Lies My Teacher Told Me Ch 11

Loewen ch 11

Until reaching this chapter of the book, I never thought about how textbooks are concluded. Come to think of it, my teachers always said there was simply no time to cover everything, therefore, I’ve never actually opened the ending of a textbook.

When I think about it, I studied history all throughout Junior High and High School, and I do not recall learning about the recent past, such as the Vietnam War and the fall of the Soviet Union. Maybe I was a bad student and just don’t remember the classes, but I feel that the teachers might be following the textbook chronologically in order to avoid teaching the awkward facts. My guess is that the teachers do not want to teach us student’s lie, therefore they are reluctant to go through the ending chapters of the textbooks.

Strictly speaking, there is a certain timeline that the teachers need to follow so that the students can understand the flow of the events. By teaching history randomly, the details would be disconnected, further making the students dislike the subject. There is a need to follow the chronological order of the facts, however if the teachers are aware of the fact that they will not finish the textbook, I do not understand why they cannot plan the course so that the students actually reach the end of the text.

The textbooks featured in this book, all seem to conclude on a high note. The vague and optimistic conclusions are of no help for the students who are going to lead the next generation. The lack of a realistic afterword can be perceived as one of the reasons as to why students find history irrelevant. The authors do not need to be cynical and critical about every detail, but they should not do away with phrases like “all we need to do is keep our chin up”