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Quote by James W. Loewen

“Textbooks pretty much have no real drama. They have no real storyline. To the extent they have a storyline.”

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James W. Loewen is a distinguished sociologist recognized for his research on social issues and education. Born on February 6, 1942, he has made significant contributions to the understanding of race, education, and social inequality. more

“I've been in towns where there is no library, or where the library for the high school and the library for the town is one room, and it's smaller than my modest living room here. So you don't have many resources in 1950 or even 1970. This is the year, 2013, every town in America is connected to the web. Every town in America is therefore connected to all kinds of resources at the Library of Congress, at 100,000 websites.”

Years Kind School America Rooms High School Resources Towns Library Congress Connected All Kinds Modest Website Living Room

Author:James W. Loewen

“There's no excuse therefore, for a 1,152 page book. I think we should all be using 300-page paperbacks. These exist.”

Thinking Should Book Pages Excuse No Excuses

Author:James W. Loewen

“Many Americans have never owned a book, and I'm not talking about because of the recent digital revolution. I'm talking about before there even was a digital revolution.”

Book Talking Revolution Digital Not Talking Digital Revolution

Author:James W. Loewen

“Many Americans have never owned a book. And others have never owned a non-fiction book. Providing them with a 300-page paperback would get them started, maybe. And even if it didn't, at least they'd own that one. So that's a serious problem.”

Ifs Book Problem Fiction Serious Pages Providing Non Fiction

Author:James W. Loewen

“The layout of textbooks, I think, has been done with an assumption that students don't read.”

Thinking Has Beens Done Students Assumption Textbooks Layout

Author:James W. Loewen

“What gets lost in the textbook is the overall narrative. It gets lost in all the boxes and all the photos and all the little stuff that's stuck in all the time.”

Littles Lost Stuff Boxes Stuck Narrative Textbooks

Author:James W. Loewen

“Nobody would ever want to read a textbook about the Civil War and then interrupt that for two pages about water rights in the west.”

Want Two War Water Rights Pages West Civil War Textbooks

Author:James W. Loewen

“I don't think teachers read the textbooks. And I don't think adoption committees read the textbooks before they adopt them. I think they look at them.”

Thinking Looks Teacher Adoption Committees Textbooks

Author:James W. Loewen

“Very few college professors want high school graduates in their history class who are simply "gung ho" and "rah-rah" with regard to everything the United States has ever done, have never thought critically in their life, don't know the meaning of the word "historiography" and have never heard of it. They think that history is something you're supposed to memorize and that's about it. That's not what high school, or what college history teachers want.”

Quote by James W. Loewen

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