Most of my students have trouble with the idea that a book – especially a textbook – can lie. That's why I start my
As the year opens, my students may not know when the Civil War was fought or what James Madison or Frederick Douglass did; but they know that a brave fellow named Christopher Columbus discovered
What students don't know is that their textbooks have,
Finders, Keepers
So I begin class by stealing a student's purse. I announce that the purse is mine, obviously, because look who has it. Most students are fair-minded. They saw me take the purse off the desk so they Protest: "That's not yours, it's Nikki's. You took it. We saw you." I brush these objections aside and reiterate that it is too mine and to prove it, I'll show all the things I have inside.
I unzip the bag and remove a brush or a comb, maybe a pair of dark glasses. A tube of lipstick works best. "This is my lipstick," I say. "There, that proves it is my purse." They don't buy it and, in fact, are mildly outraged that I would pry into someone's possessions with such utter disregard for her privacy. (I've alerted the student to the demonstration before the class, but no one else knows that.)
It's time to move on: "OK, if it's Nikki's purse, how do you know? Why are you all so positive it's not my purse?" Different answers: We saw you take it; that's her lipstick, we know you don't wear lipstick; there is stuff in there with her name on it. To get the point across, I even offer to help in their effort to prove Nikki's possession: "If we had a test on the contents of the purse, who would do better, Nikki or I?" "Whose labor earned the money that bought the things in the purse, mine or Nikki's?" Obvious questions, obvious answers.
I make one last try to keep Nikki's purse: "What if I said I discovered this purse, then would it be mine?" A little laughter is my reward, but I don't get any takers; they still think the purse is rightfully Nikki's.
"So," I ask, "Why do we say that
Was it Discovery?
Now they begin to see what I've been leading up to. I ask a series of questions which implicitly link Nikki's purse and the Indians' land: Were there people on the land before
We talk about phrases other than "discovery" that textbooks could use to describe what
I want students to see that the word "discovery" is loaded. The word itself carries a perspective; a bias. "Discovery" is the phrase of the supposed discoverers. It's the invaders masking their theft. And when the word gets repeated in textbooks, those textbooks become, in the phrase of one historian, "the propaganda of the winners."
To prepare students to examine textbooks critically, we begin with alternative, and rather unsentimental, explorations of
Mostly I want the class to think about the human beings
As soon ... as they see that they are safe and have laid aside all fear, they are very simple and honest and exceedingly liberal with all they have; none of them refusing anything he [sic] may possess when he is asked for it, but, on the contrary, inviting us to ask them. They also give objects of great value for trifles, and content themselves with very little or nothing in return ... I did not find, as some of us had expected, any cannibals among them, but, on the contrary, men of great deference and kindness.1
But, on an ominous note,
I ask students if they remember from elementary school days what
We are now in February 1495. Time was short for sending back a good 'dividend' on the supply ships getting ready for the return to
Of the 500 slaves, 300 arrived alive in
This slave trade immediately turned out to be 'unprofitable, for the slaves mostly died.' Columbus decided to concentrate on gold, although he writes, 'Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold.' 3 (Emphasis in Koning)
Certainly
Looking Through Different Eyes
Students and I role play a scene from
Students play
I call on several students to respond to the Indians' plea.
After I've pleaded for awhile and the students-as-Columbus have threatened, I read aloud another passage from Koning's book describing
Every man and woman, every boy or girl of fourteen or older, in the province of Cibao ... had to collect gold for the Spaniards. As their measure, the Spaniards used ... hawks' bells ... Every three months, every Indian had to bring to one of the forts a hawks' bell filled with gold dust. The chiefs had to bring in about ten times that amount. In the other provinces of
Copper tokens were manufactured, and when an Indian had brought his or her tribute to an armed post, he or she received such a token, stamped with the month, to be hung around the neck. With that they were safe for another three months while collecting more gold. Whoever was caught without a token was killed by having his or her hands cut off....
There were no gold fields, and thus, once the Indians had handed in whatever they still had in gold ornaments, their only hope was to work all day in the streams, washing out gold dust from the pebbles. It was an impossible task, but those Indians who tried to flee into the mountains were systematically hunted down with dogs and killed, to set an example for the others to keep trying ...
During those two years of the administration of the brothers Columbus, an estimated one half of the entire population of
The goal is not to titillate or stun, but to force the question: Why wasn't I told this before?
Re-examining Basic Truths
I ask students to find a textbook, preferably one they used in elementary school, and critique the book's treatment of Columbus and the Indians. I distribute the following handout and review the questions aloud. I don't want them to merely answer the questions, but to consider them as guidelines.
- How factually accurate was the account?
- What was omitted – left out – that in your judgment would be important for a full understanding of
- What motives does the book give to
- Who does the book get you to root for, and how do they accomplish that? (for example, are the books horrified at the treatment of Indians or thrilled that
- How do the publishers use illustrations? What do they communicate about
- In your opinion, why does the book portray the Columbus/Indian encounter the way it does?
- Can you think of any groups in our society who might have an interest in people having an inaccurate view of history?
I tell students that this last question is tough but crucial. Is the continual distortion of
The assignment's subtext is to teach students that text material, indeed all written material, should be read skeptically. I want students to explore the politics of print – that perspectives on history and social reality underlie the written word, and that to read is both to comprehend what is written, but also to question why it is written. My intention is not to encourage an 'I-don't-believe-anything' cynicism,5 but rather to equip students to analyze a writer's assumptions and determine what is and isn't useful in any particular work.
For practice, we look at excerpts from a
The book keeps us close to God and the Church throughout its narrative. Upon returning from the New World,
Students' Conclusions
I give students a week before I ask them to bring in their written critiques. Students share their papers with one another in small groups. They take notes towards what my co-teacher, Linda Christensen, and I call the "collective text": What themes recur in the papers and what important differences emerge? What did they discover about textbook treatments of
Here are some excerpts:
Matthew wrote:
As people read their evaluations the same situations in these textbooks came out. Things were conveniently left out so that you sided with
Gina tried to explain why the books were so consistently rosy:
It seemed to me as if the publishers had just printed up some 'glory story' that was supposed to make us feel more patriotic about our country. In our group, we talked about the possibility of the government trying to protect young students from such violence. We soon decided that that was probably one of the farthest things from their minds. They want us to look at our country as great, and powerful, and forever right. They want us to believe
Rebecca's collective text reflected the general tone of disillusion with the textbooks:
Of course, the writers of the books probably think it's harmless enough - what does it matter who discovered
Why Do We Do This?
The reflections on the collective text became the basis for a class discussion. Repeatedly, students blasted their textbooks for giving readers inadequate, and ultimately untruthful, understandings. While we didn't press to arrive at definitive explanations for the omissions and distortions, we tried to underscore the contemporary abuses of historical ignorance. If the books wax romantic about
Whatever the answers, the textbooks condition students to accept inequality; nowhere do they suggest that the Indians were sovereign peoples with a right to control their own lands. And, if
It's important to note that some students are troubled by these myth-popping discussions. One student wrote that she was "left not knowing who to believe." Josh was the most articulate in his skepticism. He had begun to "read" our class from the same critical distance from which we hoped students would approach textbooks:
I still wonder…If we can't believe what our first grade teachers told us, why should we believe you? If they lied to us, why wouldn't you? If one book is wrong, why isn't another? What is your purpose in telling us about how awful Chris was? What interest do you have in telling us the truth? What is it you want from us?
They were wonderful questions. Linda and I responded by reading them (anonymously) to the entire class. We asked students to take a few minutes to write additional questions and comments on the
We hoped students would see that the intent was to present a new way of reading, and ultimately, of experiencing the world. Textbooks fill students with information masquerading as final truth and then ask students to parrot back the information in end of chapter "checkups." The Brazilian educator Paulo Freire calls it the "banking method": students are treated as empty vessels waiting for deposits of wisdom from textbooks and teachers? We wanted to tell students that they shouldn't necessarily trust the "authorities," but instead need to participate in their learning, probing for unstated assumptions and unasked questions.
Josh asked what our "interest" was in this approach. It's a vital question. Linda and I see teaching as political action: we want to equip students to build a truly democratic society. As Freire writes, to be an actor for social change one must "read the word and the world." We hope that if a student maintains a critical distance from the written word, then it's possible to maintain that same distance from one's society: to stand back, look hard and ask, "Why is it like this? How can I make it better?"
Bill Bigelow teaches at Jefferson High School in Portland,
Notes
1. The Annals of
2. Quoted in Hans Koning,
3. Koning, pp. 84-85.
4. Koning, pp. 85-87.
5. It's useful to keep in mind the distinction between cynicism and skepticism. As Norman Diamond writes, “In an important respect, the two are not even commensurable. Skepticism says, 'you'll have to show me, otherwise I'm dubious'; it is open to engagement and persuasion... Cynicism is a removed perspective, a renunciation of any responsibility." See Norman Diamond, "Against Cynicism in Politics and Culture," in Monthly Review, v. 28, June 1976, p. 40.
6. Edna McCuire, The Story of American Freedom, Macmillan Co, 1964, p. 24.
7. McCuire, p.26.
8. See Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Continuum,
9. Paulo Freire and Donaldo Macedo. Literacy: Reading the Word and the World, Bergin and Gamey, 1987.
Native Nations ?õ¬? Vol. 3 No. 3 ?õ¬? Fall 1992