Lies My Teacher Told Me, Chapter 2

Loewen describes Christopher Columbus as an original myth- a character so stripped of his actual personality that we can describe him as one of history's good guys, and somebody that we should emulate. Of course, once again, history text books leave out much detail- including slave and sex trades, the murky background that makes up Columbus' biography, and even the idea that Columbus was the one to prove that the world is round- with further research, it seems that the global population already knew that. While it has already been touched on that history textbooks create heroes, I feel that the main argument in this chapter that will be important to me as a teacher is the disturbing fact that history textbooks don't agree on material. For example, so many triumphs have been attributed to Europe, but further research indicates that most advances have been a fusion of numerous countries. This is something unpublished by textbook companies because their target audience wants to hear that the white man brought about all the success of the past. However, according to Loewen, "diffusion of ideas is perhaps the most important cause of cultural development" (39). I will definitely take into consideration the bias that goes into publishing classroom textbooks and do extra research, mainly on primary documents, to find evidence for my students that presents a more well-rounded story of the past. This is especially necessary in multicultural classrooms, but even in classrooms that are predominately white- students should hear the truth which is that maybe the white man wasn't always the hero. Learning this way can potentially cut back on racism amongst youth because white students won't get the normal lecture that they're number one- in reality, they're just one of many who worked together to create, trade, and develop.

The following video argues that Africans were in America before Columbus; this could be shown in class as a discussion starter- going against the grain of the traditional story of the discovery of America.
African Presence in Ancient America

I think a main goal I should set for myself after reading about the discrepancies between books, and further reminders that much of what is presented in history books is heroification, is to always put forth the extra effort to find research which presents a full back-story for my students rather than relying only on the textbook supplied by my school.

Overall, it seems clear that textbooks are written to please a target audience and it is my job as an educator to, rather than be a people pleaser, tell the truth and give the whole story.