Lies My Teacher Told Me, Chapter 6

"To make no sense is to be crazy" (Loewen, 177). Lies My Teacher Told Me opens its 6th chapter with an argument that history textbooks fail to present ideas to its readers. Ideology behind certain events, according to Loewen, is beyond the mental capacity of textbook authors and so any idea that wouldn't make sense to them is published as insanity. The example given in the text is the case of John Brown, who was executed after his raid on the Harper's Ferry arsenal. According to Brown himself, his raid was sure to stir up some reaction regardless if he failed or succeeded. This reckless abandon with with Brown threw himself into his plans comes across as mentally insane by old American textbooks. I think the lesson to be pulled from the discrepancies is that textbooks have had to have time to adjust with changing ideals. Textbooks are published right after new data is presented- I am sure that the information on 9/11 is presented differently in textbook editions today than it was initially in textbooks after the attack. This makes sense- people react to something, and they write about it. I think the most important thing to take from this chapter is that textbooks will always be riddled with some sort of bias, and as teachers we have to work around this roadblock. I believe it will be important to teach my students how to find truth in textbooks by getting affirmation from primary documents. I also will impress upon my students that the history presented is the agreed upon truth- which leads to my big question- what is truth? Why do we deliver history from the perspectives of the winners, when further possibilities are out there. I think this chapter delves into this question by talking about the ideas that fill history- but are virtually ignored by textbooks. I think it will be hard as a teacher to pick and choose which ideas are worth discussing without overloading the students' ability to comprehend my lessons.

The following link explores the story of John Brown by debating his position in history as a hero or as a terrorist. The Story of John Brown 

This chapter goes into great detail discussing people who were against slavery but ignored by textbooks. According to Loewen, our legacy of anti-racism was admired around the globe but we at home forget about our unsung heroes. I think that textbooks do this in order to continue their blatant black-and-white, right-or-wrong discussion of history. If texts took the time to talk about all of the people who lost, the impression that southerners were bad people who wanted slaves and northerners were good people who didn't have slaves would be lost. This would just make history even longer to teach, which is hard with such a vast curriculum as it is. I think the important thing to do as a teacher who has to stick to certain timelines every year is to remember to bring in voices from the other side and give them to students alongside the traditional text so that they understand there was another side to every story without it becoming overbearing.