Textbooks today should have more of what was in texts centuries ago. I feel Fitzgerald’s analysis on American history is correct; they don’t have nearly as much useful information as they did in the past. Children should know the importance of World War II, the Revolutionary War and why the Berlin wall came down. Children should have current events on what’s going on in American today, and know the importance and discuss the significance of each of them. There are so many acts of sacrifice, heroism, compassion and courage, unity and fierce determination. These examples are particularly important to our children. I feel as though children reflect the values they see in their parents, and in their heroes. In most recent years our children have witnessed all the great characters of America, such as Christopher Columbus, Daniel Boone and Captain John Smith. They have seen Americans fight for their country; and must know why their country is worth fighting for. If children are given the real history of America they will also learn to love America. History is not a story of ...
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.
The 1976 film "Network" is an acerbic satire of television's single-minded obsession with mass ratings.One of the film's main characters, Howard Beale, is called the "Mad Prophet of the Airways," and his weekly harangues produce a "ratings motherlode"--yet he constantly admonishes his viewers to "Turn the damn tube off!"During one such rant Beale berates his audience as functional illiterates: "Less than three percent of you even read books!" he shouts messianically--and then promptly collapses from a sort of apoplexic overload.
In “The Closing of the American Book,” published in the New York Times Magazine, Andrew Solomon argues about how the decline of literary reading is a crisis in national health, politics, and education. Solomon relates the decline of reading with the rise of electronic media. He believes that watching television and sitting in front of a computer or a video screen instead of reading can cause the human brain to turn off, and lead to loneliness and depression. He also argues that with the decrease of reading rates, there will no longer be weapons against “absolutism” and “terrorism,” leading to the United States political failure in these battles. The last point Solomon makes is that there is no purpose behind America being one of the most literate societies in history if people eradicate this literacy, and so he encourages everyone to help the society by increasing reading rates and making it a “mainstay of community.” Solomon tries to show the importance of reading in brain development and he encourages people to read more by emphasizing the crisis and dangers behind the declination of reading.
American History not as a mere nuisance, or an inferior being portrayed by racism but as an Honorable soldier whom endeavors to protect a country he loves despite discrimination received at home or abroad.
James Loewen wrote the book ?Lies My Teacher Told ME? to help the students of the United States become aware of their true history. This book attempts to show how and why American history has been taught the way it has without regard for the truth. Mr. Loewen had compared twelve different history textbooks they are: The Great Republic, The American Way, Land of Promise, Rise of the American Nation, Challenge of Freedom, American Adventures, Discovering American History, The American Tradition, Life and Liberty, The United States ? A History of the Republic, Triumph of the American Nation and The American Pageant. Loewen has argued his cases for Heroification, Euorcentrism and the first settlers, and Racism in our history. He has done this knowing fully that most people do not want to know the harsh realities of our nations past. The United States has tried to maintain a positive image throughout history. Unfortunately, it has many skeletons in its closet that need to come out to heal this great nation on many levels. If the public at large new the real role of racism in our nations infancy and how men tried to pursue their way of thinking as opposed to what is good for the country they would be ashamed at what the United States has stood for in the past.
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 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. In some respects, we can attribute the founding of America and all its subsequent impacts to Christopher Columbus. Columbus, a hero in the United States, has his own holiday and we view him as the one who paved the way for America to be colonized.
... lot of actions that show, as a society we have come along way, but we are still learning. There are still many cases of child abuse, but we now have knowledge and resources in place to intervene, and stop this abuse and neglect. Today, we have choices. Today, we can help, and protect. Today, we have child protection services. Because of all of this, today, we have the ability to, and the responsibility to keep our children safe.
Every US citizen all have something in common; freedom. Most Americans go throughout their whole personal life, whether it be work, school, or other activities, never questioning, ”How do I have the opportunity to be able to do these things?” We instead ask and worry about other things, and don’t take time to acknowledge how we are able to have agency in our decisions of everyday life. The First Amendment allows US citizens to have privileges that don’t exist in some countries, like freedom of speech, religion, and the right to petition. Likewise, this amendment is unique to the United States of America, and no other country in the world has as many freedoms as the US. Because of these exclusive rights, we must protect them from being taken away. This is why the US has a military; to protect the freedoms exclusive to America. This is why we have Veterans’ Day; to celebrate the veterans of war who fought and put their lives down to keep their land free. This essay will go over why we should celebrate our country’s warriors, and it will talk about what veterans give up to protect their country, how their personal lives change, and how they affect our community/country.
F. Scott Fitzgerald was one of the most influential writers of modern day society. He holds this title because he wrote about things that drive people's everyday life. He wrote in two different periods that were very significant in the social development of America. These two periods of time symbolized not only the generation that he was writing about, but it also speaks to the present day generation.
...t create ourselves. That we owe what we are to the communities that helped form us”(Bellah et. al., P. 295). We have a long history in this country of others who gave and sacrificed so much so we could have our present. We must understand that life is to be shared, it is not a race whose only “goal is to he foremost” (Bellah et. al., P. 296). It is to be lived. We must be committed to those we love, and to our communities. Maybe the longing for nostalgia in this country can help to return to a time when family, friends, community, church and more were important and we all knew we were part of something greater than ourselves. We must however not live in the past, we must use the past to build and focus on the future.
Fredrick Jackson Turner and Reginald Horsman present us with two very different views of American History. Turner views the American period of expansionism across the North American continent as if this were a natural phenomenon. In contrast, Horsman begs us to consider such a perception—very seriously. Where Turner sees something like a sprit of freedom and independence driving the course of American history into the western frontier—and (coincidentally) over the peoples already living there—Horsman reveals how such a view of the American people’s ‘nature’ is constructed, ultimately to justify such expansion.
When we hear the names, Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin or George Washington, we can immediately identify these men as noble leaders and celebrated heroes who made extraordinary contributions during the fragile infancy of our country. These men and many others unselfishly risked their lives to fight for a united nation in both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. However, do the names Philis Wheatley, Jenny Hodges or Sybil Ludington inspire the same recognition and admiration for their unprecedented sacrifices for the same “cause”? The answer may be “no” and, unfortunately, it would be expected.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, 1884. The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger, 1951. Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell, 1936. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925 (www.bannedbooksweek.org). All of the books mentioned in the last sentences were books that “shaped America,” and were in some way or another banned or expurgated by taking all of the explicit words, and content, out of them. In doing so, the people who made the decisions to ban the books, or otherwise take out the content, greatly decreased the viewpoints that the author was trying to conceive. I believe that, unless the reading is for children under the age of, say, 13, then books like the aforementioned ones above, should not be banned or censored at all. Sometimes you have a rare case, like mine, where kids skip a few grades, and are really ahead of their class, and still a little immature, but if they are in a certain grade, they should be allowed to read, and understand what the author was originally trying to portray before the “people who think they know best” go and censor the author’s initial intent.
“We are going to do in the future what Americans are doing today. Your job is to invent the future” says Jaithirth Rao of the Indian company MphasiS to Thomas Friedman, author of The World is Flat (389). America has always been abreast of the latest and greatest ideas and designs. However, America’s position in the world is becoming increasingly difficult to guarantee due the decreasing number of college graduates. Tamar Lewin reports in a New York Times article how a recent study by Complete College America discovered that “despite decades of steadily climbing enrollment rates, the percentage of students making it to the finish line is barely budging” (College Graduation Rates). Why? A simple answer is that a large number of American high schools aren’t adequately preparing their students for college. To reset this trend, good work ethic, innovative courses, and early vocational and technical training should be introduced and encouraged in high schools. Thomas Friedman and his book The World is Flat describe the effects of globalization on the world. Foreign schools are quickly rising to and even surpassing the levels of education in America, putting our place in the world in jeopardy.
In writing this book, commonly refered to as the “Great American Novel”, F. Scott Fitzgerald achieved in showing future generations what the early twenties were like, and the kinds of people that lived then. He did this in a beautifully written novel with in-depth characters, a captivating plot, and a wonderful sense of the time period.