Analyzing the Manipulation of History Textbooks in School

Kun Liu, Staff Writer

Two highly developed states, two dominating parties, and two different ideologies have turned students’ textbooks into battlegrounds of propogandas. By alternating textbook materials to meet political purposes, America has extended its eroded problems, which dates back to the declaration of independence, to be settled in the education of our futures.

“The left has pushed for students to encounter history more from the ground up than from the top down, with a focus on the experiences of marginalized groups such as enslaved people, women and Native Americans.” New York Times education correspondent Dana Goldstein said. “Conservatives have fought to highlight the influence of Christianity and celebrate the founding fathers in social studies textbooks.”

As teenagers in the U.S. develop the ability in high school to distinguish the truth and fabrication, it is exhausting that they have to grab a book and separate manipulative text from the rest of the history. ‘Propaganda’ is information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, according to Google dictionary, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view. The battle between the left and conservatives for future votes in the production of textbooks shows how freedom in the United States has been overrated. The omission of a sentence about gun control is an additional vote to a bill. The addition of a discriminative sentence is the omission of freedom of thought in young adults. 

Benjamin Franklin said, “Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom & no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech,” . 

The first step to publish a book is authors, often academics, write a national version of each text, following that publishers customize the books for states and large districts to meet local standards, often without input from the original authors. The third procedure is that state or district textbook reviewers go over each book and ask publishers for further changes, and then publishers revise their books and sell them to districts and schools. In my perspective, the state and district textbook reviewers are employees of the governments, and they request any revisions of the textbooks upon the demands of the state or district- democracy is overrated.

History is always shockingly identical. 88 years ago, Aldous Huxley published Brave New World, where the government is supreme, controlling from every life to every gene, and propaganda is used to condition people to believe they are happy with whatever they are dealt in life. The Bureaux of Propaganda, an entire government office that specializes in the promotion of propaganda, or merchandising of the political views to its citizens. There are several ways to solidify the arbitrary dominance, such as ‘sleep teaching’ in use of making the children believe any information with which they are fed. In comparison to today’s technique used in youth’s textbooks, they render the propagandas undetectable in teaching materials, potentially fulfilling  their tickets.

 They are supposed to be our leaders, living in the house colored in white. In the game of ‘throne’, consequences seem to be too distant to affect anything at the moment. The greedy man knew the truth, that act now even though it is on your own daughters and sons.