Amanda’s Weblog

My teacher didn’t always tell the truth…

June 18, 2008 at 9:01 pm (Uncategorized)

Throughout our younger school years, we were taught about native americans, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and many other important aspects of our american past.  We were also taught about how certain subjects related to one another, for instance the indian removal as the whites expanded westward.  However, I am continually amazed at the different reaction I feel today, learning about those same aspects of history.  Of course they are the same subjects, but now I am learning that what I was taught back in grade school was probably not the entire truth of what actually happened.  Knowing this also made me think of a book which was mentioned by a professor I took a class with last semester called, Lies My Teacher Told Me.  Although I have never read the entire book, I read another book by the same author called Lies Across America.  Both books dealt with history and how the truth was either stretched or made up and unaware people are of this.  I decided to visit the website of the author, James Loewen, to gain a little more insite on his views.  Through his books, he pretty outlines the same thoughts I find myself pondering.  Why were my teachers telling me information that either wasn’t true or could have been a lot more detailed?

One specific era of history that I find myself struggling with from time to time is the time leading up to and surrounding the Civil War.  When I was younger, I was sure that the south were the bad guys and north were the good guys.  Everything was black and white.  I was born in Kansas, the place I was born was full of all the good northerners, right? Wrong.  After only one day of covering the events leading up to the Civil War, I quickly learned of the bloody fighting that went on and realized I had no idea about the truth.  But then again, maybe I shouldn’t be so critical of my teachers from my younger years.  I am sure they carefully found ways to safely edge around the truth so they were still able to educate without sending their students home crying and prepped for nightmares.  Or maybe it was just much easier to simply draw up the “black and white” sides to make educating a much younger generation a lot easier.  I speculate, but maybe I will never know the exact motives unless I actually consult a teacher of my past.