On March 9, legislators in Oklahoma voted to support a bill that would cut funding for AP US History, commonly known as APUSH. According to Huffington Post, politicians think that the course focuses on “what is bad about America” and fails to realize the concept of “American exceptionalism.” Some also deem the course “unpatriotic.” Currently, the APUSH curriculum is written by the College Board, and the state will write its own curriculum if College Board does not make the changes said in the bill.

“The current curriculum is very broad,” said Susan Schock, AP US History teacher. “It’s made very clear that within the curriculum teachers still have the opportunity to teach content. We try to teach history in an honest and unbiased way.”

According to The News and Observer, the Board of Education of North Carolina will hold a conference call meeting Monday, March 2, to hear from College Board.

“Patriotism means being able to see the both the good and the bad, in terms of history,” said Schock. “And being able to recognize that we may have had a desire to do good but ultimately wasn’t the right decision to have made. But hindsight is always 2020.”

Jennifer Holland, another AP US History teacher at WHS agrees with the idea of staying positive, but insists that truthfulness is more important.

“It’s nice– the idea of teaching American history only from a positive viewpoint,” said Jennifer Holland, who teaches AP US History as well. “But that’s not truthful, and you’re doing a disservice to kids if you try to whitewash history and leave out all the bad. Not only all kids, but kids of different ethnicities. If we’re not honest about our past we’re doing a disservice to them because unfortunately there have been periods in history where we have done some very terrible things. You can’t gloss over that. The good things made America, and the bad things made America. It’s dishonest to teach it any other way. If you’re teaching a class that is only positive all the time, it’s not education- it’s indoctrination.”

State education leaders say there are no plans to eliminate APUSH in North Carolina, but other states do not have the same view.

“American history is a cultural identity for every American, either you can trace your roots back to Puritans or the American-dream seeker”, said Zhi Wei-Lin, a junior who has taken APUSH. “The history is a part of who we are. Not knowing your own history is the same as not knowing yourself. For those who argued learning the negative aspects of US History is not patriotic should reconsider their patriotic values. This course had profound influences on me.”

Currently, in some states opposition has stalled. So far, the general opinion of teachers and students seems clear– not all are in favor of the state writing the curriculum.

“History is not taught to boost a nation’s ego,” said Olivia Novak, a junior.  “History is taught so the next generation doesn’t make the same mistakes of the previous generation. Ignoring the ugly parts of our history would only lead to further misunderstanding of governmental actions and likely repetition of mistakes by future generations.”