A Critical Analysis of:Lies My Teacher Told Me
"It would be better not to know so many things than to know so many
things which are not so."
-FELIX OKOYE
Out of all forms of literature currently known to man, educational
textbooks are arguably the least interesting. On top of being
incredibly boring, textbooks, especially American history ones,
neglect to include the entirety of the information that it should.
Because American history textbooks wish only to paint the United
States in a bright light, the authors opt to leave out anything that
may hurt its image. What Lies My Teacher Told Me attempts to do is lay
out uncommonly known facts for the misinformed history students of
today. While it does succeed in bringing forth some good points and
fundamental flaws within the educations of the ordinary history
student, it itself fails to correct one of the very reasons it claims
that history books are so bad. The information within this book is
accurate and would be stimulating in every way had it only been
arranged in a coherent and interesting matter. However, after only a
chapter the reader is struggling to stay awake with the incredibly
boring style of writing and is trying to sort through and organize all
of the randomly arranged thoughts that make this more misleading than
the history textbooks it attempts to defraud.
To open up the book, Loewen tried to explain exactly why history
textbooks are so hated. He brings up the very good point that they
are, in fact, boring, and uses that as a launching pad to show that
the only reason they are boring is the fact that they leave out so
much controversy and information that i...
... middle of paper ...
... less than the rest of the country. While it was still interesting
information, he could have cut many things out which, in a sense, take
away from his message that history neglects to teach certain things
because some of these things were, in fact, taught.
The rest of this book follows a similar pattern of proposing great
ideas without any follow through, or if there is follow through, it is
too boring and misleading to appreciate. While this book had the
potential of being a great in consideration to the teachings of
American history due to its ability to identify little known facts
about the United States, it is too flawed to even be thought of as
anything impactful.
Work Cited
Loewen, James W. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American
History Textbook Got Wrong. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.
Lying is a natural human defense that we use for various things. Everyone lies. In The Crucible we get to see exactly what could happen if lies spiral out of control to the point where crying witch is believed at every turn. In the article “Ways We Lie” by Stephanie Ericsson, she discusses the different types of lying and when they are typically used. Some of these include Facade, White Lies, and Groupthink. These three types of lying are directly relevant and present in The Crucible. The plot is driven by lies, and as they pile on top of eachother is becomes harder and harder to uncover the truth.
There are certain criteria that must be fulfilled in order for a nonfiction book to be successful. The two criteria that we should judge all argumentative nonfiction by are well written anecdotes that capture the reader’s attention and well explained factual data that proves the author’s point. The book Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen contains both of these criteria and as such is a successful nonfiction book. Loewen’s purpose in writing Lies My Teacher Told Me is to correct the inaccuracies in textbooks and to help students learn the truth about history. He uses anecdotes that provide insight about history and data that easily proves his point about inaccuracies in textbooks to achieve his goal of helping students gain knowledge.
“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives” ~ James Madison
Albert Einstein once said “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So is a lot.” Knowledge can be good because it makes one successful. Then, it can also be very bad such as a criminal being too smart for the police, he or she can keep committing crime. Too much knowledge is dangerous because it may harm many, which means that many die or get scarred for life because of one simple guy with an excess of knowledge.
Because of that phrase, I never take anything for granted. I know that with experience comes knowledge, even experiences in small everyday tasks. So, if someone were to overlook an event they went through or new information they received, they’d be missing out on a chance for more knowledge. Even though it takes hard work, when we as humans learn more, we only benefit in the end. Because of my enthusiasm to gain knowledge, I would be a positive addition to the current National Junior Honor Society.
“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”
There is a saying that history tends to repeat itself and this intact is restated in Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen. We seem to study the past and touch on delicate topics but after the semester ends we forget about it and do not go back to refresh what we have memorized. All high school and middle schools do today is memorize without reason making the learning experience also a thing of the past. We are taught all these facts and opinions that we soon tend to forget our past. Loewen definitely refreshes memories of his readers by demonstrating how American history textbooks are full of lies and leave out the little details that were very important. The discovery of the “New World” was the gateway to a new era of social
What are lies? A lie is defined as follows: To make a statement that one knows to be false, especially with the intent to deceive. There are several ways that lies are told for instance, there are white lies, lies of omission, bold faced lies, and lies of exaggeration. No matter what type of lie that one chooses to tell many people believe that lies do more harm than good.
All eyes are on Kousei, a young prodigious pianist, who people often refer to as a human metronome due to his incredible musical accuracy when performing. He’s winning tournaments left and right, and many spectators believe that he’ll be able to go pro. However, when he mother dies unexpectedly, Kousei breaks down and is no longer able to hear the sound of the piano into which he’s invested so much of his life. Two years later, Kousei is in middle school with his friends Tsubaki and Ryouta, and he still continues to avoid the piano. However, when a fateful meeting with an unpredictable violinist named Kaori be able to shake up his world enough to get him back into the music world?
Real knowledge, like everything else of the highest value, is not to be obtained easily. It must be worked for, studied for, thought for, and, more than all, it must be prayed for”
To what extent does one's ability to hide the truth and strategize make them more viable to thrive?
"The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as every child should be instilled with the wish to learn."
Children are warned not to be dishonest throughout multiple aspects of life, and this ideal is consistently reminded throughout higher academic institutions and other professional settings. Academic dishonesty describes student behavior which is not in accordance with the ethical standards or ideas considered to be good in a specific culture (Muñoz-García & Aviles-Herrera, 2014). In one study related to academic dishonesty among children, experimenters concluded after the first test that there was a large rate of children who were engaging in academic dishonesty (Callender, Olson, Kerr, & Sameroff, 2010), however the reasoning behind the majority of children cheating can be due to the young age of the children and the innate disregard to follow
Brown, B. S., Weible, R. J., & Olmosk, K. E. (2010). Business school deans on student academic
Morality just by itself be interpreted in few ways, one way is right or wrong. Another way can be quality or character. whereas to honesty it only has one true meaning and that’s being truthful , but when we put these words together “ the morality of honesty ’’ it tells us more than just a meaning , it makes us ask whether or not the quality we have within ourselves as a human beings is truly honest or not . In this following paper I will be arguing AGAINST about truth telling. We as human beings we often tend to do the right things not because we think it’s right or even we think there’s such a thing as right or wrong, but because we’re told its right. This goes same with truth telling, our society is filled with opinion it’s almost impossible to bring everyone on the same table, because everyone is so caught up in their way of thinking and that can make us to become defensive to even hear other peoples saying. I believe this ethical issue is important for discussion because majority of people see only one side of this issue. “The right side’’ when taking a stand in something we have to see both sides of the issue. By seeing both sides we can try to come with good solution, as our consequences really matters in the end.