Lies My Teacher Told Me (Chapter 12)

This is one of the the most significant chapter in "Lies", dealing with WHY textbooks have become that way. Loewen argues that while the teachers, editors, and authors out the blame on each other, all of the three are responsible for the "corruption” of history in education prior to college. Teachers try to avoid controversial topics where they cannot be the "dominant" figure with the definite answer, and have no time to study history from scratch. Editors see textbooks as business, and try to create something which pleases the customers (states, counties, etc.), bending the facts. Authors, while blaming the editors for forcing them to write inaccurate history, also try to create a patriotic textbook for the country's future. 

I was really shocked the the authors themselves did not read their own creation, textbooks were ver similar to each other, and that many history teachers did not have any history educational background. Who would not read their own writing and give the pro mission to be published!? Similar to what Loewen had said, the authors would not even realize even if their text had been completely changed! The textbooks almost resembling each other was a shock, too. I'm sure that not all textbooks were as similar as the extracts Loewen had included in his book, but the fact that even on example exists is disturbing. Where is copyright and anti-plagiarism in the textbook industry!? What freaked me off the most was the fact that about half of the history teachers in education prior to college did not have any history background! How are teachers supposed to teach something they themselves do not know? The result I believe is the excessive reliance on textbooks for educational guidelines leading to the ultimate boring classes. 

I greatly thank my parents for letting me enter private schools which taught social studies very differently from public high schools.