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Billy Collins The History Teacher Analysis

298 Words2 Pages
The poem “The History Teacher” by Billy Collins has a greater lie than “The Death of Santa Claus”, in its intention to save the innocence of students. It is necessary to tell the truth when the lie is destroying students future and breeding ignorance. To begin, in this poem the history teacher is trying to protect the innocence of his students by simplifying most historic allusions to make them sound friendly and less important. For example Collins writes, “The Spanish Inquisition was nothing more than an outbreak of questions...” (Collins 7-8). This is a lie because the Spanish Inquisition was not a period of questions but a period of religious intolerance and brutality. Not only is this lie preventing students from expanding their overall
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