Reviews for Teaching What Really Happened: How to Avoid the Tyranny of Textbooks and Get Students Excite...

The average rating for Teaching What Really Happened: How to Avoid the Tyranny of Textbooks and Get Students Excite... based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-05-09 00:00:00 Luiz Fernando Cairo I'm not gonna lie, I really was not looking forward to reading another book for my teaching class. However, James Loewen had some interesting points to make about the history education system. He blatantly stated that textbooks especially in history class discouraged critical thinking skills, and wrongly got kids to believe memorization was the main focus of learning. He also showed that many history books such as The American Pageant, usually present information incorrectly. This is why many students believe that famous presidents such as George Washington were never slave owners. I had never considered the flaws in history textbooks, and this book really opened my eyes. I might go read his other book, Lies My Teacher Told Me, if I have some extra time because of how much I enjoyed this book.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-10-04 00:00:00 Russell Barry Sometimes it's omissions that are the textbook issue. Loewen mentions that high school history textbooks didn't include the fact that in the 18th century Wall Street was where slave owners went to sell the labor of their slaves, and others hired their labor. Since I lived in New York when I was in high school, learning this aspect of the history of Wall Street would have been a way for me to understand how slavery was integrated into urban New York society. Like most high school students, I thought at the time that slavery was something that happened on Southern plantations. I didn't know about slavery in New York. Even if textbooks aren't localized, I think there should be a local element in the teaching of history. As a high school and college student I found it easy to relate to local history. After reading this book, I'm willing to declare myself a fan of James W. Loewen. It may be difficult to uncover historical truth in some cases, but I applaud Loewen for prioritizing it and showing the importance of historical truth for all of us. For the blog version of this review see