SUPE hosts award-winning author James Loewen

March 7, 2016

Skidmore’s Students United for Public Education (SUPE) hosted a two-day visit to campus last week by sociologist and historian James Loewen, author of the award-winning book Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your U.S. History Textbook Got Wrong. 

His March 2 workshop, titled "Lies My Teacher Told Me and How to Do Better," was geared for current K-12 teachers and education studies students, and focused on common misrepresentations of Native American history. More than 50 people attended, primarily teachers from local school districts along with some Skidmore students. SUPE president Olivia Frank ’16 noted, “It was great to offer this resource to the local community and start to form a relationship with local schools. We hope to collaborate more with them on future SUPE events.”

As part of the workshop Loewen addressed a packed Gannett Auditorium, discussing "The Most Important Era in U.S. History You Never Heard Of, and Why It Still Matters Today." Drawing on research from his book, which won the 1996 American Book Award, the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship, and the Critics Choice Award of the American Studies Association, he explained that history is often taught in ways that uphold white supremacy. In his view, the reason that social studies has the largest achievement gap of any school subject is because this bias is so alienating to students of color. He advocated for more empowering norms of history education.

The next morning, Loewen shared breakfast in Wilson Chapel with SUPE and other students who had attended the lecture and had follow-up questions for him. The event was presented to offer access in an informal setting.

According to Frank, Loewen's talks sparked immediate discussion. She said,  “I think this conversation is vital. Hopefully Loewen inspired listeners to either examine our country's history or to examine the ways their disagreements with him informed their own perspectives.”

In organizing the event, SUPE received support from the Speakers Bureau, Office of the Vice President for Strategic Planning and Institutional Diversity, Office of Student Diversity Programs, Sociology, Campus Life and Engagement, Social Work, Education Studies, Student Affairs, Gender Studies and Benef-Action.