In late July, the College Board, the nonprofit organization that controls all Advanced Placement courses and exams, rewrote the guidelines for the AP U.S. history test. The mainstream media accused them of “bowing to conservatism,” as the guidlines were rewritten because of the large amount of public criticism.
The skirmish between the two political spectrums stemmed from the 2014 guidelines for the AP history test. After teachers complained the older version of guidelines forced them to rush through topics, the College Board revised them. The new guidelines focused on U.S. history as a series of conflicts over power, emphasizing race, gender and crimes against Native Americans, and not mentioning important historical figures — such as Benjamin Franklin and Martin Luther King Jr., who played crucial roles in pressing history forward.
In response to criticism of the 2014 version, this year’s revisions included substantial changes. National identity and unity, the celebrated ideal of liberty, founding political leaders, founding documents and the roles of free enterprise have been added to the newer version. This series of changes is seen as a big win for conservatives, who want the guidelines to address the positive aspects of history.
Conservative leaders had pushed hard to get the College Board to revise the history guidelines. Former Vice President Dick Cheney issued an open letter opposing the 2014 framework, arguing that it posed “a grave new risk” to the study of American history. Ben Carson, the 2016 Republican presidential candidate, said that most people who complete the course would be “ready to sign up for ISIS.”
It is true that Republicans and conservatives pushed for the changes, but to interpret this as a political battle between liberals and conservatives to go in a dangerous direction. The fundamental pillar of history education is getting the facts right. It is often said that victors write history, but that’s not entirely true. After the Revolutionary War, the British didn’t teach their children Britain voluntarily gave America its independence. That wouldn’t be factual. Moreover, even after getting the facts right, education in history could still run into the risk of cherry-picking historic events or figures in favor of populism or special interests.
There have been many afflictions of humanity, conflicts over power and crimes against minorities since this country was founded. We should not shy away from telling the next generation about the evils of slavery, the Trail of Tears and oppression of women and apartheid.
The implications of this darkness also reveal other traditions of the American history: rule of law and desperate pursuit of freedom. Each of those conflicts were resolved within the framework of rule of law. The case of Dred Scott v. Sanford was a step backward, but the 13th and 14th Amendments corrected it once and for all. And without our freedom-loving tradition, the civil rights movement and pursuing women’s right to vote would never have happened.
History is an evolving process. Judging the past by modern standards is certainly a frightening proposition. The ideas conveyed in our founding documents, such as the Constitution and the Federalists Papers, are more conservative than today’s Tea Party. From a liberal’s eyes, almost all the founding fathers were Republicans, including Alexander Hamilton, because all of them were extremely suspicious of government power and afraid of authoritarianism. Though the federal government continued to expand during the last century, in opposition to the wills of the founders, it is still necessary to educate students on the founding history of our nation and require them to read classics written by the founders. People may interpret particularly historic events differently and draw varying implications, but that should not stop students from exploring the past and the truth.
As former President Ronald Reagan said, “If we forget what we did, we won’t know who we are.” Let’s not shy away from what happened in our country’s history.
