First Time For Everything

I have another book review today. Honestly, I wasn't sure that I was going to review this one, but I think that there are some things that need to be said.

The book is called "Lies My Teacher Told Me." And it is about how American History is taught in High Schools in our country. I have to say, there are parts of what was written in this book that I do agree with, but overall, and especially when the author was drawing conclusions, it ended up being a liberal tome of revisionist history.

First, the parts that I agree with. There is something very wrong with the way that History is taught in this country. I have always loved history, and yet even I was bored to tears during my high school history courses. The way it is presented is dry and boring. I do agree with the author that there are aspects of our history that are just ignored because they don't seem to fit the story that the textbooks are telling, which makes the History seem not only boring, but also unrealistic.

I have had conversations with people before where they said that there is no value to learning history. I usually respond that there is little to no value to the way that History is taught in our schools, but there is clearly value actually learning History. I think one of the most basic arguments for this is the classic line that those who fail to learn from History are doomed to repeat it. There are a lot of lessons that can, and indeed need to, be learned from what has happened in the past. It's like a sign I saw once that said, "Learn from the mistakes of others, you can't live long enough to make them all yourself." By looking at what has happened in the past, and seeing how people handled those events, and things that they have tried, we can learn what has worked in the past, and what hasn't, and this can be critical information in deciding what we should do going forward. But presented as dry, sometimes cherry picked facts, students just don't care, and who can blame them.

On the other hand, whenever the author decided to draw conclusion, or say how he thought the history should be taught, he always come down on the side of liberalism and socialism, and painting the USA in the worst possible light. Some portions of the book actually read as a socialist propaganda presentation.

There is no question, I highly recommend against reading this book. Not that I'm worried about it, most people, unlike me, would be bored to tears reading this liberal tome, and, unlike me, probably wouldn't finish it.

Unfortunately, I'm getting near the bottom of my stack of new books, and so, I need to get a few more... I have a few in mind, just have to figure out how they work into the budget.