teaching more recent
“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots” (Marcus Garvey). History is in everything. Writing this paper is history. Everything we do becomes history. That’s why we all must learn our own history and origin. Without it we are all lost. There is so much history, just in America, it can’t be taught by one generation. There needs to be teachers of history in every generation. Making sure their peers know of ancient history and the history of yesterday. Teaching history is what I am meant to do. First, I have to be taught how to teach, acquire skills, and get experience before I can teach a class of my own.
Learning about history helps us learn about the humanities own reflection and what’s good or bad about it. This is just like a diary , people and by people I mean historians , just wrote what they saw and what seemed to cause a major change in society and we just happen to be reading it a couple of years later. I believe that historians actually wrote historical truth because it makes sense and it has been scientifically proven
When most people think about history they remember a boring class they took in school a long time ago, they recall memorizing important dates, taking map tests, and falling asleep while listening to a lecture. The truth is that history really is an important subject to be teaching students. History is more than just some lecture you receive in class, history lets us look back, see the good things and the bad things, it allows us to learn from our mistakes and prevent such mistakes from happening in the future. Things that happened in the past are still changing things that are happening today. History is needed for everyone, from government leaders down to individuals; everyone has learned one thing or another from history at some point in their life.