What?!?! Gutenberg Didn't Invent the Printing Press?!?!

    Today in Journalism I class with Mr. Miller, we discussed the origins of the printing press. When we first began, I was thinking in my head the entire time, "yup, he's going to say Gutenberg. I learned this in fifth grade. I know this...I know that...," and so on. However, the first printing press we discussed was founded in 3500 B.C. by Mesopotamians. The printing press is as old as that? This really caught me by surprise. All of a sudden, the monotonous topic that I had been discussing in history class since elementary school became fifty times more interesting. Every history textbook I have ever cracked open has always said the same thing, whether it be one specializing in world or U.S. history.
   This caught me off guard a little bit, too. In AP Human Geography, we had just discussed how the "American Dream" is nothing like what people of foreign ethnicities imagine it to be. It's not even what we imagine it to be. Mr. Krause gave us some examples to work off of: Christopher Columbus, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. They were three men whose adventures are taught to children even in the lowest levels of schools like pre-kindergarten through second grade. All of these men are portrayed as "great." One "founded" the United States, another "saved" it from the British, and the last "ended" slavery. While all of these events are related to these men, the adventures and workings of their hands were different from what we are taught as young children. Of course, you can't tell children everything Columbus actually did. It'd be too much of an atrocity to teach to such young children, not to mention inappropriate and awkward.
      Anyway, back to the printing press. I just think it's interesting how education has gone to such great lengths to cut these parts of history out of textbooks. Why can't they just add in the little parts before? I think it's because Gutenberg was really the first man to make an efficient press, as Mr. Miller discussed with us in this insightful lecture. The other presses were clever attempts, but not quite as useful. Still, it's amazing how this one man could change the course of history, especially in medieval times. He basically started religious revolts, popularized literacy, and encouraged freedom of speech. It's amazing. Now that I think about it, I can get why textbook writers/editors feel the need to write out the other attempts at a printing press. Still, though, a little sentence before Gutenberg's glory stating that attempts were made before his success would be helpful. The Mesopotamians of 3500 B.C. may have died, but I think they still deserve the credit. Without them, there might not have been a printing press for another thousand years. Okay, that may be a little far fetched, but anything can happen if history is altered (ex: Back to the Future).
   I found this lecture both insightful and interesting. I hope that there will be more like this in the future. Who knows what else I've been wrong about?!?!