Heroification in James Loewen's article
...iration, but also begins to construct the positive perception of the world. Helen Keller has often taught in school or protrayed by others as an inspiration. However, Loewen does not think this simple fact is enough to cover Keller's marvelous life experience. In his article, he provides more information of Keller's life after she has overcame her disability. However, this information might be confusing to the new learners. Helen Keller was a radical socialist who thought that our society at that time needed to change. By reading the pure fact that Loewen has presented in the article, children may wonder what is a "socialist" and what does "radical" means? To explain these words, teachers would have to give out examples that are not only comprehensible beyond their knowledge, but also creates confusion for the children. Same idea can be applied on the example of Woodrow Wilson. What is "racial segregation" and what is "intervention"? Children can be easily influenced. Thus, these words can cause children to have misleading ideas of people from different races and the idea of peace if they are not properly defined. Nevertheless, textbook authors tend to use sensationalism as their narrative style. In Merriam-Webster, sensationalism is defined as “the use or effect of sensational subject matter or treatment.” By using sensationalism in narrating history textbooks, one may say that it only defines the “melodramatic minutiae” in ones life without giving the specific facts. History is only one of the subjects in high school, thus teachers tend to present students the bigger picture of overall what have happened in the history. However, sensationalism gives schoolchildren an easier way to connect themselves with the historical events or figures, which on the other hand, can help them learn quicker and better. If the authors tend to write down everything at once, it would be hard to comprehend for schoolchildren. Furthermore, schoolchildren would lose their interest in this subject. Loewen worried that textbooks hide the truth from students, which might cause them to establish the wrong role model in their minds. Even though role models do inspire schoolchildren in some ways, that does not mean that schoolchildren is go...