A recent study by Catherine Cornbleth, professor of learning and instruction in UB's Graduate School of Education, found that high school history textbooks are in need of revision, as high school students are questioning the validity of the history taught to them through the texts.
The study, conducted before Sept. 11, 2001, indicates that the number of students questioning the idealized version of history that their textbooks present has increased. The study included 25 volunteer high school students in Western New York ranging from 16 to 19 years old.
"Although students frequently mentioned freedom - often as their first response to our questions about what comes to mind when you hear the words 'U.S.' or 'America' - few had much to say about it," stated Cornbleth in a press release.
Cornbleth's findings do not come as a surprise to many educators who feel high school textbooks are inadequate to teach students.
"I'm a little disappointed when I look at how high school textbooks sift through history," said Donald T. McGuire, Jr., director of student advisement and services at the College of Arts and Sciences. "The material is oversimplified in high schools and less so at the university level."
McGuire, also a professor of world civilization, has given his class an assignment in which students have to compare the history between university textbooks and high school textbooks.
According to McGuire, his students determined that "history is interpretation."
"High school texts, at least when I was in high school, focused on a triumphant version of history," said Erik R. Seeman, a U.S. history professor.
Some educators attribute that "triumphant version" of history present in most textbooks to the lack of competition in the high school textbook publishing market.
"(High school) textbooks are written by only five major publishers," said Paul Nogowski, a history teacher at Williamsville East High School.
University text publishers have a more competitive market to contend with, according to Dr. Henry Sussman, the Julian Park chair of humanities in the Department of Comparative Literature
"There's a fierce competition in the market for college textbooks. As a result, publishers feel compelled to incorporate new needs and points of view," said Sussman. "As new university history textbooks are made, it is going to be difficult for narrow minded presentations to survive."
Not only are high school book publishers scarce, the high school education system has a more rigid curriculum that contributes to outdated textbooks.
"What needs to be understood is that textbooks are written to fit the education system," said Nogowski. "If you want to change history textbooks, you would first have to change the education system by redoing the lower grades."
"If you, say, make ninth grade Global History a part of eighth grade material, then you free up a whole other year, which gives high school history teachers two years instead of one to teach U.S. history. Then, we can incorporate more information and more viewpoints into the curriculum."
In addition to a possibly outdated curriculum, committees that select textbooks to be used in the classroom are also to blame for the antiquated viewpoint of many history books, according to Paul Horton, a history teacher at Williamsville East High School.
"Textbooks are only as good as the people who select it," said Horton. "Textbooks are selected through a committee. They look for things such as readability and inclusion of other view points."
Horton said that after teaching history for 20 years, he has found that more recent textbooks are more comprehensive than older textbooks.
"Recent textbooks are far more inclusive of other view points, (the) history of minorities and women's history. There is a purposeful effort to show a division of opinion, if there is one," said Horton. "When it comes to kids not trusting their history books, I'd like to meet those kids and shake their hands, because I think that kids have an increasing apathy towards their history textbooks."
Joe Tornambe, a sophomore, blames the subjectivity of high school texts on the fact that students do not absorb the cost of the books, as they do in college.
"These books (that high schools use) are old and misinform. If the high schools had more money, they can buy better books," said Tornambe.
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
