Loewen Chapter #4

Thus far in Loewen's book he has presented several American Myths about individuals, groups, and facts about our history. From the beginning of the book I had a hunch that topics about the First Thanksgiving and Native Americans would surface.

All of the basic myths and concepts were brought up, but the most interesting part of the chapter was the focus on diseases. Too often the focus of Native Americans and Europeans is that the Native American's were constantly brutally attacked and that is why their population is extremely low today. Though this is partially from brutality most textbooks and teachers do not focus on the real killer, disease. Through classes I have heard of many epidemics killing off population, but I never actually realized the impact they had.

After reading the chapter, one question I had and have always had about issues presented in this chapter, is how to address different issues without offending a certain group of people.Chapter three brings up very sensitive topics surrounding the treatment and suffering of the Native American population that we see as "white-guilt" issues.  Students can get very sensitive on these kinds of  cultural issues that deal with different races, heritage, and religions. How does an educator get students to step into the shoes of others, take time to learn the facts while forming educated opinions and not instantly jump into an ignorant point of view.

NY Times blog about teaching sensitive content