Melissa Rubio
4th hour APUSH
The Truth about Textbooks Summation
The author defends the students in aruging the way that textbooks are written and explains the reasons as to why students find history so boring therefore leading to failure of remembering the facts. The purpose of the author is not to try to alter the way textbooks are written but merely to give rational explanation as to why history seems to be the average overall hardest subject for students; rather than teachrers just blaming students.
The author begins their argument with the most important point stating: “Textbooks exclude conflict or real suspense.” Reason being, we already know the outcome for the most part since it has already happened in the past. This leaves out any room for any excitement or rising action for the textbook information. Another main point the author makes is the fact that textbooks try to cover up anything that makes the country look bad for the sake of “Nationalism. The author also argues that textbooks are “overly full” or “huge.” Not only does that make students discouraged to read them but it makes it very difficult to remember every single thing. This brings us to a point made in the beginning by the author that students remember the information for tests but soon after, it is forgotten to make more room for the tons of other factoids that will be on future tests.
Ultimately, it is not just to put the blame on history teachers or textbooks writers because there still are