The Great A.P. War: Should A.P. U.S. History Classes Explore the Negative Sides of U.S. History?

Hello everyone. As I was surfing the internet, I came across an article that many of my fellow Social Studies teachers may want to look at. This article, which you can read here,  describes some of the problems that state law makers are having with the new A.P. guidelines that are supposed to help teachers and students prepare to take the A.P. U.S. History exam. The point of contention focuses on the books content, which tends to display the more negative aspects of the history of America, including slavery, the treatment of Native Americans, and the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII, just to name a few. One other point is that there is little to no mention  of the founding fathers, the Revolutionary War nor various Civil Rights leaders like Rosa Parks and Martian Luther King jr. Many politicians are saying that there should be more of an emphasis on the exceptionalism of the United States, and what makes our country great compared to everyone else. The nonprofit College Board, who made the A.P. Exam guidelines, stated that there was little emphasis on the founding fathers in the older guidelines to the exam, and that these are just guidelines that the teachers and students can choose to follow or not, depending on what they wish to do.

As a college student who is studying history, I believe that some of the criticisms are unfair. Many of these students who are taking A.P. History courses are working within the framework that this is a college course, and that it should be treated as such. I agree, and I think that in college coursework, it is time to advance oneself beyond the idea that America is such a great nation. It is a great country, but in terms of teaching History, that is a way of teaching that is meant to inspire a sense of patriotic fevor and national pride. At this level of course work, students should be taught that America has made mistakes and committed atrocities like any other country, and should be shown how that has shaped our nation today. Also, many of the students who are taking these classes, hopefully, already know about the founding fathers and Martian Luther King jr, and they should now be able to look at history from a different angle, and see how these more negative aspects have shaped our nation, for better or worse.

In the article linked above, you can find a link to the actual study guide, and you can read it for yourself. What do you guys think?