A student cannot leave a history class today and be confident that they were taught properly. Thanksgiving has always been taught as happy times and a celebration. What does an ideal school look like in our minds? Although I agree with Loewen’s arguments of the improper facts in textbooks being important to correct, I believe all of America including Historians need to change the way history is taught; it is incorrect and causing the real facts to be hidden. One controversial change in the new textbooks lied in the explanation for the cause of the Civil War, in which the state decided to downplay the role that slavery played while opting for a narrative of states’ rights. ” History teachers want students to memorize as much information as possible from their classrooms, but what is the point when “Some of these factoids they present are flatly wrong or unverifiable” (Loewen p 384).There are so many versions of the true first Thanksgiving, yet the three main stories that keep popping up in our history textbooks and on the holiday itself are still incorrect. So these are politicians, not teachers. It is easy to tell when you are being fed wrong information, because the material changes every year. But, it is important to recognize the negative effects that inaccurate textbooks can create in order to combat these and encourage more thorough evaluations of books before they are … “But you need to teach them how to think.”. Remember, there was a time when folks thought bathing was bad for you, so to help stop the rumor mill, we're correcting eight common misconceptions. The book also includes a map, referring to enslaved Africans in 1775 as “immigrants.”  The map shows immigrant groups like the Dutch, Scottish, and German are listed. Thanksgiving did not start off as a national holiday, include football, or a national parade as tradition shows today. Thanksgiving has always been taught as happy times and a celebration. Cengage Learning – … Investigation Discovers Several History Textbooks Spreading Inaccurate Information About Black History To Students Across The Country. She also leans on the collections and work of Facing History and Ourselves, a social-justice and anti-prejudice nonprofit that offers curriculum and professional development opportunities. The ones on American history and sociology were memorably bad, in my case. After all, history, much like history education, is political, she reiterates. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our, The whole doc is available only for registered users, Online Education vs Traditional Education. In the in-depth analysis found several issues in the book starting on page 346 the term “mulatto” and “mulattoes” is used. Nor can they stop at analysis or even critical thinking. freebooksummary.com © 2016 - 2020 All Rights Reserved. No one has time to read them all, but it’s important to go over them at least briefly. When I was in high school, I dreaded every history class I ever took. Every single history textbook is biased in some kind of way. Planet Earth Weather And Natural Disasters. By Margaret Bristol for Bookish: There are plenty of stories scholars and writers have passed off as fact, when truth be told, they are actually fiction. In 2011, the Virginia Board of Education disapproved two history textbooks taught to elementary schoolers that contained errors, according to The Washington Post. In other words, if you’ve only learned history from a textbook, it’s far easier to teach from one. A New York Times analysis earlier this year detailed how the most influential states, Texas and California, produce markedly different versions of the same texts from publishers such as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Pearson and McGraw-Hill “shaded by partisan politics.”. This gives way to the presence of bias and inconsistencies among what different historians may consider to be historical truths. How Textbooks Can Teach Different Versions Of History : NPR Ed About 5 million public school students in Texas this year will get new and controversial textbooks that critics say water down history. I'm sure you already know this though. Other Names: Censorship of history books . Textbooks are supposed to be factual and our primary resources, but they are becoming fictional stories, ruining students’ education. “To refer to them (Africans) again as immigrants insinuates that they chose to come,”  Kendi said. Textbooks are supposed to be factual and our primary resources, but they are becoming fictional stories, ruining students’ education. What students really need, these teachers say, is to encourage students to work with primary sources themselves. Of course, history texts across the board have changed significantly over the past half century, stripping out narratives of European and American exceptionalism along with myths minimizing the impacts and conditions of slavery. Contact Us Thanksgiving has turned into happier times, family, friends, football, and charity; as students should be taught what the Pilgrims did to the Indians, this can be a lesson on how to not repeat history. Send Tips Stephen Noonoo (@stephenoonoo) is K-12 editor at EdSurge where he frequently works with contributing writers. Biased and inaccurate history textbooks. While history rests as an indefinite interpretation of past events, the ability for textbooks to favor one subjective narrative over another begs an important question: just how accurate are our history textbooks?jujui. One sentence in the book reads, “In the deeper South, many free blacks were mulattoes, usually the emancipated children of a white planter and his black mistress.”, “The term mulatto, in many ways, is a racial slur, is a racist slur against biracial people,” Kendi said. In 2015, Texas received new textbooks that reflected more conservative learning standards in the Texas State Board of Education, according to NPR. Textbooks are supposed to be factual and our primary resources, but they are becoming fictional stories, ruining students’ education. Your email address will not be published. Washington proclaimed November 26th as “a day of public Thanksgiving and Prayer (Don Webb). The Black Detour is a independent, digital publication that transcends black culture. After all, history, much like history education, is political, she reiterates. And therefore my curriculum is political. Your email address will not be published. It was essentially a racist slur.”. Most of America does not know that the history as they know it, is flawed. After learning of textbook inaccuracies, the average high school student may be wondering how they can help combat this. Loewen and many others believe the textbooks need to be changed to the true facts, but the history profession will not review textbooks before being published. Credits During a recent discussion with the global education activist Jamira Burley, Ramos heard her own views summarized succinctly: We need to prepare students for an uncertain and protean future—the so-called fourth industrial revolution. 15 inaccurate historical facts History is constantly being rewritten and revised.