Lies My Teacher Told Me

Lies My Teacher Told Me Anaphora

Throughout the entire book, the author continually uses the literary device of anaphora, by repeatedly starting his sentences with the word "Students," thus reminding the readers that at the heart of this matter are the students, the progeny, and the future of our country (1-3, 12, 50). His goal is to teach and to repair the history that these kids know so that they have an accurate portrait of the US from which to decide and govern by.

"Students also have short-term reasons for accepting what teachers and text—books tell them about the social world in their history and social studies classes, of course... Students can feel frustrated by the ambiguity of real history, the debates among historians, or the challenge of applying ideas from the past to their own lives... Students will start learning history when they see the point of doing so, when it seems interesting and important to them, and when they believe history might relate to their lives and futures. Students will start finding history interesting when their teachers and textbooks stop lying to them" (304).

"We are not persuaded rationally not to pee in the living room, we are required not to. We then internalize and obey this rule even when no authority figure lurks to enforce it" (301).

The repetition of "we" throughout these sentences serves as anaphora and emphasizes the culpability that the reader, the author, and everyone in the US has in allowing history to be taught this way.