Loewen Chapter #12

In chapter twelve of Lies That My Teachers Told Me Loewen dives into the controversial issues surrounding textbooks. Textbooks today have many issues and controversy surrounding them and it is the job of the teacher to slowly stray away from the content provided and to bring in those rich primary and secondary sources.

One quote that frustrated me and made me think was right at beginning when Loewen quoted a Holt
Rinehart and Winston representative, " When you're publishing a book, if there's something controversial, it's better to take it out". Why should an educator skip a page or skip an idea because it is controversial? Controversy is where sparks fly and an new ideas are found. Controversy also allows the teacher to bring in many resources surrounding that topic.

This chapter could not have come at  a better time because in ETE 345 we are currently evaluating textbooks from our field. I have learned a lot about how textbook publishing companies are ran and how the process of creating the textbook works and it is pretty disturbing. We read an article about an individual who worked at a publishing company and on her first day everyone was freaking out because the book was finished, but they did not have an author yet. She discussed how textbooks are made from other textbooks and the most important information is grouped together.
Until this unit I did not realize the what I wanted to see in textbooks was really hard to come by.


Here is that article: http://www.edutopia.org/textbook-publishing-controversy

Big Question: Would textbooks be better off being written by an actual author? Such as our textbook written by Loewen.