Lies

Where to begin with "Lies My Teacher Told Me?" I am learning a lot by reading this, I think. There is a lot to think about with history and how it has been portrayed/taught. There has been a lot of confusion in history and social studies classes about what to teach, how to teach it, and why it should be taught. I am wondering who gets to decide what and when things will be taught. I understand this book is clearing up some messes that textbooks have left and it describes in detail the very important things that are missed and "mis-interpreted." But there still is the problem of teachers only having a pre-determined amount of time to teach a lesson and they must move on. Is there enough time to go into as much detail as necessary so students aren't mislead? Everything can't be covered either, so parts will have to be left out, which parts should be left out? Considering all that, I do strongly agree that students need to hear the truth about history, such everything about Columbus.....at a gradual rate, or with parent permission. That's a tricky one because most parents wouldn't want their 2nd grader to hear about rape, murder, and slavery. So at what point does the "heroification" of "important" people in "our" nations past stop, and all of the info. is presented? This is a tangled knot that has been going on for a long time. It seems to be "easier" to revert back to telling the same stories, telling them the same way, and memorizing the same "facts," probably because the "truth" is inconvenient. The textbooks are getting bigger, the information is as exciting as ever, and it's a wonder why students are "bored" with history and social studies. I think it is important to teach key concepts about material, people/dates/times/ are just as important, but if students can make connections with ideas and concepts about history they might understand it better. Making connections with today's world might help understand "our" history.