“Honesty is the best policy” (Benjamin Franklin). I believe that for the most part our programs and policies in the US benefit the health and well being of the average modern person. However, I do think that changes can be made to our education systems and overall political mindset in modern American media. The United States educational systems and news medias are not honest with its student and average citizens when it comes to American history and politics. Under these circumstances, many high school and college students are not able to think for themselves and are being fed information from schools and news media day in and day out whether it's true or not. For example, Tim Walker, author of Who Stands Between Fake News and Students? Educators writes, “Regardless of their age or socioeconomic status, students across-the-board demonstrated a troubling inability to weed out unreliable information”. Students are not being taught how to tell if the information being learned in at home and in school is reliable. In addition, students even struggle to grasp the concept that even the news they are exposed to at home can be misleading. …show more content…
An English teacher, Benjamin Dancer states in his article, Censoring American History, “History curriculum, a framework written by the College Board and taught in high schools across the country. The framework was revamped this year and has taken heat from the Republican National Committee, which claims it “emphasizes negative aspects of our nation’s history”. There are positive and negative aspects of every nation’s history, students are not in the position to pick and choose which historical events are taught in schools. By picking and choosing historical events that are only positive and practical to what students want to believe, history will be lost and replaced with fraudulent and bogus events that never took
Since this country was founded, we have had a set of unalienable rights that our constitution guarantees us to as Americans. One of the most important rights that is mentioned in our constitution is the right to free speech. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
Ignorance due to inability to spot biased is a monumental issue in the U.S. In 1984, people did not have an option on who or what to believe. They were all required to watch a Two Minute Hate so they would dislike what the Party wanted them to dislike. The people could only see what the Party wanted them to see as no other channels they existed. In fact, the telescreens could not be shut off at all. Constant exposure to the Party’s beliefs caused people to be biased towards the government’s views. In this country, people hear, watch, and absorb news every day, but they do not always see or hear the presented bias. For example, Fox News is conservative-leaning and MSNBC is more liberal (Garrett 2&3). People who only watch one news channel without acknowledging or spotting the bias tend to accept what they hear as fact without a second thought. Depending on where information is collected or heard, the person forms opinions based on bias rather than facts without realizing the error in their wapithes and become easy to manipulation occurs.
Social media news and magazines are brainwashing students: many people would say this actual worldwide effect on todays' society! Especially, author Camila Domonoske would agree, who published, “ Students Have 'Dismaying' Inability To Tell Fake News From Real, Study Finds” she argues and illustrates there is a “ fake news crisis” and that teens are allegedly the most affected by what is true in the news today. Domonoske’s sources are put together without adding personal opinions in her article, which can be considered “ bias” and not reliable to some readers. Her article is supported strongly to readers with informing the readers of several sources, abundant amount proven facts, statistics and using a creative writing strategy such as logos throughout her argument to appeal her readers.
History can be an intricate and laborious subject to teach and learn. James W. Loewen, author, historian, and sociologist, is the perfect example of someone who appreciates the subject in all aspects, but knows how underestimated it is. As he says in Lies My Teacher Told Me, “Our educational media turn flesh-and-blood individuals into pious, perfect creatures without conflicts, pain, credibility, or human interest” (Loewen 11). Throughout the book, he further elucidated the idea of that quote by introducing particular topics that deserved more details and acknowledgement. Loewen argues with enough reasoning from numerous textbooks that the writers aren’t involving all facts that should be included to inform the students. Nearly all points
High school history textbooks are seen, by students, as presenting the last word on American History. Rarely, if ever, do they question what their text tells them about our collective past. According to James W. Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me, they should be. Loewen has spent considerable time and effort reviewing history texts that were written for high school students. In Lies, he has reviewed twenty texts and has compared them to the actual history. Sadly, not one text measures up to the author's expectation of teaching students to think. What is worse, though, is that students come away from their classes without "having developed the ability to think coherently about social
James Loewen , a professor of sociology, wrote a book named From Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, which was published in 1996. In the book, Loewen claims that the American public education system poorly teaches history. He states that this is due to appease and induce overt sense patriotism and nationalism. This leads to the information being false, misleading, boring, and Disneyfied.
When it comes to American history , the credibility of our textbooks has been a problem recent years, especially those in high school. And what we are taught in class seem to be far away from our real life. Facing such an irrelevant and boring subject, most high school students have no choice but to suffer the course and struggle for it. The book Lies My Teacher Told Me may account for this phenomenon to some extent.
One hears about censorship of free word happening all the time in other countries, but did it ever happen in the United States of America? Not many people know that restriction of free speech and personal expression did in fact occur in America, mainly during the 1950s. During this tumultuous time, newfound fears of threatening outside influences, mainly political in nature, had set in and as a result the government tried to protect the American public from these “radical” ideas through the use of censorship, or a restriction in the flow of information or ideas. Working feverishly to control what they deemed inappropriate, they launched multiple programs to combat these influences. Unfortunately, the government’s reasonably good intentions
Censorship within the United States is not only an immoral and "big-brotherly" practice, but also an insult to each and every one of those who call themselves US citizens. Every day, censors attempt to sanitize TV, radio, music, print, and even the Internet. In their infinite wisdom, they deem what should and should not be viewed by John Q. Public. Censors succeed in suppressing our free spirits and restraining our thoughts in virtually every medium.
There are so many in this world that simply does not adhere to the ideals we believe in, maybe that is why they feel what’s in the textbooks today are useful information. The author’s of the textbooks should think back to when they were growing up, what they remembered and be sure to include it in the textbooks. There are so many significant events that have happened within the past ten years. History is important for our children to understand, to give them a better sense of how to understand what we do and a sense of what it means to be an American; a sense of importance and serving something greater than yourself in life.
Censorship on television in the United States has been an issue ever since the television was invented. The public holds a variety of stances on the topic, and no matter what law is ever passed regarding censorship, it will never suit the needs of everyone. Some believe that censorship violates individual rights in the law, and others believe that censorship should be available through members in the family, not the government. On the other hand, some people strive to maintain government regulation of censorship. Television censorship is significant because it holds the future of our country. If channels continue to be censored, our rights will be violated. If not, then the future generations may change
Have you ever heard the word, censorship? If not, this is what it means. Censorship is the practice of officially examining books, movies, etc., and suppressing unacceptable parts. That is what people are trying to do to videos of stunts on YouTube, and they shouldn’t.
Patriotism is seeing the bloody flag and being okay with it, and that is what history teaches students, to be okay with the blood the drenches the American flag. Censored history cleanses the flag until the blood becomes invisible, and proponents of teaching history without the perspective of the oppressed believe if you just teach a little longer, the blood will get a little thinner, and eventually there will be no blood. For erasing history cleanses the future from the
Beginning in 399 B.C. when Socrates was sentenced to drink poison for corrupting his students due to his non-traditional ideas, book censorship has become increasingly more prominent in today’s society. In fact, 275 books were banned in the United States alone in the year 2015, according to the American Library Association (2016). Books such as The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and even the ever-popular Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling have been banned for a variety of reasons (American Library Association, 2015).
There are many different types of culture in America. However, American literature does not express all of the different cultures in America. The American publishers censor the different types of cultural literacy. It is a struggle for many different cultures to express themselves through American literature. This is because of mainstream media censoring.