History textbooks aren't meant to contain a bunch of beautiful pictures and super exciting stories. What you're taught at school, and how you're taught it, can largely depend on where you find yourself, when you were born, and who was in charge of the curriculum.
According to Kate Slater, the assistant dean of student affairs at Brandeis University’s Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, textbook choice in the U.S.A is a highly politicized process in different states. Slater says everything from topics to the tone can differ. "There is no single story of American history," says the expert.
An EdWeek explainer reveals that there are no national history or civics standards in the United States, and that each state develops its own set of criteria for what students should learn. That means 50 states, 50 different differing sets of criteria.
"These guidelines are usually developed by committees of educators, curriculum specialists at the state department of education, academics, and community members," explains the EdWeek article. "States update them periodically—generally every seven to 10 years— through a revision process. State boards of education, which vote to adopt or not adopt revisions, are the final decisionmakers."
While some educators teach straight from the textbook, others are aware that this might not always be the wisest choice.
“Textbooks are just a version of text, just like every single document that we read to learn about the past," says Sol Rheem, a high school social studies teacher in Massachusetts. "Students should know and understand that the textbook is a source of information, and therefore it has a writer and a context that it was written in and a moment in history that it was written in.”
Christine Caulfield agrees. “The reliance on textbooks differs for every teacher. For me, it was a way to engage students in how to read critically, and it served as a baseline from which we would look at various issues in depth," says the retired high school U.S. history teacher.
"I would take the textbook and, in essence, rip it apart," she revealed. "We would think about whose voices were missing. What was left out was just as important as what was included.”
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The American Historical Society (AHS) notes that while history textbooks convey historical facts, none are born equal.
"No matter what the subject or how large the book, historians are selective about which historical facts to include," write AHS's experts. "A satisfactory history text describes what the key selection criteria have been so that users can assess the validity of the choices and also have an awareness of the potential gaps."
The AHS site goes on to note that when it comes to world history, if textbooks place less emphasis on certain early periods or geographical regions, they should explain why certain choices were made. The same applies to U.S. history.
"Some sequences of presidents are often summed up without great detail in an effort to discuss the broader social and political trends that characterize the era in question. Again, this kind of selectivity should be briefly noted and explained," says AHS's team.
They add that apart from explaining selectivity in coverage, good textbooks should also explain any gaps in our understanding of certain events.
