Book #16 of 2020: Teaching What REALLY Happened by James W. Loewen

I remember when Lies My Teacher Told Me came out and I thought--"I just finished reading a bunch of Zinn I probably don't need to read this," and then I was gifted a copy of Lies Across America and I thought "I should read this I'll put it in the stack" and it stayed in the stack for most of a decade and then I moved to Panama and the Dept. Head of the Middle School Social Studies Department handed me a copy of Teaching What Really Happened and I finally read James Loewen.

It's a great book, not only because it pokes holes in common myths and misperceptions about over-mythologized assholes like Columbus and about propagandized whipping boy victims of revisionist Lost Cause Southern historians like John Brown. Loewen focuses here on what's important, what's left out, and gives really great ideas for teaching students how to be critical thinkers by letting them examine crappy text books and "historical" monuments and ridiculous art work and questionable justifications of terrible, brutal, genocidal behavior, and giving them the tools and skills needed to find out for themselves how accurate these things are and how to support their contentions with facts as much as possible.

It's also a brave book for calling out a lot of curricular bullshit and publishing industry bullshit and a lot of cultural bullshit. It's the role of Social Studies teachers to make students and their families uncomfortable with tough and troubling questions and topics. Loewen says you gotta disregard the fear that your community will be upset by what you teach or what your kids learn how to find out. He also has wise tips for white educators who are scared to teach kids of color (or vice-versa).

I recommend the book for teachers in the Humanities of all ages, and pledge again to get around to his others (someday--they are both currently in boxes with the rest of my beloved library in a storage unit in downtown Baltimore).