Newswise — Temple University's incoming freshman class of nearly 4,000 students--the biggest and brightest in recent years--already has a homework assignment.
This summer, while others are digging away at the beach, Temple's Class of 2007 will be digging into James Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, an award-winning work that charges that the education system spawns graduates woefully misinformed about their collective past.
"We want students to learn to ask critical questions and engage in difficult debate," says Stephen Zelnick, vice provost for undergraduate studies. "In coming to Temple, our freshmen will find themselves competing with talented and ambitious students and having to satisfy the high standards of demanding professors. Loewen's intellectually challenging book provides a good preview."
The book characterizes the leading U.S. history textbooks as peppered with deliberate misinformation, unchecked patriotism and utter lies--all in the name of tidying up the U.S. image and inspiring students to achieve the American dream. Loewen's meticulous critique of 12 popular American history textbooks debunks their sterilized accounts of history from a nationalist, WASP perspective, revealing the startling truth about Christopher Columbus the pillager, Woodrow Wilson the white supremacist and Thanksgiving as a marketing ploy.
For an institution steeped in the traditions of academia, Lies My Teacher Told Me, which vilifies many of those same traditions, represents a bold choice.
"Learning to think is integral to the Temple University experience, and learning to think critically is integral to the discipline of history," says Richard Immerman, chairperson of Temple's History department. "James Loewen argues that high school students are cheated out of the opportunity to learn to think critically."
To enhance student understanding of the book, the author will visit the Temple campus on Tuesday, Sept. 23 to jump-start the academic year. Loewen will field questions at a University-wide discussion, visit with a Temple history class and square off with history and social studies education professors and area high school teachers to defend his critique.
"His visit will provide a wonderful forum for Temple's students and faculty to discuss and evaluate his challenging thesis," Immerman says.
During his trip to the city, Loewen also plans to make use of Philadelphia's historic backdrop. He will lead students on an Independence Hall tour as a follow-up to his scathing assessment of the exhibit as racially insensitive in another work, Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong.
From more than 30 books nominated by the University community, a committee of Temple faculty, staff and students selected Lies My Teacher Told Me, winning out for its cross-discipline appeal. The book raises issues in nearly every department of study at the University and in every facet of the American experience, from the pedagogical implications of using textbooks that perpetuate myth to societal ramifications of a public ignorant of its collective history.
"We had wonderful discussions about all of the book choices but selected Lies because of its relevance and message," says Jodi Levine Laufgraben, assistant vice provost for university studies and director of Temple's nationally recognized learning communities program. "The University benefits because students, faculty and other members of the Temple community come together for discussion and debate. It is a great intellectual event to kick off a new academic year."
Lies My Teacher Told Me won the Before Columbus Foundation/American Book Award and the Oliver C. Cox Anti-Racism Award of the American Sociological Association.
Loewen holds a Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University and taught race relations for 20 years at the University of Vermont. He now lives in Washington, D.C., dedicating his energy to research and writing about how Americans perceive history.
An online version of this release is available through the Office of News and Media Relations website at: http://www.temple.edu/news_media/tb0306_916.html.
RSS