The History Teacher

The History Teacher, by Billy Collins, is a poem written about the ignorance shown by history teachers who continue to 'candy coat' and make history appear less raw than it truly it. The poem contains parts where the history teacher belittles the Ice Age and The Stone Age, which are two absolutely monumental time periods in history, but the teacher continues to feed students the watered down version of reality. The teacher gives students this false idea of the truth to make it seem more presentable to students, and to not tarnish the reputation America works ever so hard to keep. The poem ends with the teacher going home and living an absolutely perfect life in a perfect world without a single flaw,which his concludes by comparing to the Boer War.