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.
Judith Viorst is an American journalist. Her essay “The Truth about Lying”, printed in Buscemi and Smith’s 75 Readings: An Anthology. In this essay, Viorst examines social, protective, peace-keeping and trust-keeping lies but doesn’t include lies of influence.
it is seen that knowledge can hurt. It is also shown that sometimes one can know
There is a logical saying in society one should take to heart; that line being, “Don’t believe everything you read.” Just because a text is written and published does not means it is always accurate. Historical facts, similar to words whispered in the child’s game, “telephone,” are easily transformed into different facts, either adding or subtracting certain details from the story. James Loewen, in The Lies My Teacher Told Me, reveals how much history has been changed by textbook writes so that students studying the textbooks can understand and connect to the information. In Howard Zinn’s, People’s History of the United States, the author recounts historical tales through the point of view of the common people. Mainstream media, as proven by Loewen and Zinn, often pollutes and dilutes history to make the information sound better and more easily understood for the society.
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.
...al to peers, the world, and even one’s self. If one lies about their feeling towards another person, there is chance that person can find out. If they find out, he or she will be extremely angry and there is a chance that the friendship will be in ruins. Lying can ruin the world, as seen by the omission of the goddess Lilith and stereotypes. Finally, excessive lying can lead to a decreased self-value. Eventually you will begin to delude yourself, and find it nearly impossible to escape the never-ending cycle of lies. Ericsson incorporates these feelings of little to no self-value in the last section of her essay when she speaks of delusion and her conclusion. Her main argument is that little lies can turn into large lies, and can cause a sort of cultural cancer. She appeals to the audience through the use of self-worth in an effort to further appeal to her audience.
Ericsson uses Webster’s definition of lying as the foundation for her essay. Webster’s official definition of a lie is, “A false statement or action with intent to deceive; anything that gives or is meant to give a false impression” (qtd. in Ericsson 496). By using this definition as her foundation, Ericsson continues to talk about the different forms lies undertake. The first form she addresses is the well-known white lie, used to escape from potentially awkward situations, or people. “The white lie assumes that the truth will cause more damage than a simple, harmless untruth” (Ericsson 496). For example, lying to someone that had a stressful day that your day was great, to save that person from more drama. This lie is commonly used because many people think that by lying they are saving relationships, and emotions. Although, Ericsson points out that in reality “[i]t is an act of subtle arrogance for anyone to decide what is best for someone else” (496). Another method of lying Ericsson mentions is facades. Facades are manipulated to cover up personal transgressions, social faux pas, or whatever the liar wants the lied to believe about them. Ericsson explains that facades are destructive, “[t]hey are used to seduce others into an illusion” (497). Delusion itself seduces the individual into replacing facts with excuses. Delusion relies on the mind to support the
Lying is simply an act of not telling the truth, and this definition of lying will be used in future sections of this paper. There are three groups of lies t...
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.
High school history textbooks are seen, by students, as presenting the last word on American History. Rarely, if ever, do they question what their text tells them about our collective past. According to James W. Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me, they should be. Loewen has spent considerable time and effort reviewing history texts that were written for high school students. In Lies, he has reviewed twenty texts and has compared them to the actual history. Sadly, not one text measures up to the author's expectation of teaching students to think. What is worse, though, is that students come away from their classes without "having developed the ability to think coherently about social life"(Lies p.4). Loewen blames this on the way that today's texts are written. This paper will compare one text, The American Pageant, to Lies.
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?
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.
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.
Can you remember the last time someone lied to you? Or how about the last time you lied to someone else? Did you ever stop and ask yourself why? There are so many different reasons that a person might lie. Maybe a lie about something to keep oneself out of trouble, or even a lie to impress other people. But either way there are always going to be serious consequences or effects of lying.
I agree with the statement "honesty is the best policy". People will be able to trust people who are honest, liars will have rumors spread around about them, and it's just plain easier to tell the truth. Nobody likes people who lie all the time and won't know whether to trust them or not. People get annoyed by people who lie a lot.
"The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as every child should be instilled with the wish to learn."