Very few college professors want high school graduates in their history class who are simply "gung ho" and "rah-rah" with regard to everything the United States has ever done, have never thought critically in their life, don't know the meaning of the word "historiography" and have never heard of it. They think that history is something you're supposed to memorize and that's about it. That's not what high school, or what college history teachers want.
James W. LoewenIt is always useful to think badly about people one has exploited or plans to exploit... No one likes to think of him or herself as a bad person. To treat badly another person whom we consider a reasonable human being creates a tension between act and attitude that demands resolution. We cannot erase what we have done, and to alter our future behavior may not be in our interest. To change our attitude is easier.
James W. LoewenStudents will start finding history interesting when their teachers and textbooks stop lying to them.
James W. LoewenThe layout of textbooks, I think, has been done with an assumption that students don't read.
James W. LoewenNative Americans are not and must not be props in a sort of theme park of the past, where we go to have a good time and see exotic cultures. โWhat we have done to the peoples who were living in North Americaโ is, according to anthropologist Sol Tax, โour Original Sin.
James W. LoewenI often suggest in workshops that if you have 30 students in your American History course in 11th grade, or whatever grade level, that you maybe triple them up. You put, and have them choose, let's say 11 different Native American cultures. Maybe you give them a list of 15 and they choose 11 of those 15 so that they have some choice in the matter.
James W. Loewen